The Glory Years of the 1960s lasted just eight years. The Gory Years that followed lasted 24. "When you look at the record, how many seasons we were 4-12, yet the stands were still full," said Brian Noble, a talented linebacker for nine seasons. "There was a stretch in there where we not only were a crummy football team, but think of all the other things that transpired off the field."

    Pure hell for Packer fans everywhere was watching those stumbling, bumbling teams of the Phil Bengtson, Dan Devine, Bart Starr, Forrest Gregg and Lindy Infante eras. Some of the most forgettable quarterbacks in the history of the game played in the Green and Gold: Frank Patrick, Jim Del Gaizo, Don Milan, Bill Troup and Anthony Dilweg to name just a few.

    The sometimes crazy decisions of the front office where stuperfying. The huge price Dan Devine paid in 1974 for the sore armed quarterback John Hadl from the Rams virtually mortaged the teams future by surrendering the teams first five draft choices over the next two years. And what about first round draft picks when we weren't giving them away. Great failures included Rich Moore who played defensive tackle as if he were stuck in wet cement; Barry Smith who shivered and cringed every time he was the intended receiver on a crossing pattern; Rich Campbell wobbly duck throws and Tony Mandarich who played offensive tackle as if he were knee-deep in a swamp.

    The long awaited return of the Glory years was something for all long-suffering Packers fans to once again cherish. But we can not and should not forget our past if we want to keep striving Back to the Future.

    So here is a glimpse at those "GORY YEARS". A checklist of lowlights from the years 1968 through 1991 to remind yourself how much worse things could be:

1. Chicago Bears 13, Packers 10 -- Nov. 3, 1968

    A young Errol Mann, just recently signed, missed field goals from 44 and 29 yards out. Chuck Mercein missed a 22-yarder. Eight games into Bengtson's first season as coach, three different kickers had made just six of 17 field-goal tries. "It just gets worse and worse," Bengtson moaned after the game. Dan Devine lost his opener with the Packers, 2-0, to the Bears.

2. Detroit Lions 40, Packers 0 -- Sept. 21, 1970

    Worse than the score was the humiliation of watching quarterback Greg Landry turn a quarterback sneak into a 76-yard run that set up Detroit's final touchdown. When asked after the game whether the Packers defense had suffered a breakdown on the play, Bengtson said he had noticed at least three of them.

3. Bears 2, Packers 0 -- Aug. 7, 1971

    It was only an exhibition -- Devine's first as a head coach -- but it was an exercise in futility that will long be remembered. Miscast, 6-foot-7 quarterback Frank Patrick, who had been drafted as a tight end the year before, faded back to pass in the third quarter and faded too far, beyond the end line at County Stadium for a safety and the only score of the game.

4. Los Angeles Rams 24, Packers 7 -- Oct. 21, 1973

    Leading just 13-7 going into the fourth quarter, the Rams scored their final four points on an NFL-record two safeties by defensive end Fred Dryer. He blew past tackle Malcolm Snider twice in a 5-minute span to smother first Hunter and then Del Gaizo in the end zone. "I just got beat," a subdued Snider said after the game. "I'm really embarrassed."

5. Detroit 30, Packers 16 -- Sept. 21, 1975

    The Lions welcomed Steve Broussard to the NFL by blocking three of his punts in Starr's first game as coach. Adding insult to injury, the Lions turned all three into touchdowns in a game played at County Stadium. They recovered the first one in the end zone, returned the second one 34 yards for a touchdown and scored from a yard out three plays after the third one. Bart Starr could never translate his su00ess as Packer QB into su00ess as Packer coach. "I remember wondering after a while if I was going to be allowed to continue punting," Broussard said after the game. The Packers had no choice. He punted nine times in all and almost had two others blocked.

6. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 14, Packers 14 -- Oct. 12, 1980

    The Packers had 569 yards of total offense compared to 262 for the Bu00aneers, but they could only muster 14 points and settled for a tie. Tom Birney, signed just four days earlier, missed a 24-yard field goal attempt at the end of regulation time and a 36-yard try at the end of overtime. "As a Christian, I have peace within me," Birney explained in the locker room. "I am disappointed for my teammates, though. But I thank God for the good things and I also thank Him for the bad. I thank Him for this, too."

7. Bears 61, Packers 7 -- Dec. 7, 1980

    After the Packers had suffered the second most lopsided defeat in their history, Starr charged across the field to confront Bears coach Neill Armstrong. Starr was upset because defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan had the Bears blitzing from all angles in the fourth quarter. "Bart Starr was upset," Armstrong said after the game. "He did the talking and I did the listening. He said he'd rather not hear what I had to say, something to that effect, and he left."

Two years later, Bill Tobin, the Bears' vice president of player personnel at the time, revealed that he had been instructed by general manager Jim Finks during the off-season to study film and decode the Packers' signal system for relaying plays to the quarterback. Tobin, who had been in the Packers' front office during the Devine years, had been fired by Starr in 1975 as part of a wholesale housecleaning.  "I went at it like a tiger does good meat," Tobin said at the time.

8. Indianapolis 37, Packers 10 -- Oct. 27, 1985

    The Packers staged a better fight in the locker room than they did on the field. Reporters standing outside the Packers' dressing room doors at the Hoosier Dome after the game could hear shouts of obscenities and the sounds of a scuffle, but it wasn't until a day later that they
learned what had triggered the mayhem. Virgil Knight, one of Gregg's more volatile assistants, had thrown a full can of Coke at the head of linebacker Mike Douglass. "If it would have hit him, it would have killed him," another staff member recently said.

9. Minnesota Vikings 42, Packers 7 -- Sept. 28, 1986

    Not only did the Packers fall behind, 28-0, in the first quarter, but they lost their starting quarterback when Wright fainted outside the huddle. Former Rams quarterback Vince Ferragamo replaced him and started calling plays out of the Rams' playbook. "This one right here will have to live in my mind forever as the worst," Gregg bristled after the game.

10. Philadelphia Eagles 31, Packers 0 -- Dec. 16, 1990

    Tony Mandarich had to block Reggie White and the results were a disaster. White had 1 1/2 sacks, six knockdowns, two passes batted at the line and a forced fumble. "To tell you the truth, I gave it my damndest," Mandarich said after the game. "He timed my step and then he'd toss me. I could have held on to him, but why hold? Why go back 10 yards."

WR: Barry Smith, 1973-'75 -- A first-round draft pick, he averaged 8.8 yards per catch his last season.

WR: Ollie Smith, 1976-'77 -- Barry couldn't catch in a crowd, Ollie couldn't run away from one.

TE: Len Garrett, 1971-'72 -- Nicknamed "Graveyard", he had hands of stone.

T: Tony Mandarich, 1989-'91 -- Drafted ahead of Barry Sanders and Deion Sanders, he will live in infamy as the biggest bust of all time.

T: Malcolm Snider, 1972-'74 -- A serviceable guard, he had to fill in at tackle in 1973 and gave up an NFL record two safeties in a game against the Los Angeles Rams.

G: Arland Thompson, 1981 -- He was a basket case when he was thrust into the starting lineup for the final game in 1981 with a playoff berth at stake. Never has a player been more unnerved than he was at the prospect of facing the New York Jets' Sack Exchange. Moreover, the coaching staff, in all its wisdom, elected to run behind him on consecutive plays at a critical point in the game. Second and 1 at the Jets' 13 quickly turned into a fourth-and-2 situation.

G: Bill Bain, 1975 -- He became a solid lineman with the Rams for seven years, but he was a time bomb with the Packers. Drafted in the second round, he walked out of a film session at the end of training camp his second year and demanded to be traded. "I felt there was too much pressure on me," he said at the time. "Maybe I'm not tough enough mentally yet."

C: Wimpy Winther, 1971 -- Believe it or not, the Packers traded a fifth-round draft pick for a center named Wimpy.

QB: Frank Patrick, 1970-'72 -- Drafted as a tight end, the Packers tried to make him a quarterback with predictable results. His career stats were: 8 completions, 23 attempts, no touchdowns & "that safety".

HB: Michael Haddix, 1990-'91 -- He was the go-to back in a Lindy Infante offense that was better suited for flag football. In 1990, he led the team in rushing with an anemic 311 yards, the lowest total by the Packers' team leader in 32 years.

FB: Vickey Ray Anderson, 1980 -- With a name like that, he was never mistaken for Bronco Nagurski.

E: Greg Boyd, 1983 -- "Looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane." Never has that scout's adage more fittingly applied to a player.

E: Donnie Humphrey, 1984-'86 -- Along with having a weight problem and a drug problem, he could hardly wait for practice to end so he could puff on a cigarette in the locker room.

T: Rich Moore, 1969-'70 -- He was a no-name when they drafted him in the first round and was still a no-name when they dumped him.

T: Carl Barzilauskus, 1978-'79 -- A first-round bust with the Jets, the Packers traded two high draft picks to get him. He was just as big a bust for them.

MLB: Tom Perko, 1976 -- A fourth-round draft pick, he sparkled in his first nutcracker drill, whipping veteran tackle Dick Himes three straight times. But when it was 11 on 11, he couldn't make a play.

OLB: Putt Choate, 1987 -- Not much of a player, but his name has a linebacker ring to it for pre-game introductions.

OLB: Rydell Malancon, 1987 -- Like Choate, a strike replacement player who makes the team on name only.

CB: Estus Hood, 1978-'84 -- Not even Terrell Buckley got beat deep as often as he did.

CB: Ike Thomas, 1972-'73 -- After he returned a kickoff 89 yards against the Bears, their coach, Abe Gibron, said he never saw anybody run so far and look so scared in all his years in the NFL.

SS: Mossy Cade, 1985-'86 -- The Packers traded a first-round draft pick to get him from San Diego and had his services for 30 games. They got nothing in return when he was convicted of sexual assault and sent to Fox Lake Correctional Institution for a 15-month prison term.

FS: Hurles Scales, 1975 -- The name said it all. Although his stay was short, he was the deserving winner of the team's "Ugly Man Contest," a training camp ritual at the time.
 
 

K: Booth Lusteg, 1969 -- "I feel I'm better than Don Chandler was at his best," he boasted during his brief stint with the Packers. Chandler ranks 15th in all-time Packers scoring. Lusteg made one of five field goal tries.

P: Steve Broussard, 1975 -- He had three punts blocked in his first game and was cut after his fourth with a 31.8 average.