As the British comedy duo Flanders & Swann, popular at the time,
would have sung, "Mud, mud, glorious mud!"
January 2, 1966, 60 years ago: For the 1st time, the National Football League season extends beyond the end of the calendar year. This was due to the fact that a Playoff was needed to decide the Western Division title. The Green Bay Packers won it, in overtime over the Baltimore Colts, earning the right, under the system then in place, as Western Champion, to host the NFL Championship Game. (Yes, Baltimore was placed in the Western Division. I'm not saying it made sense.)
Coached by Vince Lombardi, the Packers had previously lost the title game in 1960, then won it in 1961 and 1962. Lombardi had retooled a bit, and was ready for another title.
Their opponents would be the defending Champions, the Eastern Division winners, the Cleveland Browns, coached by Blanton Collier, with Frank Ryan at quarterback, and with Jim Brown, widely regarded as the best player in the game, running the ball.
Green Bay, and its new City Stadium, recently renamed Lambeau Field in memory of Packer co-founder and coach Earl "Curly" Lambeau, had faced bad Winter weather before. On the night of New Year's Day, there was a snowstorm. The stadium was sold out, anyway, with 50,852 seats. The snow was cleared, but the game-time (1:10 PM Central Time, 2:10 Eastern) temperature was 26 degrees, a 12 mile-per-hour wind blew in, rain fell during the game, and it turned to snow. For most of the game, the field was a muddy mess.
Lombardi, once again, proved to be a master tactician, assigning middle linebacker Ray Nitschke to shadow Jim Brown all day. Brown carried the ball 12 times, for 50 yards. This forced Cleveland's other players to step up and try to win the game. The strategy worked, as the Packers gained twice as many yards from scrimmage as the Browns.
Bart Starr threw a 47-yard touchdown pass to Carroll Dale, giving the Packers a 7-0 lead. Ryan threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Gary Collins, but Lou Groza, about to turn 42 and then the all-time leading points scorer in NFL history, missed the extra point. He later kicked a 24-yard field goal, and the Browns ended the 1st quarter up, 9-7.
The 2nd quarter saw only field goals: Two by Don Chandler of the Packers, 15 and 23 yards; and one by Groza, 28 yards. It was 13-12 Green Bay at the half. In the 3rd quarter, Paul Hornung scored on a 13-yard touchdown run, putting the Packers up 20-12. In the 4th quarter, Chandler kicked a 29-yard field goal, and the final score was Packers 23, Browns 12.
This was the Packers' 9th NFL Championship. Two years earlier, the Chicago Bears, the Packers' arch-rivals, won the title, their 8th. This 9th title put the Packers ahead. They have been the winningest team in NFL history ever since, increasing their total to 13 NFL Championships. This included winning the NFL title the next 2 seasons, and then winning the 1st 2 Super Bowls. They have now won 4 Super Bowls: I, II, XXXI and XLV.
The Bears won Super Bowl XX, but that's been it: Through Super Bowl LIX in 2025, the NFL Championship count stands as follows: Green Bay Packers 13, Chicago Bears 9, New York Giants 8, Pittsburgh Steelers 6, New England Patriots 6, Philadelphia Eagles 5, Cleveland/St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams 5, Washington Redskins/Commanders 5, San Francisco 49ers 5, Dallas Cowboys 5, Kansas City Chiefs 4, Detroit Lions 4, Cleveland Browns 4, Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts 4, Oakland/Los Angeles/Las Vegas Raiders 3, Denver Broncos 3, Chicago/St. Louis/Arizona Cardinals 2, Miami Dolphins 2, Baltimore Ravens 2, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2, New York Jets 1, New Orleans Saints 1, Seattle Seahawks 1.
And for those of you who say that titles won before the Super Bowl began with the 1966 season don't count, you're morons: They do.
The Browns would lose the NFL Championship Game in 1968 and 1969; and the AFC Championship Game in the seasons of 1986, 1987 and 1989. They have not won the title since 1964.
No one knew it at the time, but this turned out to be Brown's last game. He was now trying his hand as an actor. The following Summer, he was in London, filming the World War II movie The Dirty Dozen. He was enjoying himself, feeling freer than he ever had.
But preseason training camps were underway, and Browns owner Art Modell told him to leave and come back to join his teammates in Berea, Ohio. Brown refused, telling Modell, already a noted cheapskate, that he could make more money and sustain fewer injuries as an actor than as a football player. Brown retired from football, taking away the one power that Modell had over him, which was to have an undue effect on his football career, but giving up that football career. The 1964 NFL Championship would be his only title.
January 2, 1966 was a Sunday. The American Football League Championship Game had been played a week earlier, on December 26, 1965. The Buffalo Bills beat the San Diego Chargers, 23-0 at Balboa Stadium in San Diego.
This was the last season in which the AFL Champion didn't get to play the NFL Champion in a World Championship Game. Through Super Bowl LIX in 2025, the Bills have never won a Super Bowl, losing 4 of them. The Chargers, AFL Champions in 1963, haven't won one, either, losing 1 in San Diego before returning to Los Angeles. At least those teams have been there: The Browns still haven't.
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