GBPGreen Bay Packers

Franchise history

The Green Bay Packers were founded on August 11, 1919, by Earl "Curly" Lambeau and sportswriter George Whitney Calhoun. Lambeau secured $500 in startup funds from his employer, the Indian Packing Company, on the condition that the team carry the firm's name — the origin of "Packers." The club joined the American Professional Football Association, forerunner of the NFL, in 1921. Green Bay is the smallest market in major American professional sports, and the Packers are the NFL's only publicly owned, nonprofit franchise, governed by more than 500,000 shareholders rather than a single owner — a structure grandfathered in when the league later barred corporate ownership.

Early uniforms borrowed navy and gold from Notre Dame; the team shifted toward its now-signature green and gold in the 1950s. The Packers played at City Stadium before moving into Lambeau Field in 1957, their home ever since and the NFL's oldest continuously used stadium.

Under head coach Vince Lombardi, the Packers became football's first dynasty, winning five NFL championships between 1961 and 1967, including the inaugural Super Bowls I and II. Decades of mediocrity followed until the Brett Favre and Mike Holmgren era revived the franchise, capped by a Super Bowl XXXI win in January 1997. Aaron Rodgers later led Green Bay to a Super Bowl XLV title in February 2011. The Packers' rivalries with the Chicago Bears (dating to the 1920s), Minnesota Vikings, and Detroit Lions rank among the NFL's oldest and fiercest.

Sources

• Pro Football Reference
• Wikipedia
• Pro Football Hall of Fame

Super Bowl Champions won (4)

• Super Bowl I - 1966
• Super Bowl II - 1967
• Super Bowl XXXI - 1996
• Super Bowl XLV - 2010

Runner-up finishes (1)

• Super Bowl XXXII - 1997

See the full super bowl champions list for the winner each of these years.