The Detroit Lions have struggled for most of the past fifty years. Those struggles have made it difficult to imagine a time when they were great. And, there really was a time when they were pretty great. The Lions were one of the dominant teams of the 1950s. They played in four NFL Championship games in the decade, winning three of them in 1952, '53, and '57. The Lions nearly carried that success of the 1950s into the 1960s.
In the 1960s, Vince Lombardi built the Green Bay Packers into one of the greatest teams in NFL history. From 1961-67, the Packers won five NFL titles. The Packers lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1960 NFL Championship game. In the locker room after the game, Lombardi promised his team that they would never again lose a postseason game. They never did. This was a great football team. 12 Hall of Fame players. One Hall of Fame coach. The Packers of the 1960s were so great that it's easy to forget about the other teams in the league. The Packers greatest challenge in the first three years of their dynasty came from within their own conference. In particular, it came from the Detroit Lions. In 1960, the Packers won the Western Conference with an 8-4 record. The Lions were second at 7-5. In 1961, the Packers won the Western Conference with an 11-3-1 record. The Lions were second at 8-5-1. In 1962, the Packers won the Western Conference with a 13-1 record. The Lions were second at 11-3. In each of those seasons, the Packers and Lions split their season series. Some consider the 1962 Green Bay Packers the best of Lomabardi's great teams. On October 7, the Packers defeated the Lions 9-7 in Green Bay. This was a game that the Lions strongly felt should have been theirs. So much so that the team was about to explode when the Packers came to Detroit for the Thanksgiving Day rematch. The Packers entered that game with an 18-game winning streak. They had won 11 straight league games, a championship game, and six exhibition games. The Packers were 10-0 on the season. The Lions were 8-2. The Lions defense swarmed all over the Packers runners, passers, and blockers on that Thanksgiving Day. The Lions led 23-0 at the half with the defense scoring a touchdown and a safety. The 26-14 final score made the game seem much closer than it was. Packers quarterback Bart Starr was sacked 11 times in the game. The Packers offense was physically beaten in this game. A beating so thorough that receiver Max McGee asked of Starr in the Packers huddle, "Why don't you throw an incomplete pass and nobody will get hurt." His battered teammates were left laughing in the huddle. It was all that they could do. This was one of the few times during the Lombardi years that the Packers failed to match the intensity of their opponent. The beatdown by the Lions didn't keep the Packers down for long. They won the rest of their regular season games and defeated the New York Giants for their second straight championship. The Lions had to settle for another second place finish in the conference.
The Detroit Lions of the early 1960s were a very good team that happened to play in the long shadow of a truly great team. From 1960-62, they might have been the only team to give Lombardi's team a tough time on a consistent basis. The two teams split their games during that time. If not for those Packers teams, the Detroit Lions might have followed a great 1950s with an excellent start to the 1960s.
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