Packers Connection
From the top of the Gehl-Mulva Science Center, you can see Lambeau Field in the distance. The proximity of the Packers’ headquarters to the St. Norbert College campus has led to a fruitful relationship between the two local institutions, giving rise to everything from student internships to co-sponsored academic conferences, to the occasional St. Norbert Green Knight earning a spot with the Green and Gold! (Larry Krause was the most recent, playing for the Packers from 1970 to 1974.)
Packers Training Camp
Never has the Packers’ relationship with the college been more evident than during the summer months. SNC played host to the team’s training camp for more than 60 years. The tradition began in the summer of 1958 and continued in the years after, interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Players resided in Victor McCormick Hall and ate dinner in Michels Commons. They used their own practice and team meeting facilities at Lambeau Field during training camp and commuted there daily from the college.
St. Norbert College Packers Training Camp History
Then-president of the Packers Russ Bogda and then-head coach Lisle Blackbourn first approached St. Norbert College in spring 1957. At the time, the Packers were headquartering at UW-Stevens Point. In summer 1958, coach Scooter McLean and his staff brought the Packers to the St. Norbert campus and Frank J. Sensenbrenner Residence Hall’s living quarters, to various classrooms for training sessions and to the dining facilities in the riverbank hall now called Dennis M. Burke Hall.
President Dominic Olejniczak, successor to Bogda (who retired due to illness), completed contractual agreements with the college. In 1959, newly appointed head coach Vince Lombardi confirmed the summer camp location and formed a friendship with the Rev. Dennis Burke, O.Praem., St. Norbert president. Lombardi was a fixture at Old St. Joseph Church on campus for morning Mass, occasionally doing duty as an altar server.
Succeeding coaches and Packers presidents over the years found the facilities well suited to the team’s needs.
Did You Know … Who Has a Super Bowl Ring?
President Emeritus Thomas Kunkel, who served the college from 2008 to 2017, has a Super Bowl ring! No, he didn’t earn it on the field: He was a member of the Packers board of directors when the team won Super Bowl XLV in 2011, and board members received rings in honor of the occasion.
