Packers training camp memory: The unveiling of the 'G'

[Cheesehead]

A search of the Press-Gazette editions over the first six-and-a-half months of 1961 also failed to turn up any mention of the Packers selecting or designing a logo. No mention of it could be found in the Packers' board of directors and executive committee meeting minutes in 1961, either.


But at some point, probably close to the start of training camp, Lombardi had decided his defending Western Conference champion Packers were going to wear a "G" on their helmets during the 1961 season.


Lombardi asked Dad Braisher, his equipment manager, to take charge of the project and Braisher asked one of his student aides, John Gordon, who happened to be an art student at St. Norbert College, to design it. Gordon was in his second summer of helping Braisher in the equipment room.


"(Lombardi) told Dad Braisher to come up with a design for the helmet," Gordon said in a 2010 interview. "I don't know how specific they got in their talks. But when I came in in the morning, Dad said Lombardi wants me to come up with a design for a Packer logo and I want you to draw it: a 'G' in a football shape."


At first, Gordon said he balked at the idea.


"The concept was Dad's," said Gordon. "I resisted the football shape of the 'G.' That was Dad Braisher. He insisted on that."


Gordon said, as far as he knew, Romo Display, a local Green Bay advertising company, did all the production work.


"Romo received my drawing and did an artist's rendering of it," said Gordon. "That would have been the common practice and that was presented to Lombardi. Lombardi OK'd my sketch, my drawing. That would have been sent to the company and the company would have done the artwork to make it look like the final product."


Vince Lombardi Jr. was one of Braisher's other helpers in the equipment room, but he, too, was in the dark about his father's plans.