By GENE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
Lambeau Field is dear to every Green Bay Packer fan, but who is the man the field is named after?
David Zimmerman, a former student at Central State College (now the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point) attempts to address that question in a new book, "Curly Lambeau: The Man Behind the Mystique."
Lambeau, the man who founded the Packers in 1919, was a complex individual, Zimmerman said, someone who went through three distinct stages in life, first as an energetic, outstanding athlete; then more egotistic; and finally as more mellow, friendly person.
Zimmerman didn't plan on writing a book about Lambeau, he said; he was coerced into doing it.
He had written "In Search of a Hero," a biography of Tony Canadeo, a Green Bay Packers running back in the 1940s and '50s and was at a book signing with Canadeo, who suggested a book on Lambeau.
Zimmerman said he was "kind of lukewarm" about the idea, but Canadeo kept saying he should do a book about Lambeau. When he talked with Tom Murphy, an archivist at the Packer Hall of Fame, Murphy also suggested a book, offering the Packer archives for research.
Zimmerman said he considers himself an avid Packer fan but knew little about Lambeau, probably because his interest in the team started shortly before Lambeau left the team in 1950.
He also recalled his years at college in Stevens Point when he lived in Delzell Hall, where the Packers also stayed during their summer camps in 1953 and 1954. "They used to decimate Delzell Hall," he said. "They'd wreck the walls."
Zimmerman said Lambeau was an energetic 20-year-old when he started the Packers in 1919 and he had been an outstanding high school athlete in Green Bay. He started out at the University of Wisconsin Madison, but left after the school dropped freshman football and wouldn't allow him to play with the varsity.
Then he went to Notre Dame in 1918, the first year Knute Rockne was the head coach and wound up starting at fullback. During the Christmas break, however, he came down with infected tonsils and didn't return to Notre Dame.
He was offered a job back in Green Bay working for the Indian Packing Company and stayed, starting the Packers in the summer of 1919 and getting the company as its sponsor.
Zimmerman said Rockne's influence was strong on Lambeau, particularly the use of the forward pass and the Notre Dame single wing formation, and Lambeau was among the early stars of the team.
After the team started becoming more successful and Lambeau's playing days ended, "the pride issue got in and he got more egocentric," Zimmerman said. "His pride and ego got him into trouble."
Zimmerman said most of Lambeau's players who are still alive said he was a tough disciplinarian, more of a motivator than a tactician with Xs and Os.
Lambeau also worked to spread the word about the Packers, and Zimmerman said stories about him and the team were carried in several national newspapers and magazines. "It's amazing how much Green Bay and the Packers organization owe this guy. He was constantly selling the team to businessmen to raise money," Zimmerman said.
As time went on, Lambeau began spending about half his time in Green Bay and the other half of his time in California, where he met his third wife, Grace Garland, a socialite.
Zimmerman said he ran an ad in California seeking information about Lambeau out there and got 200 responses. "The material in the book I wouldn't have gotten out of magazines," he said.
Lambeau's ego undoubtedly raised the ire of others in the Packers front office and he finally left the team in 1950 after only three losing seasons in 31 years. He was the winningest coach of any in his era.
He coached less than two years for the old Chicago Cardinals, then moved to the Washington Redskins, where he was fired in 1954.
Out of football, Lambeau began the final phase of his life, a more mellow and friendly individual.
The end of Lambeau's life in 1965 is how Zimmerman starts his book. "The hardest chapter for anyone to write in a book is Chapter 1," Zimmerman said. "When I was interviewing Larry Names, who wrote four books on the early history of the Packers, he suggested I start with Curly's death. I fictionalized it a little bit, but I try to get the reader into the man. He was a complex individual."