“Run It, and Let’s Get the Hell Out of Here”
Fifty years ago, on December 31, 1967, the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys faced off in the Ice Bowl, which would prove to be one of the most legendary games in National Football League history. The Ice Bowl still stands as the coldest game ever played, with the temperature at kickoff hovering around -13°F, and falling as the game progressed. To Packers fans, it is much more than a game played in gelid, unforgiving conditions, but an epic and dramatic contest in which the Packers prevailed thanks to the character and discipline given them by their legendary coach, Vince Lombardi.
Titletown vs. Next Year’s Champions
A variety of circumstances converged to make the Ice Bowl a compelling matchup, above and beyond the fact that the winner would be the 1967 NFL champion and represent the League in the second AFL-NFL national championship game. The Ice Bowl pitted Vince Lombardi’s aging, conservative, but disciplined Green Bay Packers against Lombardi’s erstwhile colleague with the New York Giants, Tom Landry, and his ascendant Dallas Cowboys. While the Cowboys’ complex offensive relied on speed and precision to move the football, the Packers were, in the words of Kansas City Chiefs coach Hank Stram, “pure vanilla.… No frills, no gadgets, just a straight-ahead attack designed to run over you or through you.”
The personalities of the coaches were just as dissimilar. While Landry was even-keeled and impassive, Lombardi was much more expressive, his mood dictated by his team’s performance on the practice field or in a game. When the two worked together with the Giants, Landry referred to Lombardi as “Mr. High-Low.” A sportswriter once described Lombardi as “a gurgling volcano, blistering everyone in his path.” The fiery Lombardi was intensely competitive with the stoic Landry; as Packers defensive end Willie Davis once remarked, “Even in preseason, he didn’t want Dallas to beat us.”
The stakes for each team were high entering the game. With a victory, the Packers would be the first team to win three straight NFL championships since the league started post-season playoffs in 1933. From the start of training camp, Lombardi focused on
