Packers reach 100 years of public ownership
NFL
Published on : 11/29/2023
A century ago, a small-town team in northeast Wisconsin led the league in thankfulness.
Founded in 1919, the Green Bay Packers, under the watch of EARL “CURLY” LAMBEAU, joined the National Football League in 1921. The third-oldest franchise in the league, behind the Arizona Cardinals and Chicago Bears (both 1920), originally agreed to a sponsorship deal with the Indian Packing Company.
For 100 years, the Packers have been a publicly owned, nonprofit corporation first organized as the Green Bay Football Corp. in 1923, and then reorganized in 1935 as Green Bay Packers, Inc.
One year earlier, the Packers were in financial trouble. Big financial trouble. Scheduled to play on Thanksgiving Day 1922, with the club’s owners looking at heavy losses and horrible weather, the team was a curly hair on Lambeau’s head from not only canceling the game, but also canceling the Packers forever.
That’s when the Green Bay community stepped in to save its Packers.
Civic leaders told Lambeau that if he played the 1922 Thanksgiving game, they would reorganize the team into a corporation. Nine months later, on Aug. 20, 1923, the Packers held their first stock sale. And on Thanksgiving (Nov. 29) 1923, Green Bay shut out Hammond to close its first season as a community-owned NFL team.
Nov. 29, 1923
Green Bay Packers 19, Hammond Pros 0
(At Bellevue Park; Green Bay, Wis.)
In 1923, the newly formed Green Bay Football Corporation sold its first 1,109 shares of stock for $5 each. The amount raised was $5,545.
No other NFL franchise has won more world championships than the Green Bay Packers (13 — nine NFL Championships; four Super Bowls).
(Information courtesy of NFL Communications)
Founded in 1919, the Green Bay Packers, under the watch of EARL “CURLY” LAMBEAU, joined the National Football League in 1921. The third-oldest franchise in the league, behind the Arizona Cardinals and Chicago Bears (both 1920), originally agreed to a sponsorship deal with the Indian Packing Company.
For 100 years, the Packers have been a publicly owned, nonprofit corporation first organized as the Green Bay Football Corp. in 1923, and then reorganized in 1935 as Green Bay Packers, Inc.
One year earlier, the Packers were in financial trouble. Big financial trouble. Scheduled to play on Thanksgiving Day 1922, with the club’s owners looking at heavy losses and horrible weather, the team was a curly hair on Lambeau’s head from not only canceling the game, but also canceling the Packers forever.
That’s when the Green Bay community stepped in to save its Packers.
Civic leaders told Lambeau that if he played the 1922 Thanksgiving game, they would reorganize the team into a corporation. Nine months later, on Aug. 20, 1923, the Packers held their first stock sale. And on Thanksgiving (Nov. 29) 1923, Green Bay shut out Hammond to close its first season as a community-owned NFL team.
Nov. 29, 1923
Green Bay Packers 19, Hammond Pros 0
(At Bellevue Park; Green Bay, Wis.)
In 1923, the newly formed Green Bay Football Corporation sold its first 1,109 shares of stock for $5 each. The amount raised was $5,545.
No other NFL franchise has won more world championships than the Green Bay Packers (13 — nine NFL Championships; four Super Bowls).
(Information courtesy of NFL Communications)
Green Bay Packers Letter of Incorporation by Pro Football Hall of Fame on Scribd
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