Bart Starr

The basketball coach at Alabama, Johnny Dee, convinced the personnel director of the Green Bay Packers to suggest Starr as a prospect, and in January of 1956, the Packers chose Starr in the seventeenth round of the National Football League (NFL) draft. He was the 200th player chosen overall. In early summer of that year, Starr graduated from Alabama with a bachelor's degree in history, and began his professional football career with rigorous training.

Starr was backup quarterback to Tobin Rote for his first four years with the team. According to the St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, observers repeated the old criticisms of him: his "arm was weak and he was too passive and nice to develop the presence necessary for a championship quarterback."

In his first season, 1956-1957, Starr made forty-four attempts and completed twenty-four, with two touchdowns and three interceptions. The Packers had a 4-8 record in that season.

After that season ended, Starr, who has been commissioned in the Reserve Officer Training Corps when he graduated from college, was called up to active duty in the U.S. Air Force. He was assigned to Eglin Air Force Base near Panama City in Florida. However, a physical exam soon revealed his back problems, and he was discharged. He returned to Green Bay and the Packers.

In 1957-1958, Starr and his mentor Babe Parilli, who had come to the Packers when Tobin Rote was traded to the Detroit Lions, took turns as quarterback. The Packers completed the season with a 3-9 record. Packers coach Lisle Blackburn was released and was briefly replaced by Ray "Scooter" McLean, but during McLean's tenure, the team only won one game.

On February 4, 1959, Vince Lombardi became coach of the Packers. He would later become the most famed coach in the team's history, largely because of his all-encompassing attitude toward the game as a microcosm of life, and his insistence on winning. During his first year, the Packers finished with a record of 7-5.

Lombardi initially agreed with earlier assessments of Starr's potential. Like Blackburn, he badgered Starr, telling him he would have to become more assertive. In time, however, according to the St. James Encyclopedia, "Lombardi recognized that Starr's future depended on quiet encouragement instead of public humiliation," and Lombardi changed his tactics for dealing with Starr. The quiet encouragement worked. Starr blossomed as a player, and wholeheartedly accepted Lombardi's famed drive to win. In addition, because Lombardi was volatile and aggressive, Starr's quiet focus and firm but modest demeanor provided the perfect balance for the team. According to the St. James Encyclopedia, Starr later said, "Everything I am as a man and a football player I owe to Vince Lombardi. He is the man who taught me everything I know about football, about leadership, about life. He took a kid and made a man out of him, with his example, with his faith."

On December 17, 1960, Starr quarterbacked while the Packers beat the Los Angeles Rams 35-21 to win the Western Division title; they later lost the league title to the Philadelphia Eagles.

In 1961, Starr became the team's star quarterback. On December 31, 1961, Green Bay played a championship against the New York Giants at the Packers' stadium, Lambeau Field, winning with a score of 37-0.

Starr soon became known as one of the most efficient passers in football history. His constant study of player behavior in films of games allowed him to set NFL records for the lowest percentage of passes intercepted in a season (1.2 percent), fewest interceptions in a full season (3), and lifetime passing completion percentage (57.4 percent). In 1964 and 1965, he threw 294 passes without an interception, setting another NFL record.

In 1965, the American Football League was established, and many Green Bay players left the relatively remote Wisconsin town to play for other franchises. Starr, however, had become involved in various opportunities in Wisconsin, including television commercials and car dealerships, and he decided to stay in Green Bay.

Throughout the 1960s, Starr quarterbacked the team to win six Western Division title games, five league championships, and two Super Bowl wins.

Starr was named Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl I in 1967, and Super Bowl II in 1968. He led the NFL in passing in 1962, 1964, and 1966. In 1966 he was named NFL Player of the Year.