Matthew from Green Bay
Why did Vince Lombardi announce after being hired by the Packers that Jack Vainisi would spend more of his time in a capacity similar to a traveling secretary in baseball after promoting him to business manager?
Based on my research, Lombardi never publicly offered any insight on that decision, so all I can do is offer an educated guess. I'd prefer not to do that, but there's only one explanation in this case that makes sense to me.
First some background. Upon Lombardi's arrival in Green Bay on Feb. 2, 1959, five days after he accepted the dual positions of coach and general manager, he announced that he was retaining Vainisi in his current capacity as a talent scout.
Lombardi said his next hires would be four assistant coaches and a business manager. Lombardi completed his coaching staff within three weeks. It took almost two months before he announced that Vainisi would serve as business manager.
When he did, on March 19, Lombardi said Vainisi would continue to work on player personnel but also take on new duties similar to those of a traveling secretary in baseball.
Traveling secretaries in baseball arrange for flights, buses, hotel stays and meals or meal money, among other duties, for their team's road trips. It's a demanding, high-pressure position partly because of their reliance on countless others to be on time and avoid screwups.
In baseball, they arrange the itineraries for traveling parties of 30 or more people. In pro football, back then, it might have been closer to 50 or more and likely included the following responsibilities: Arranging all chartered and occasionally commercial transportation, renting trucks to haul equipment, scheduling use of practice fields and locker rooms, booking entire floors of hotel rooms and private meeting rooms, and handling meal options.
And at all times, the expectation of the head coach would have been zero disruptions and distractions.
Considering Lombardi's first hire was Vainisi, the one obvious assumption to be drawn is that he held him in the highest regard and wasn't assigning those duties to him just to add busy work to his plate.
Keep in mind that when Lombardi was hired the Packers' offices were located on S. Washington St. in downtown Green Bay. They would not be moved to what is now Lambeau Field until almost three years after Vainisi's death in November 1960.
As for the rest of the staff in 1959, besides Lombardi and his four assistants, it was limited to Vainisi, former general manager Verne Lewellen, who had been reassigned to the role of administrative assistant, Tom Miller as publicity director, Earl Falck as ticket director and less than a handful of secretaries.
With such a limited staff, Lombardi had few other options other than Vainisi to oversee travel. Lewellen was put in charge of special assignments, including handling radio and TV contracts, and doing some scouting for Vainisi.
During the 1950s, it wasn't unusual for other NFL teams to rely only on a part-time scout or what today is called a director of player personnel to prepare for the draft. In Vainisi's case, he was hired in 1950 to compile statistics and keep records on college players. Pre-Lombardi, he also handled other office duties, including a brief stint as temporary publicity director in 1956.
So for Vainisi to have other responsibilities besides the draft wouldn't have been unusual at the time.
Next, also keep in mind, times change. And therein lies your answer, I believe.
In 1959, the Packers' season, starting with the first official day of training camp and ending with their return home from their final regular-season game, covered 143 days. In all, they spent 64 of them in other cities or traveling to and from Green Bay.
In other words, 45 percent of their days were spent on the road. It included 21 consecutive days in five cities at the end of training camp, and a 15-day stay on the West Coast at the end of the regular season.
In addition to their away games in other NFL cities, the Packers spent time in Portland, Ore.; Bangor, Maine; Greensboro and Winston-Salem, N.C.; Pewaukee, Wis.; and Santa Monica and Palo Alto, Calif.
Taking into account Lombardi's volatile temper and hair-trigger impatience; fixation with punctuality; plan to go first class after years of the Packers traveling on the cheap; and a desire to hold light workouts on Saturdays in the stadiums where they'd be playing the next day; to me, it stands to reason that he'd want his most trusted confidant to handle all travel details, even if it meant having Vainisi spend fewer hours preparing for the draft.
Besides, as Vainisi explained in a Nov. 26, 1959, Green Bay Press-Gazette story, Lombardi had completely reorganized the Packers' scouting efforts.
In essence, the Packers relied more on their in-house evaluations than scouting reports from a network of mostly college coaches and alums as they had done when Curly Lambeau was in charge of the draft from 1936-50, and during the reigns of Gene Ronzani, Lisle Blackbourn and Scooter McLean from the 1951-59 drafts.
"It's something new and not like anything before," said Vainisi. "The draft under coach Lombardi is a complete 100 percent staff effort."
Vainisi said each prospect was graded by Lombardi, his four assistants, Lewellen and he himself. He noted the assistant coaches and Lewellen had made a number of scouting trips during the season, while he and Lewellen still relied on reports from the Packers' paid "bird dogs" as a basis for their evaluations.
Lombardi's assistants did much of their scouting on Saturdays during the season. They'd scout a college game and then fly to wherever the Packers were playing on that Sunday after their game ended. In the spring of 1960, Lombardi also assigned his four assistant coaches territories across the country to scout spring practices and send their reports back to Vainisi and Lewellen, who together coordinated the process.
"We each make our own rating on each athlete and from this rating we are able to figure the draft value of each prospect," Vainisi explained. "It's almost like a vote and no one man (referencing the previous head coaches), as in the past, makes a complete decision on a prospect's value."
Under Lombardi's system, the assistant coaches did far more scouting than in the past. "We'll be covering in person or by special scout more than 300 college practices," Vainisi told the Press-Gazette in February 1960.
Clearly, Lombardi expanded the Packers' draft operation, while at the same time having Vainisi fill the role of traveling secretary.
Here is a detailed itinerary of the Packers' travels in 1959, thanks almost exclusively to the detailed reporting of Art Daley, the Press-Gazette's lone Packers beat reporter at the time and a companion on many of the team's days on the road. Daley also sat with Lombardi, Bengtson and Vainisi in the large ballroom at the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia as that year's draft was being conducted.
1959 Packers Schedule
Preseason
July 25 – Training camp officially started with veterans reporting to St. Norbert College in De Pere; Rookies and some veterans had checked in two days earlier for preliminary workouts; Two-a-day practices for the full squad started two days later on the Oneida Street field
July 27-Aug. 13 – Ten days of double workouts, plus a Sunday off; annual Intra-Squad Game at new Green Bay City Stadium on Aug. 8 followed by another Sunday off; and four days of one practice over what was an 18-day period
Aug 14 – Departed St. Norbert College at 9 a.m. on two chartered buses, practiced that afternoon at Wauwatosa High School and checked into the Astor Hotel in Milwaukee for a two-night stay
Aug. 15 – Played the Chicago Bears in their preseason opener – kickoff was 8:05 p.m. – at Milwaukee's County Stadium
Aug. 16 – Arrived back at St. Norbert at 12:15 p.m. and resumed practice the next day
Aug. 21 – Departed at 11 a.m. on a chartered flight from what was then Green Bay's Austin Straubel Field and checked into the Palace Hotel in San Francisco
Aug. 22 – Held a light practice at San Francisco's Kezar Stadium
Aug. 23 – Played San Francisco at Kezar Stadium in their second preseason game
Aug. 24 – Flew to Portland, Ore., for their next exhibition game; Stayed and practiced that week at Portland University
Aug. 29 – Played Philadelphia at what was then Portland's Multnomah Stadium – kickoff was 11 p.m. Green Bay time – in their third preseason game
Aug. 30 – Flew from Portland on a chartered flight to Green Bay, arriving at 10:10 p.m., checked back in at St. Norbert College and resumed practice the next day at the Oneida Street field
Sept. 4 – Left Green Bay at 11 a.m. on a chartered flight to Bangor, Maine; Landed at Dow Air Force Base and practiced on a field there that day for their next exhibition game; Stayed two nights at the Bangor House
Sept. 5 – Played the New York Giants at what was then Garland Street Field, a high school stadium, in their fourth preseason game
Sept. 6 – Flew to Greensboro, N.C., arriving at 12:30 p.m., for their next exhibition game; Stayed at the Oaks Motel, except for their four Black players who were forced to stay in a dormitory at North Carolina A&T, a historical Black college in Greensboro, due to the Jim Crow Laws of the day; Practiced at War Memorial Stadium, Greensboro's minor league baseball park at the time
Sept. 12 – Played Washington at Bowman Gray Stadium, then the home field for Wake Forest University, in Winston-Salem, N.C., in their fifth preseason game; Returned to Greensboro, a 30-mile drive, and the Oaks Motel following the game
Sept. 13 – Flew out of Greensboro to Milwaukee, arriving around 2:30 p.m., and headed to Oakton Manor resort in Pewaukee for a five-night stay with the players' wives and children welcome; Practiced at what was then St. John's Military Academy in Delafield
Sept. 18 – Took a commercial flight on Capital Airlines from Milwaukee to Minneapolis and headquartered at the Nicolet Hotel for their sixth exhibition game
Sept. 19 – Practiced at Metropolitan Stadium in suburban Bloomington
Sept. 20 – Played Pittsburgh in their Sunday afternoon preseason finale at Metropolitan Stadium and took a commercial Northwest Airlines flight back to Milwaukee; Returned to Oakton Manor for another four-night stay to prepare for their season opener against the Bears; Practiced at St. John's on Sept. 22, but when it drew a crowd, Lombardi ordered business manager Vainisi to find a way to bar spectators the next two days
Sept. 24 – Broke camp at Oakton Manor and returned to Green Bay on buses for their final preparations for their Sept. 27 season opener at 3-year-old Green Bay City Stadium (Note: The Packers had not been in Green Bay since Sept. 4.)
Regular Season
Oct. 16 – After playing their first three regular-season games in Green Bay, left a day early on a Chicago & North Western train and arrived in Milwaukee late on a Friday afternoon to help promote their first game of the season – their fourth overall – at County Stadium; Spent a two-night stay at Milwaukee's Astor Hotel
Oct. 17 – Held a light morning practice at County Stadium
Oct. 18 – After losing 45-6 to the Los Angeles Rams for their first defeat after three wins, returned to Green Bay by train around 8 p.m.
Oct. 24 – Took a 9 a.m. Saturday flight to Baltimore and held a light practice at Memorial Stadium shortly after their arrival; Stayed at the Lord Baltimore hotel
Oct. 25 – After losing to the two-time defending NFL champion Colts, flew back to Green Bay and arrived around 9 p.m.
Oct. 30 – Held a light practice in Green Bay and took a 1 p.m. Friday afternoon United Airlines chartered flight to New York for their game against the Giants; Stayed at the Manhattan Hotel
Oct. 31 – Held an early morning practice at Yankee Stadium before that day's Army-Air Force game
Nov. 1 – After losing an early Sunday afternoon game to the Giants, stayed a third night at New York's Manhattan Hotel
Nov. 2 – Left New York on a noon charter and returned to Green Bay
Nov. 7 – Took a 10:25 a.m. North Western train to Chicago; held a light afternoon practice at Wrigley Field and stayed at the Sheraton Towers Hotel
Nov. 8 – After losing to the Bears at Wrigley Field, flew home from Chicago following a game there for the first time in their history, taking a 6 p.m. charter out of O'Hare Field and arriving home about an hour later
Nov. 14 – Took a 10:25 a.m. train to Milwaukee for their second of two home games there, held a light practice following their arrival and stayed at the Astor Hotel
Nov. 15 – After losing to the Baltimore Colts at County Stadium, returned by train to Green Bay, arriving around 9 p.m.
Nov. 25 – After snapping their five-game losing streak by beating Washington in their fourth and final game at new City Stadium on Nov. 22, took a 1:30 p.m. flight to Detroit for their annual Thanksgiving Day game against the Lions
Nov. 26 – Shortly after beating the Lions, flew back to Green Bay for Thanksgiving dinner
Nov. 27 – Lombardi, defensive assistant Phil Bengtson and Vainisi flew to Philadelphia for the NFL Draft to be held three days later
Nov. 30 – Packers players and other assistant coaches took a Monday flight to Los Angeles to spend the final two weeks of the season on the West Coast for their final two games against the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco; Stayed the first seven nights at the Surf Rider Inn in Santa Monica; Practiced before the Rams game at UCLA
Dec. 1 – With the NFL draft running until 10 p.m. the night before, Lombardi, Bengtson and Vainisi flew from Philadelphia early that morning to join the rest of the team in Santa Monica
Dec. 7 – After beating the Rams the previous day, flew to San Francisco for their next game against the 49ers; Stayed the week at Rickey's Motel in Palo Alto and practiced at Stanford University
Dec. 13 – Beat the 49ers to finish their first season under Lombardi with a 7-5 record and on a four-game winning streak; Checked into the Palace Hotel in downtown San Francisco and held a team party there that night
Dec. 14 – Flew home to Green Bay and landed at 9 p.m. at Austin Straubel Field, where they were greeted by an estimated 7,500 fans
Tom from Bloomington, MN
I've finally had the chance to sit down and read your outstanding four-volume history of the Packers. “The Greatest Story in Sports” is an incredible accomplishment and a treat for Packer fans worldwide. While reading, I was floored to find out that after playing for the Packers from 1924-32, Verne Lewellen went on to be GM from 1954-58 and then Lombardi's business manager from 1959-67. If my math is correct, that would make Lewellen part of eight NFL championship teams. Is there anyone in NFL history who has been involved in more titles than that?
First, thanks for your interest and glad you enjoyed the book.
Also, here's a couple of changes I need to make. Lewellen's position was administrative assistant under Lombardi in 1959 and '60. Following Vainisi's death, Lewellen became business manager in 1961 and served in that capacity until January 1967. However, he retired before the Packers won the NFL title in '67 and Super Bowl II.
So Lewellen was part of seven NFL championships, three as a player under Lambeau and four working for Lombardi.
The Packers own the record with 13 NFL championships. The Bears are next with nine followed by the Giants with eight.
First, I'll note that Lee Joannes was treasurer of the Packers' corporation when Lambeau won his first title in 1929, president when Lambeau won his other five and a member of the board of directors when Lombardi won his five. Also, Bud Jorgensen was the Packers' trainer and property manager when they won their first three championships; assistant trainer when they won their next two and trainer again when they won their next six.
That's a total of 11 for each – that is if they qualify for that distinction.
George Halas was coach of six of the Bears' eight champions through 1963, and even though he wasn't coaching, he was president for the other two. That would give him one more than Lewellen.
Unofficial record or not, I believe Lewellen deserves to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a player. He dominated games like few players in NFL history with his punting and touchdowns.
But I don't believe his time as general manager or business manager should be anything other than a footnote in his bio if he ever gets inducted.
When Lewellen was hired as general manager 10 days after the 1953 season ended, he was working as an attorney and had been employed for the previous 12 years as a personnel supervisor and tax consultant at the local Standard Oil Co. office.
At the time, most Packer fans considered the "Glory Years" to have been the three-peat champions from 1929-31, and Lewellen was a local hero.
In 1946, when Packers fans, as well as a number of former players, voted for an all-time Packers team, Lewellen received far more votes than any other halfback or quarterback. He totaled 515 followed by Johnny Blood with 452, Red Dunn with 400, Arnie Herber with 301 and Cecil Isbell with 236. Curly Lambeau received seven votes.
Because of his popularity, Lewellen's first order of business was to "re-energize" Packer fans after going six years without a winner.
Like most GMs of the day, Lewellen was given complete authority over the Packers' business affairs and office personnel, including Vainisi, who was listed as a game and talent scout at the time. It also was specified in Lewellen's contract that he was not to interfere with the head coach on football matters, including the coach's final say on draft picks.
Thus, he focused on growing the Packers' bottom line and convincing local voters that a new stadium was needed to save the franchise. In Lewellen's first year, the Packers' net profit jumped from $29,000 to $69,500. And within a little more than two years, Green Bay voters approved a referendum to build a new stadium.
The point here is that it's a total misconception that general managers in the 1950s had the kind of authority that Ron Wolf was given when the Packers hired him in late 1991.
When Lombardi was hired, he insisted on being given full authority over the front office and all football matters. Only two others among the 11 other teams had similar power: Halas as president and coach of the Bears; and Paul Brown as coach and general manager in Cleveland.
Here are brief resumes of the other GMs in 1959.
Edwin Anderson, Lions – Became president in 1949 of the private Detroit Football Co. that had recently purchased the team. He also was given the title of GM. He played football in the 1920s at Beloit College, but his resume started with his time as president of Goebel Brewing Co.
Don Kellett, Colts – Hired in 1953, he held the titles of executive vice president and general manager. Most recently, he had headed and done play-by-play for a pioneering TV station in Philadelphia. He also had a sports background, having been a multi-sport athlete at the University of Pennsylvania; playing nine games as a major league infielder; and coaching Penn's basketball team and the Ursinus College football team.
Dick McCann, Washington – His background was in newspapers. When Washington hired him as publicity director in 1946, he was a sports columnist for a paper in D.C. He was promoted to GM in 1947.
Vince McNally, Philadelphia – When he was hired by the Eagles as assistant general manager in 1949, he had been working as a scout for the Los Angeles Dons of the All-America Football Conference. He also played quarterback at Notre Dame in the mid-1920s. Still, he was hired by the Eagles to run their business affairs, including signing players, making travel arrangements, overseeing training camp and supervising the scouts. He was promoted to GM in 1951.
Pete Rozelle, Rams – Following his graduation from the University of San Francisco in 1950, he was named the school's publicity director and assistant athletic director. The Rams hired him as publicity director in 1952 and named him general manager in 1957 after he had spent two years with a San Francisco PR firm in between those posts.
Lou Spadia, 49ers – A former high school baseball player and World War II veteran, he started as assistant business manager of the 49ers when they began play in the AAFC in 1946. His duties included sending out ticket applications, producing brief press guides and other odd jobs. He was promoted to general manager in 1952.
Raymond Walsh, Giants – A star tennis player at Fordham University, Walsh went to school there at the same time as future Giants owner Wellington Mara. Walsh got a law degree in 1942, went to work in the insurance business and joined the Giants in 1947 as a publicity aide. He was first listed as the team's GM in the 1953 NFL Record and Rules Manual, but he was generally viewed as a figurehead under Mara.
Pittsburgh and the Chicago Cardinals didn't list a general manager.
As business manager, starting in 1961, Lewellen had no power but served Lombardi's needs in the office, including as a liaison with the executive committee.
Bottom line, in the 1950s, NFL head coaches generally had final say on the draft, including in Green Bay, and both Ronzani and Blackbourn fully executed that authority.
Tom from Charleston, SC
Are you aware that the owner of Piggly Wiggly that started in Memphis, Tenn., bankrolled a professional football squad to promote his stores? Clarence Saunders started Piggly Wiggly circa 1920. The team beat the Packers, 20-6, in 1929. Did this count as an "official loss"?
Yes. I wrote about the team and the game on page 116 of "The Greatest Story in Sports." It was a barnstorming exhibition, not an official game.
Don from Collegeville, MN
When did my nephew Mark Tauscher begin as a starter for the Packers?
As a rookie in 2000, Tauscher took over as the right tackle on the second offensive play of the second game when veteran Earl Dotson injured his back. Dotson was lost for the season, and your nephew started the final 14 games.
