Two years after he co-founded the Packers with Curly Lambeau, George Calhoun began writing a piece called The Dope Sheet, which served as the official press release and game program from 1921-24.
Honoring Calhoun, the first publicity director, the Packers are running this weekly feature as their release, which is being made available to fans exclusively on Packers.com.
A complete edition of the Dope Sheet will be available each week during the season in PDF format, located in the Packers.com Game Centers.
Here are some highlights from the 2005 Training Camp Dope Sheet:
THE TRADITION CONTINUES: The Packers next week open their 59th organized training camp. In 1947, Curly Lambeau began preseason practices at Rockwood Lodge in northeast Green Bay.
-Affable Scooter McLean spent one year as the Packers' head coach, 1958, and Green Bay went 1-10-1, the NFL's worst record (ironically, six future Hall of Famers were already in place, one year before Vince Lombardi arrived in 1959).
-McLean's legacy, however, lives with the team every summer, because he started that ill-fated '58 season with the team's first training camp at St. Norbert College. The private school, in nearby De Pere, Wis., doesn't host any on-field activities, but it does serve as the team base for all living and meeting arrangements (the Packers use their regular practice and locker-room facilities on the Lambeau Field campus). The Packers haven't changed their preseason operation in nearly 50 years.
CAMP-OPENING DATES: Rookies, first-year and injured players, as well as most quarterbacks (41 total players) will be first on the scene Monday.
-The group will check into the designated dormitory at St. Norbert, then undergo testing at Lambeau Field later that day.
-Those players will practice on Clarke Hinkle Field twice Tuesday and again Wednesday morning, before practicing in Lambeau Field that afternoon, in front of the team's ownership group, those in town for the annual Packers stockholders' meeting.
-All remaining players are expected to travel and move into St. Norbert Wednesday, then undergo testing at Lambeau Field Thursday.
-The first full-squad practice (no pads) is Friday at 8:45 a.m. The Packers will take the field in full pads for the first time later that afternoon at 2:45 p.m. on Clarke Hinkle Field (weather or poor field conditions would move the team inside the Don Hutson Center).
CAMP EVEN HAS ITS OWN WEB SITE: The Packers on June 1 launched a new Web site, **www.packerstrainingcamp.com**, an online location designed to assist Packers fans as they make plans to visit their favorite team's training sessions each summer.
-A vacation-planning resource, the site features a practice schedule as well as information on other Lambeau Field attractions, including the Packers Experience, the Packers Hall of Fame, Stadium Tours, the Packers Pro Shop and dining options.
-"Many people descend upon Green Bay each summer and are very interested to know about all of the attractions that are available here at Lambeau Field during training camp," said Executive Vice President/COO John Jones. "This Web site allows fans a convenient look at what options exist."
-A key feature of the site is the daily practice schedule, which will include any up-to-the-minute changes that may occur. Other links include information on directions, parking and autograph sessions.
-Another important link takes viewers to The Packer Country Visitor & Convention Bureau's Web site, which features important information on accommodations, as well as other Green Bay summer activities, places of interest, dining options and airport and rental car information.
A NATIONAL EVENT: Fans in most, if not all, of the 50 states are anxious to see the training camp practice schedule every spring because it helps them plan their summer vacations; they need to request time off from work for their pilgrimmage to Green Bay.
-In addition to local fans who take in practice, many of the multitudes that descend upon Green Bay each year travel from several hours away. RVs with license plates from all over the country line the Lambeau parking lot each week during camp.
ECONOMIC IMPACT: Kari Sliva, head of the Green Bay Area Visitor and Convention Bureau, estimates that the 2004 Packers training camp attracted more than 100,000 people to Titletown, and that camp was worth nearly $35 million annually to the local economy. The newly renovated Lambeau Field and the attractions of the Atrium (Hall of Fame, stadium tours, Curly's Pub) certainly played a large role. What's more, 2004 travel expenditures to Brown County jumped eight percent to $475 million, the largest jump in the state. Sliva attributes much of that growth to Lambeau and training camp.
