1 The first chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Green Bay, Ed Weidner, had big plans for this school. His goal was to create a division one school that would grow to be an enormous part of the community. In order to do this he contacted several influential members of the community including the Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi. He wanted the coach’s advice on how best to accelerate the school’s growth and make it stand out from the other UW schools. As mentioned before, the coach’s true opinion was that the school should not have a football team because it would be a financial drain and consequently stunt the growth of the university. Lombardi also cautioned the chancellor that football is an expensive sport and the school would have to compete with the Packers for fandom. A big rumor that exists now is that there were demands made by the Packers, insisting that the college not have a team. However, that is not the case. Ed Weidner’s first drafts of the school disregarded Vince Lombardi’s advice and included a football stadium. It also included a field house and enough residence halls to accommodate 2
the enrollment of 20,000 students. However, evidence shows that over the course of 1968 the administration became less and less certain about the sports that were going to be offered at the school and therefore less and less confident about the layout of the school. The decision appears to have been a gradual one, with no binding contract between the Packers and the school, only friendly advice as to how to get our university on its feet.