Arnie Herber: Small hands, big impact

Continued from last week

In 1919, Green Bay’s Indian Packing Company sponsored a semi-pro football team that set the wheels in motion, not only for a future NFL team, but for a young future Pro Football Hall of Famer.

While the publication provided no mention of the meeting before it occurred, an Aug. 13 article on the front page of the Green Bay Press-Gazette chronicled the landmark meeting that took place that year.

“The Indian Packing Corporation will be the representative semi-pro football team in Green Bay this fall,” the article read. “It will be the strongest aggregation of pigskin chasers that has ever been gathered.

“All home games are to be played at Hagemeister Park, and plans are now underway to rope off the playing field and keep it in A-1 condition.

“The Packers will have a splendid squad to pick from. Included in the list is a number of former college stars and some veterans who saw service in the gridiron battles overseas.”

Spearheaded by Curly Lambeau and George Calhoun, the Indian Packing Company, the Acme Packing Company and later the Green Bay Packers captivated the city, especially its youth.
“Arnie was bitten by the bug,” Norman L. Macht wrote in Arnie Herber: The Man Who Invented the NFL Passing Game. “As a youngster he practiced throwing a ball over their two-story house. He hung a tire from a tree and threw the ball through the hole for hours. He developed powerful wrists and forearms.

“But he had a handicap: he had unusually small hands. Years later, when he had become the NFL’s top passer, he revealed why he threw sidearm and how he held the ball, which was rounder and less pointed than today.

“He couldn’t grip it with his fingertips on the laces but used his thumb instead.”

In high school, Herber was known as “Flash” for his running skills and speed.

“As a teen, Arnie attended Green Bay West High School, where he met my grandmother, Lois Lefevre. He was a great athlete. At the age of 15, a sophomore, he helped West beat rival East High in a long-awaited, historic football game. In truth, that game, until he graduated, his team would know only one defeat. He was not only the captain of the football team, but also of the basketball team. He graduated a 10-letter senior that included his contribution to track, throwing shot, discus and javelin,” Steven Bodley said in The Arnie Herber Story.

To be continued