Raymond Ernest Nitschke

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"It would have been nitsky for you and me."
‐	"His Last Bow", Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1917.

No, no, no. In the Sherlock Holmes story "His Last Bow", Sherlock Holmes was NOT talking about the great Green Bay middle linebacker Ray Nitschke. Yes, "Nitsky" is a bonafide surname. But as Sherlock used the word, it was a completely invented neologism that Sherlock's creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, thought sounded like American slang. Well, maybe if you were a Victorian Englishman, but not if you grew up speaking . As a common noun or adjective, "nitsky" seems to have appeared in just that one short story.

But Raymond Ernest Nitschke was one of the Green Bay Packers who played in what in 1967 was called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, although in today's parlance, it's usually referred to as Super Bowl I. Amazingly, given that the Super Bowls practically drive the national economy, at the time no one was sure if the somewhat contrived - quote - "championship game" - unquote - would go anywhere. Played in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the stadium was less that ⅔ full.

But then in 1967 baseball still claimed to be 's pastime. The times, though, (to quote Nobel Laureate Robert Zimmerman) were a-changing and two years before football and baseball actually polled at parity and afterwards football pulled ahead. Today 38% of Americans say football is their favorite sport and baseball merits (get this) a paltry 9%. But even football has declined a bit and the highest rank of football was in 2006 when a whopping 43 % of the populace said it was their favorite sport. But now 15% of Americans say they don't even have a favorite sport. Unthinkable!

When, we ask, did it all begin? That is, when did a sport that for well over on a century has elevated college kids to among the most idolized celebrities make way for what for some could say was just a bunch of ham-fisted grown men playing a kids game in empty sand lots?

Well, the surprisingly fast rise of professional football as the Great American Pastime was almost certainly due to two factors. One was when the National Football League Championship Game was televised in 1958. There the Baltimore Colts being quarterbacked by a former construction worker from Pittsburgh whupped the New York Giants. Not entirely coincidentally the second factor was that 1958 was also the last year that New York's assistant coach Vince Lombardi ran the Giants offense (a chap named Tom Landry coached the defense). The next year Vince went to Green Bay where Ray had been playing since 1957.

Ray did not have an easy childhood. He was born in 1936 and both parents had died by the time he was 13. He was a troubled not to say troublesome kid. But although not a good student academically, he excelled at all the sports he tried, which included baseball, basketball, and (obviously) football.

At the University of Illinois, Ray's academic performance was again pretty rotten and his temperament fractious. But as a college linebacker he was one of the best and after he left school, he was picked up by the Green Bay Packers. Playing for the worst team in the National Football League was not what Ray had hope for and in his rookie year the Packers performed an abysmal 1-10-1. Then Vince showed up to be the head coach.

Despite what was implied in the TV movie Portrait: Legend in Granite, Vince didn't make Ray a starter right away. It wasn't until 1962 that Vince placed Ray on the full time roster. Ray did OK and that year in the NFL Championship game (and again against the Giants) Ray was named the Most Valuable Player.

Ray remained a starter through 1970. Vince had stepped down as head coach three years before and the helm assumed by Vince's assistant, Phil Bengtson. In Phil's three years he had only one winning season, and in 1971 Dan Devine was hired directly out of the University of Missouri to run the team. Dan didn't do any better and in his four year tenure he had only a single winning season. Ray was replaced as a starter by Jim Carter. He was, though, sent in to play in most games.

In 1973, Ray reported for training camp but he realized that at age 36, he was getting long in the tooth for an NFL linebacker. So before the regular season started he told the coaches he was going to leave. His number, 66, was retired and he was elected to the Football Hall of Fame in 1978.

Times were different when Ray was a player. For most of his career, NLF players, even stars, were scarcely celebrities. If proof of such an outrageous statement is needed, consider what happened when Ray appeared on the popular celebrity panel quiz show What's My Line on December 30, 1962. Remember Ray had been voted the Most Valuable Player for the NFL Championship Game when they beat the New York Giants. The game was televised and was played in New York AND Ray was appearing on a TV show where the celebrity panelists - Bennett Cerf, Dorothy Kilgallen, Arlene Francis, and Martin Gabel - were all New Yorkers.

And yet no one recognized him! But at least they did guess he was a football player. The host, John Charles Daly, had hoped Ray's gentle speech and characteristic Nitschkean hornrimmed glasses would throw the panel off. But Ray's massive size tipped his hand and the panel guessed Ray's "line" pretty quickly.

References

Mean on Sunday: The Autobiography of Ray Nitschke, Ray Nitschke with Robert Wells, Doubleday, 1973.

"Football Still Americans' Favorite Sport to Watch, Jim Norman, Gallup News, January 4, 2018

When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi, David Maraniss, Simon and Schuster, 1999.

Portrait: Legend in Granite, Ernest Borgnine (actor), Colleen Dewhurst (actor), James Olson (actor), John Calvin (actor), John McLiam (actor), Milt Kogan (actor), Alex Rocco (actor), Jack Smight (director), David Victor (producer), Groverton Productions, 1973.

What's My Line?, John Daly (host), Ray Nitschke (guest), Vaughn Meader (mystery guest), Bennett Cerf (panelist), Arlene Francis (panelist), Dorothy Kilgallen (guest), Martin Gabel (panelist), CBS, December 30, 1956.

"Green Bay Packers", Pro Football Reference.

"Ray Nitschke", Pro Football Reference.