Links between Notre Dame and Green Bay Packers plentiful
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Notre Dame and Wisconsin are set to meet for the first time in nearly 60 years on Saturday in college football’s biggest game of the weekend. It’s being held under Notre Dame’s annual Shamrock Series as the two will clash at Soldier Field in Chicago.
Notre Dame and Wisconsin was supposed to resume last fall before the pandemic erased that game for Lambeau Field from the schedule. It has since been rescheduled as the 2026 opener for both squads.
Despite there being essentially no history between Notre Dame and Wisconsin in the last half-century besides Jack Coan and Barry Alvarez, there is a longtime link between the Fighting Irish and another football team from the land of cheese, the Green Bay Packers.
J. R. Radcliffe of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel recently looked at some of those links. Below you can find some of the highlights:
Sarah Kloepping/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
Curly Lambeau, the man who founded the Green Bay Packers in 1919, played football at Notre Dame under head coach Knute Rockne. Although an illness is believed to have played a part in Lambeau's departure from South Bend, the impact Rockne made was evident. Lambeau soon repaid Rockne a favor as he helped direct one of the most important recruits in the history of Notre Dame to South Bend.
Jim Crowley
Photo by Notre Dame University/Getty Images
Jim Crowley (second from right above) was coached by Curly Lambeau at Green Bay East High School during the 1919 season. Lambeau helped push Crowley to play college football for Rockne at Notre Dame and all Crowley would do is become 1/4 of the iconic Four Horsemen, shown above, who helped lead Notre Dame to their first national championship in 1924. Crowley would go on to coach at Fordham and a player of his help make an NFL dynasty in Green Bay.
Vince Lombardi
Credit: Tony Tomsic-USA TODAY NETWORK
Jim Crowley coached at Fordham 1933-41 compiling an absurd 56-13-7 record while leading the Rams to appearances in both the Cotton and Sugar Bowls. It was one of Crowley's players at Fordham that would go on to eventually build a Packers dynasty, as Radcliffe points out:
It was Crowley who moved Lombardi to guard on the defensive line and used Notre Dame's box defense system, precepts that Lombardi would master and use as a jumping off point before he began tinkering with the playbook as his own coaching career began.
The Golden Boy, Paul Hornung
Credit: Tony Tomsic-USA TODAY NETWORK
Although several have played for both Notre Dame and the Packers, none have been better than Heisman Trophy winner, College Football Hall of Famer, Pro Football Hall of Famer, and Super Bowl champion, Paul Hornung. Hornung went on to win the NFL MVP in 1961 and four NFL championships during his time with the Packers. To this day he is still considered among the best all-around football players to ever attend Notre Dame. Related: Remembering Paul Hornung (Photo Gallery)
28 all-time draft picks
Photo by Doug Pensinger Getty Images
Hornung's star may have shined the brightest but he's hardly the only Notre Dame player the Green Bay Packers have ever drafted. Chuck Sweeney was the first of 28 Domers have been selected by the Packers including the likes of Art Hunter, Mike McCoy, Aaron Taylor, and Derrick Mayes (shown above).
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