Whats a "Packer" and where do I find one in Green Bay?

[Cubsfan]

Where did this team name come from? Is green Bay known for its packing ability? IS it related to packing of cheese? candies? fudge?

Where did this name come from?

[RealityChuck]

I believe the team was originally owned by a meat-packing company. In the early days of the NFL, it wasn’t unusual for there to be corporate ownership (i.e., the Decatur Staleys).

[richardb]

Meat.

Just from memory, and I don’t have the time to look up a cite right now, but before there was “professional football” in leagues as we know it today, there were teams sponsored by companies. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, a meat packing company sponsored the Green Bay Packers.

When a guy named Staley, I think and his buddies put together the professional football league that became the NFL, the Green Bay Packers was one of it’s original teams. Another was the Decatur (Sp?) Staleys, which one year later became the Chigaco Bears. This was back in 1923, I believe.

I’m sure someone will soon post more researched facts, but it’s not often I can be the first one to answere a question!

[plnnr]

or the second

[Amfet]

from here

GREEN BAY PACKERS
Curley Lambeau, a broad shouldered boy from Green Bay, loved the game of football. His Christian names were Earl Louis, but no one ever called him anything other than Curley. He was a fine high school player in Green Bay, and was offered a scholarship to Notre Dame, where he became a quarterback chiefly because Knute Rockne liked passers, and Curley could throw the ball.
Curley Lambeau dropped out of Notre Dame and went back to Green Bay when his tonsils began to bother him. He never returned to college because he needed a job. The Indian Packing Company offered him work, and Curley accepted. When the football season came on, Curley had the urge to play and satisfied that desire by organizing his own team. The packing company put up $500.00. Curley’s team took the name Green Bay Packers, and they had a pretty good first year running up 565 points to the oppositions six. That six was enough to beat the Packers for their only loss, and by a team known as the “Fairies” who represented Fairbanks Morse. (Do you think Vince Lombardi would stand for losing to a team called the Fairies?)
By 1921 the Acme Packing Company had bought out the Indian Packing Company and they advance Curley $50.00 for a franchise in the N.F.L… The following year the Packers had amassed a $2,000 debt and faced a certain financial oblivion until the publisher of the Green Bay Gazette, A.B. Turnbull, organized a group of stockholders which kept the team solvent. The Green Bay Football Corporation was formed.

[lieu]

You say Chigaco…

[Johnny_L.A]

It’s a good thing they didn’t get their name from a sweets shop, else they’d be the Fudge Packers.

d&r

[dono]

And predictably, PETA objects to the carnivorous connotations of the name.

The real question is, would Vince Lombardi have stood for coaching the Green Bay Pickers?

(P.S.: Go Pack Go!)

[SavageNarce]

*Originally posted by Amfet *
**By 1921 the Acme Packing Company had bought out the Indian Packing Company… **

And the rest is history, as depicted in the Roadrunner cartoons!