Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame honors Curly Lambeau with portrait bust at East High School
GREEN BAY ‒ Curly Lambeau came home Friday.
Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame Inc. unveiled a portrait bust of the Packers founder and long-time coach inside a memorial courtyard at City Stadium commemorating the Packers and significant Green Bay East alumni.
Lambeau was a graduate of East before briefly attending Notre Dame University and then founding the Packers. The Packers played their NFL games on the East High School football field before moving in 1957 to what is now Lambeau Field.
"He certainly is an iconic figure in Packers history. For that matter, for all of football history," said Dr. Donald Sipes, president of the Packers Hall of Fame Inc. "Without him, the Green Bay Packers would not be here now."
Called the Legacy Series, the plan is to unveil one bust a year, with Vince Lombardi at Lombardi Middle School, Arnie Herber at West High School and Ted Fritsch at Notre Dame Academy likely to be the next in line. The hall wants to bring the history of the Packers to Green Bay Area Public School District and to communities in Wisconsin.
"We are trying to educate the community ... and propagate the Packers," Sipes said.
The one-a-year schedule is driven somewhat by the amount of time it takes to create the molds for the life-like busts.
"To make a mold like this, that's not been made before, takes some doing," Sipes said.
The idea came during a hall of fame move to new quarters, when three boxes that had not been opened in years were discovered. Inside were the pieces of three molds of portrait busts, of Lambeau, Lombardi and Bart Starr. The Lambeau and Lombardi molds were in the best shape and could be restored.
More: Lambeau Field upgrades designed to make stadium more user-friendly for Packers fans
More: New Discover Green Bay visitor center will provide front door to community when it opens Thursday
Initially, busts will be placed around the Green Bay area, but the long-range plan is to expand to the rest of Wisconsin and then anywhere else. All will be Packers Hall of Fame members, and some will be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as well.
The thought is that they need some connection to the place the busts are installed. Lambeau and Herber were easy, because East and West were their high schools. You can't do a project like this without including Vince Lombardi, who was raised in New York, so Lombardi Middle School seemed a good choice. Fritsch was from Spencer, but he was football coach at Green Bay Central Catholic and Premontre high schools, the forerunners to Notre Dame Academy.
Contact Richard Ryman at rryman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RichRymanPG, on Instagram at @rrymanPG or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RichardRymanPG/.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame honors Curly Lambeau with portrait bust
