Tim Hayes
When it comes to a three-peat, Carroll Dale knows all about such a rare feat.
The Wise, Virginia, native was a key contributor as a sure-handed wide receiver for legendary coach Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers when they won the 1965, 1966 and 1967 National Football League titles.
The Kansas City Chiefs will try to win their third consecutive Super Bowl on Sunday when they face the Philadelphia Eagles at the Superdome in New Orleans.
There will likely be some callbacks about that Green Bay juggernaut in the endless hours of pregame show programming and during the broadcast. Perhaps Dale might show up in some of those old-school highlights.
Winning a single championship in professional sports is hard enough.
Back-to-back is beyond impressive.
Three in a row is just at another level.
How was that possible for those Packers?
“I think Coach Lombardi was a big key in that he kept us on an even-keel, didn’t let us get overconfident,” Dale said on Tuesday in a telephone interview. “He just preached the sermon that you leave it all out there on the field and when the game’s over you’re exhausted because you’ve given it everything you’ve got.”
That was never a problem for Dale, who spent his first five seasons in the NFL with the Los Angeles Rams before being traded to Green Bay in April of 1965 for linebacker Dan Currie. L.A. had not had much success during Dale’s tenure with the club after he was drafted out of Virginia Tech.
A change of scenery worked out perfectly.
“The timing was great,” Dale said. “I had a little bit of experience and it was a great opportunity.”
He also saw some familiar faces when he arrived in Wisconsin.
“I was very fortunate because Tom Fears was my receiver coach at L.A. and he had taken the receiver job at Green Bay and Zeke Bratkowski had played quarterback out there with L.A. and he had gone to Green Bay too,” Dale said. “So, I had those two who spoke up for me.”
The son of Southwest Virginia’s play would speak for itself with the Packers.
“Dale was a big-play receiver as his 19.7-yard average per catch and 35 TDs in his eight seasons with the Packers would attest,” said Cliff Christl, the official team historian of the Green Bay Packers. “He came on board at the perfect time because Lombardi was ready to move on from Max McGee as a starter, and so he needed a new complement for Boyd Dowler. And that’s partly why Dowler and Dale don’t get more credit for the roles they played in the Packers’ three-peat. If you asked me who was better, I’d say flip a coin.”
In the 1965 NFL championship game, Dale caught a 47-yard touchdown pass from Bart Starr with 11:08 remaining in the first quarter.
“The ball squirted out of my hands,” Starr told the Associated Press following the game. “It slipped, but Carroll came back and caught it.”
Green Bay posted a 23-12 win over the Cleveland Browns that day at Lambeau Field, which was covered in snow. The chill was negated for Dale by the warm feeling of being a NFL champ.
“That first one meant a lot,” Dale said. “I had just left the Rams and just experienced five losing seasons. Of course, the other two were also great.”
The Packers won another NFL championship game on Jan. 1, 1967, with a 34-27 win over the Dallas Cowboys as Dale reached the end zone. Two weeks later they beat the Kansas City Chiefs – titlists of the American Football League – by a 35-10 count in the inaugural Super Bowl at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Dale and his teammates didn’t take the game lightly per the orders of their fiery coach.
“Coach Lombardi told us if we lost the [Super Bowl] game that [despite winning the NFL title] we’d still be losers,” Dale said.
A 64-yard touchdown pass from Starr to Dale in the second quarter was nullified by a penalty.
“They called motion,” Dale said. “We never could find it on the film.”
Yet, one of Dale’s greatest postseason moments occurred the following season in the first round of the NFL playoffs.
The Packers happened to be hosting the Los Angeles Rams – Dale’s former team – who had undergone a change of fortunes and featured a defensive front known as the Fearsome Foursome featuring Rosey Grier, Lamar Lundy, Merlin Olsen and Deacon Jones.
Dale finished with six catches for 109 yards and a score. The 18-yard scoring strike he corralled from Starr in the second quarter turned out to be the tiebreaking touchdown.
It was indeed a fine day for the flanker.
“When the Packers beat the 11-1-2 Los Angeles Rams in the NFL’s new expanded playoffs in 1967, they were underdogs at home – the game was played in Milwaukee, where the Packers played a portion of their home schedule then – for the only time in a postseason game during the Lombardi era,” Christl said. “The consensus was the Packers were an aging team and the Rams were loaded, starting with their Fearsome Foursome. But the Packers won 28-7 and Lombardi built his game plan around a belief that the Rams would not be able to cover Dowler and Dale. That allowed Lombardi to attack Deacon Jones and Merlin Olsen in a way he might not have been able to with lesser receivers.”
The next week the Packers won the NFL championship in the legendary “Ice Bowl” against Dallas with temperatures hovering around negative-15 degrees. That was followed by another convincing victory in Super Bowl II.
Three years.
Three titles.
Three rings for Dale.
Like the current edition of the Chiefs, Green Bay was led by proven winners and the locker room featured a veteran presence.
Dale remained lifelong friends with many of those guys he played with and throughout the years ex-teammates such as Starr, Don Chandler, Ray Nitschke, Donny Anderson and Dave Robinson visted Dale and play in a fundraising golf tournament for the University of Virginia’s College at Wise at The Virginian Golf Club in Bristol.
“The guys were close on those teams,” Dale said.
David K. Li of NBC News crafted a story a few days ago on Green Bay’s three straight titles and pointed out that there are only eight living players who were members of each of those title-winning squads: Dale, Dave Robinson, Jerry Kramer, Boyd Dowler, Marv Fleming, Tom Brown, Bob Long and Steve Wright.
Now 86-years-old and residing in the town he grew up in, Dale will tune in Sunday and see if the Chiefs can make it three straight.
“Well, I always root for a close game and of course, I’m sure the Chiefs will be favored,” Dale said. “The good thing for the Chiefs I think that will motivate them a little more is how well the Eagles played against Washington [in the NFC title game]. … It’s amazing how in sports, especially football, where if you don’t have the full respect of your opponent things can happen.”
For Dale what transpired during those three seasons in Green Bay was gridiron glory.