The Ice Bowl.

The Ice Bowl. On a bitterly cold Wisconsin day in 1967, the Green Bay Packers faced the Dallas Cowboys in the National Football League (NFL) championship game. The common foe of both teams was severe cold and icy footing. . Packers Win "Ice Bowl" Sportswriters scraped ice from the press box window to see the action. Players erected makeshift shelters warmed by gas-powered heaters. The electric heaters underneath the field failed to soften the frozen turf. Halftime festivities were canceled because the brass instruments were too cold to play. Fans of the Green Bay Packers, no strangers to inhospitable weather conditions, endured temperatures that dipped to -25° C (-13° F) with a wind chill factor of about -45° C (-50° F) while watching the Packers win 21-17 over the Dallas Cowboys in the 1967 National Football League (NFL) championship game. "It was terrible out there, terrible for both sides," Dallas head coach Tom Landry told the New York Times afterwards, seeking warmth in the visitors' locker room. "That in itself made this game distinctive from any other." Green Bay won the Central Division despite losing its final two games. The Capitol Division-champion Cowboys also struggled at season's end, dropping three of their last five contests. Both teams, however, rebounded strongly in the first round of the playoffs. Green Bay snuffed the visiting Los Angeles Rams, 28-7, as Packers quarterback Bart Starr completed a team-record 74 percent of his throws. Meanwhile, playing on an unseasonably warm day in Dallas, the Cowboys pounded the Cleveland Browns, 52-14. As the NFL championship game began, both teams faced the frigid Wisconsin temperature, 20-mph (30-km/h) winds, and a frozen field. Green Bay darted to a 14-0 lead within the first 20 minutes of play. Two touchdown passes from Starr to wide receiver Boyd Dowler--8 and 46 yards--put the Packers in control early. Dallas defensive back Mike Johnson, standing a half-foot shorter than Dowler, struggled to cover his taller counterpart. Dowler, who snared four passes for a game-high 77 yards, battled the elements with cotton gloves that he stored in his pants and wore during time-outs. Dallas managed two scores during the second quarter, but not as a result of offensive heroics. The Cowboys, in fact, mustered just 42 yards in the first half. Cowboy quarterback Don Meredith completed only 3 of 14 passes. Dallas's first score came when defensive lineman Willis Townes dislodged the ball from Starr and George Andrie returned the fumble 7 yards for a touchdown. Later in the period Dan Villaneuva booted a 21-yard field goal a few plays after Dallas recovered a fumble by punt returner Willie Wood. The half ended with Green Bay leading 14-10. With no halftime show to distract them, thousands in the crowd searched for warm spots in the stadium or simply headed for their cars, hoping they would start. The third quarter opened with Starr favoring short passes to his running backs, Donnie Anderson and Chuck Mercein. The change caused endless headaches for Dallas linebackers Dave Edwards and Chuck Howley. "There was no traction," the All-Pro Howley told the New York Times. "The advantage had gone to the offense." At the same time, the tricky footing made life difficult for Green Bay receivers trying to get open downfield. Andrie, Townes, and fellow lineman Bob Lilly and Jethro Pugh chased Starr around the backfield all day, sacking him eight times for 76 yards in losses. "A few times I should have thrown the ball away," Starr commented later, according to the New York Times. "But I just had to eat it." Finally, in the fourth quarter, the Cowboys offense benefited from the treacherous turf. Meredith handed off to halfback Dan Reeves who, instead of heading upfield, heaved the ball to a wide-open Lance Rentzel. Green Bay defenders had no chance of making the quick adjustment necessary to catch the swift wide receiver. The 50-yard touchdown play accounted for nearly half of Dallas's total of 109 passing yards that day. Down by 3 points with about five minutes remaining, Green Bay got the ball at its own 32-yard line. Conditions being as poor as they were, the Packers' two-year championship streak was in serious jeopardy. "I was scared we had thrown it all away," defensive tackle Henry Jordan later recalled for the New York Times. In the same newspaper veteran center Jerry Kramer later remarked, "I thought maybe this is the year it ends, the year we blew it." Starr peppered the Dallas defense with short passes. Three tosses to Anderson and one to Mercein accounted for 46 yards. An 8-yard run by Mercein moved the Packers to Dallas's 3-yard line with a minute left. Anderson ran the ball twice, skidding and sliding for a total of 1 yard. At third down with 16 seconds remaining, Green Bay used its last time out to set up the play. "That's why I decided to keep the ball. I knew the other backs might have trouble getting started," Starr told a New York Times reporter. "We might've had time for a field goal after one more play--I really don't know. So I just said in the huddle, 'Let's get it in the end zone.'" Besides wanting to win, coach Vince Lombardi had another motive. "We didn't want a tie," he told the New York Times. "We had compassion for those spectators. We wanted to send them home right then." Starr kept the offensive unit in the huddle a few extra seconds, making sure each lineman understood his blocking assignment. According to the New York Times the clean-cut quarterback spoke to his teammates in relatively harsh terms: "We darn well better make it," he said. Starr looked at Kramer and told him to shove Pugh as hard as he could. "I came off the ball, got traction with my right foot, and gave Pugh my best shot," Kramer told the New York Times. With Kramer leading the way, Starr muscled his 6-foot 1-inch, 195-pound frame into the end zone. "Those last five minutes are what the Packers are all about," Lombardi told reporters after capturing his fifth NFL crown in seven years, according to the New York Times." They do it because they respect each other. They are selfless." Later, the Packers defeated the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl II, 33-14, in a balmier Miami, Florida. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.