Art Daley, who covered Green Bay Packers from Lambeau to Lombardi, dies at 94 

Art Daley, who covered the Green Bay Packers for the Green Bay Press-Gazette from the Curly Lambeau era to the Vince Lombardi era, died Saturday. He was 94.

Daley started covering the Packers when he joined the Press-Gazette in 1941, helping sports editor Ray Pagel with statistics.

But before he started work on the Packers beat in 1942, the 26-year-old Daley was summoned to the office of Andrew B. Turnbull, the newspapers business manager and an influential member of the Packers board of directors for some guidance.

Mr. Turnbull told me, he said, Just remember. Dont say anything real bad about our team because if we lose em, well never get em back. Daley recalled in a 2009 interview for Titletowns Team, a history of the Packers published by the Press-Gazette.

Daley went into Army in 1943, serving with the 42nd Infantry Division during World War II. He returned to the Press-Gazette as sports editor in 1946 and covered the Packers for the next 21 seasons.

"This was really more than a job," Daley said in January 1968, as he left the Packers beat and the sports editor's job. "I took it ... maybe ... too much to heart. But in a town like this, I think you have to be that way."

In his first 13 years on the beat, Daley saw some of the worst teams in Packers history. Even so, he kept up the optimism instilled in him by Turnbull years earlier.

"I know that I got a reputation for crying in those bad years we had," Daley said. "I can laugh now, but I used to hear that the paper boys used to tell their customers on Monday, 'Here's Art Daley's tears.'"

Then Lombardi arrived in 1959.

"He changed my life," Daley said. "After all those non-winning seasons, I finally had something to look forward to."

In 1960, with Lombardi's blessings he thought it would help sell tickets Daley co-founded the Green Bay Packers Yearbook with Press-Gazette promotions manager Jack Yuenger.

After Lambeau died in June 1965, Lombardi was furious when Daley put a Press-Gazette photo of Lombardi shaking hands with Lambeau on the yearbooks cover.

In 2007, more than 40 years later, Daley vividly remembered the phone call that followed: "'What do you mean putting me on the cover with him?' After he said, 'That was the worst yearbook you ever put out,' the phone clicked."

Lombardi, who loathed Lambeau, didnt speak to Daley for weeks.

Daley bought out Yuenger in 1978 and sold the yearbook to John Wemple of Allouez in 1984. Wemple later sold the yearbook to the Packers.

Daley was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame as a contributor in 1993.

He also was the last active charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee. He was appointed as Green Bay's representative to the group in 1963 and cast his last votes in 1998.

Born in St. Paul, Minn., Daley grew up in Fond du Lac, where he worked for the Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter during and after high school. After a year on the Fond du Lac newspaper's advertising staff, he became a writer in 1936.

Daley retired from the Press-Gazette in 1979, after 11 years as wire editor.

Even long after retiring, Daley sat in the press box at Packers home games. He was a columnist for Packer Report magazine from 1978 until his death.

Services are pending.

It was an honor for Art Daley to grace the pages of the magazine but an even bigger honor to have gotten to know him so well over the last few years. Publisher Bill Huber shares a few memories.

A few weeks ago, the Packer Report contingent covering the Super Bowl went out to dinner and were enjoying a few beverages.

So, I asked, how do we do an issue dedicated to Art?

It was as idea that Matt Tevsh and Keith Roerdink, my colleagues in Dallas, had mentioned a year or so ago. After all, Art Daley was Packer Reports treasure. A member of the Packers Hall of Fame, Daley covered championship teams coached by Curly Lambeau, Vince Lombardi and Mike Holmgren. Even at 94 and needing that damned thing, as he called his walker, I think he attended every home game during the Packers run to a fourth Super Bowl championship.

Art wouldnt want anything dedicated to him, but we didnt want to wait until it was too late.

Well, it was too late.

Two weeks ago, I got a call from Arts wife, Lorayne. Art had moved into a nursing home because of back problems and a touch of pneumonia.

I visited him for about an hour that afternoon. Of course, we talked about the Packers. Like me, he couldnt believe they had won the Super Bowl. Art, who began covering the team in 1941 and founded the Green Bay Packers Yearbook in 1960, was thrilled. But we talked more about other things, including a trip to Florida that we were leaving on the next day. He apologized for not having his column done for the magazine.

On Sunday, with Interstate 43 covered in snow for the final leg of our three-day drive back from Florida, my cell phone rang. It said Art Daley.


Art Daley and Vince Lombardi.
I didnt answer, afraid that it would be bad news.

And it was, as I listed to Mrs. Daleys voice mail.

Art was a great writer, to state the obvious. But Ill always remember Art the person.

A couple stories:

First, they always wanted to know about the baby. So, we brought little Grady over one afternoon and they had gotten him a present. It was light blue pajamas with dark blue footballs. Perfect, of course. It took Grady a couple months to grow into them. When he did, I took a picture and brought it over to the Daleys. Ill never forget what happened next. Art grabbed a picture frame off the shelf in the family room and put Grady in front of a picture of Art and Bart Starr.

Second, Art always had a story. Always. Before I left for the Super Bowl, he told me about playing with Terry Bradshaw during a Super Bowl golf outing. Somehow, they got talking about some sportswriter who they hadnt seen. Bradshaw asked if the writer had died; Art said he believed he had.

At a party later in the week, Bradshaw spotted Art, ran over to him, picked him up and began spinning him around, exclaiming, Hes not dead! Hes not dead!

Arts passing is a big loss. The Packers are the Packers because of their history. With Arts passing and with former team historian Lee Remmel in poor health, theres nobody left with such a deep and rich knowledge of that history.

Beyond the football, Ill miss the stories of being chided by Lambeau about smoking in the morning, about how he ticked off Lombardi by putting a photo of Lambeau and Lombardi on the cover of the Yearbook, about how the Packers had too many damned coaches. Ill miss hearing Art loudly cursing a bad play something thats forbidden for the rest of us in the press box. Ill even miss typing in his column, which he painstakingly typed out every month in old-school fashion on his typewriter with a bunch of handwritten corrections.

But most of all, Ill just miss shaking Arts hand and saying, How ya doing, boss? before BSing for an hour on the couch in his office.