On this day in Labor History the year was 1921. That was the day that Green Bay Packers football team received a charter from American Professional Football Association.
A year later this would become the National Football League. The Green Bay club had started up two years earlier.
Its original sponsor was the Indian Packing Company, in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They packaged canned meat. Meat packing was a major industry in the Midwest during this era.
Packing plants in Chicago, Kansas City, Iowa and Wisconsin processed the cattle and pigs raised in the west as meat to feed the nation.
Curly Lambeau was a shipping clerk for the company. He helped to organize a group of local players into a football team. Curly persuaded his boss to donate money for the uniforms. The name “Packers” was born.
Then when Indian Packing fell on hard times, they were bought out by Acme, another packing company based in Chicago. So for a brief moment, the Green Bay Packers, one of the staunchest rivals of the Chicago Bears, was actually owned by a Chicago company.
Although Acme only owned the team for a year, the team nickname stuck. Lambeau was able to buy back the team.
He went on to become the Packers coach, leading the team to six championships. The Packers are not the only American sports franchise that’s name harkens back to a particular kind of labor.
Another Wisconsin team, the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team, is a reference to that city’s proud beer brewing tradition. In Big Ten Sports the Purdue Boilermakers and the Nebraska Cornhuskers take to the gridiron.
These names reflect the working traditions of the cities where the teams play ball.
June 8 - Tragedy in the Butte Mines
June 7 - Boston Carmen Organize
June 6 - Raid at Rocky Flats
June 5 - The Big One
June 4 - Union Busting Thugs Assault Local Leaders
June 3 - Victory at Auto-Lite Paves the Way
June 2 - Wartime Strike Defies Presidential Seizure
June 1 - Standing Up by Sitting Down
May 31 - The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot
May 30 - The Memorial Day Massacre
May 29 - The Little Steel Strike Revs Up
May 28 - The 54th Massachusetts
May 27 - Rubber Workers Push Back Against War Profiteering
May 26 - SWOC Strikes Little Steel
May 25 - Striking Teamsters Triumph
May 24 - Operation Humanity Marching for Dignity
May 23 - The Battle of Toledo
May 22 - The Battle of Deputies’ Run
May 21 - Striking to Save Their Union
May 20 - Relief Workers Sit Down in Vancouver
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