Arguably the most famous coach in history was a man named Vince Lombardi. He obviously will go down in NFL history, but he also could have been tied to Brownwood history in a couple of ways as well.

The first dealt with a player named Lawrence Elkins, maybe the best athlete I ever saw at Brownwood High School. Lawrence was All-State in 1960 when Brownwood won their first state championship. He went to Baylor University and was All-American his last two years there. He was also the No. 1 draft choice in the NFL draft in ’65. He was drafted by two different teams because back then there was the National Football League and the American Football League. He was the property, via the draft, of both the Green Bay Packers and the Houston Oilers.

Lombardi flew into Love Field in Dallas and had a private meeting with Lawrence. Elkins said that he was pretty well sure that he was going to sign with Green Bay. But, the Oilers, in the following days, upped their offer and he signed with them. By the way, the money involved was not quite what it is today. Lawrence was destined to be a great receiver for the Oilers until he suffered a horrible injury during his first preseason. He ended up playing about half a dozen years for the Steelers to end his career.

There was a famous football game in the late 60s called the “Ice Bowl.” It was played in Green Bay and they defeated the Dallas Cowboys in the last minutes of the ballgame to win the NFL championship. This was prior to there being such a thing as the Super Bowl. It turned out that the same two teams would battle it out the next year as well, only this time in Dallas.

Lombardi was apparently very concerned about his team adjusting to the warm weather down here and also concerned about the night life in Dallas. He wanted a small town in Texas for his team’s headquarters for the week before the game. And apparently, he was interested in Brownwood. Now, whether it was a connection with Gordon Wood or he remembered the name Brownwood from Lawrence Elkins, whatever the case might be, I do know that the negotiations were serious in the Packers coming to Brownwood.

It didn’t work out. The Packer people said it was because of jet access. The Brownwood airport just couldn’t handle what they were going to have to handle. I’m not sure where they went, but it worked out for them as they again beat the Cowboys for the National Football League championship.

The next year, the Super Bowl came into being and Green Bay won the first one and they won the second one as well. It’s interesting to look back on that time and consider what might have changed had the Packers ended up with Lawrence Elkins. Surely, if they had, Lawrence could have talked that great coach into bringing the Green Bay Packers to visit his hometown for a week. After all, it wouldn’t have been his first time dealing with a great coach.

Until next time, so long everybody.

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‘Out of the Box’ with Dallas Huston is published each Monday morning at BrownwoodNews.com. Dallas was the radio voice of the Brownwood Lions and Howard Payne Yellow Jackets for more than 55 years. He currently is Pastor of Center City Baptist Church and hosts a Men’s Bible Study in Brownwood on Monday evenings. Your comments are welcome at [email protected].