The 1967 Green Bay Packers season was their 48th season in the National Football League and resulted in a 9–4–1 record and a victory in Super Bowl II….as they beat the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL Championship Game….a game commonly known as the “Ice Bowl”….which marked the second time the Packers had won an NFL-record third consecutive NFL championship….having also done so in 1931 under team founder Curly Lambeau. In the playoff era (since 1933), it remains the only time a team has won three consecutive NFL titles.
The Packers were led by ninth-year head coach Vince Lombardi and veteran quarterback Bart Starr….who was in his twelfth season……leading the Pack to victory in Super Bowl II over the Oakland Raiders….which resulted in the fifth world championship for Green Bay under Lombardi and the last game he coached for the Packers.
With the expansion New Orleans Saints entering the league in 1967….the Packers like all existing NFL teams….had to leave 11 players unprotected for the expansion draft….in which one of the players that Lombardi left unprotected was a future Hall of Fame halfback Paul Hornung….which made Lombardi distraught when the Saints selected Hornung in the draft….to which in later years, Hornung revealed that he spoke to Saints coach Tom Fears prior to the draft….since Fears was a former assistant in Green Bay who felt that Hornung would help sell tickets in New Orleans.Several weeks later, the Saints also signed Jim Taylor, the Packers fullback….who was a Louisiana native and future Hall of Famer….who had also felt underpaid and underappreciated under Lombardi.
Green Bay finished the regular season 9–4–1. …during a year in which the 1967 NFL season saw the addition of a sixteenth team….where two conferences of eight teams were subdivided into two divisions. The Packers played in the Western Conference and in the Central Division….with the Lions, Bears, and Vikings….where each division foe was played twice….while each team in the Century Division and Coastal Division were played once (and no teams in the Capitol Division). Each of the four division winners advanced to the playoffs.
The Packers clinched the Central division title at Wrigley Field on November 26 at 8–2–1….with three games remaining….as the second-place Chicago Bears fell to 5–6.….with the rotational system (in place until 1975), they had home field advantage for the playoffs in 1967….with the first round (conference) scheduled at Milwaukee against the Coastal division champion
This season singnified the end of an incredible Green Bay Packer domination over every team but fhe Dallas Cowboys….and marked the end of a tremendous coaching rivalry between Packers Vince Lombardi and Cowboys Tom Landry.
