RIP Bart Starr -- it was always an ongoing argument, who was better, Bart Starr or Johnny Unitas
Few teams indeed have ever been as great as those Packers teams

As kids in our backyard I was Johnny U and my little brother was Bart Starr.

Rest In Peace

Back when I started watching football it seemed it was always Bart Starr and the Packers . I can hear Ray Scott now. RIP Bart you were a true warrior and one hell of a QB.

Bart Starr was the toughest football player who ever lived

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/26826288/bart-starr-was-toughest-footbal l-player-ever-lived

That was a great article and thanks for posting. I had forgotten about The Ice Bowl. And the fact that Starr won 9 out of 10 playoffs games that he ever played in.............WOW..........

Side note for you: I've been a Respiratory Therapist for a long time now. I would guess it was 2002, one of the hospital transporters alerted me that we had an ex-Rams linebacker from the 60's there as a patient. Well, as it turned out he was having some breathing problems and was one of my patients. His name was Dan Currie and he was a linebacker on those Rams defenses with Deacon Jones, Merlin Olsen, Rosey Grier, etc. Currie made All-Pro in '62 while with Green Bay, I only know that because he signed it under the autograph I asked him for. Currie was a HUGE man............so am I, but he made me look small.

I told him a true story: "I saw you play!! My Uncle took me to a Rams game in '65 at The Coliseum vs. The Baltimore Colts and Johnny Unitas. I was ten years old." His face filled with regret as he remembered the game. The Rams lost a heartbreaker, 20-17. I told him that I remember that back then they played Minnesota it seemed like every year in the playoffs but always in Minnesota because they always had home field. His eyes got huge and he said, "One of those games it was 30 degrees below zero!! The best part of the game was when you would hit someone. He had all this hot sweat pouring off of him..........you would just hold on. On Monday morning, all of your joints would explode. You could be playing on a dislocated knee or a broken ankle and you wouldn't know it. Because you were frozen."

Oh My God I cannot even imagine playing in those conditions. As the ESPN article about Starr alluded to, some guys (my guess would be EVERY guy) had lifelong health consequences from playing in a game like that. It wasn't until years later that they got wise and put up a domed stadium in Minnesota.

[Edited on 5/30/2019 by robslob]

For those who have never seen it (or for those who just want to witness it again) the NFL network is showing the ICE Bowl game tonight at 6:30 PM on the West Coast. Assume it will be 9:30 on the East Coast.

One side note. A couple years ago an older guy who was a new to the Bay Area transplant from Wisconsin was doing some work at my home. He mentioned that he had attended the game as a kid. The one thing he remembered was after the game going out to the parking lot and witnessing hundreds of stranded vehicles unable to start their engines due to the extreme cold.