Zero2Cool
5 years ago
Sad news.

The Green Bay Packers say Zeke Bratkowski, the quarterback who backed up Bart Starr during the team's 1960s dynasty, has died at his Florida home. He was 88.

Continue Reading @ ESPN 

ESPN wrote:


UserPostedImage
wpr
  • wpr
  • Preferred Member
5 years ago
Zeke certainly had a long and productive life but it's still very sad.
UserPostedImage
Cheesey
5 years ago
I met him at an autograph signing back in June, 2009, 4 months after my open heart surgery.
There were only a few people there, and Zeke didn’t seem too excited to be there. I started telling him how much I appreciated how he backed up Bart Starr, and how I knew that when he came into a game that the team wouldn’t miss a beat under his leadership.
With that, he kind of lit up, and we started really talking. I told him about my heart surgery and how just a couple weeks after it that I went to the Packer Fan Fest. He then told me about his open heart surgery, and we ended talking like old friends.
It was a really fun experience.
Us old guys are losing our childhood heroes.
UserPostedImage
KRK
  • KRK
  • Veteran Member
5 years ago
New York Times had a very nice Obit:
Zeke Bratkowski, Packer Quarterback but Not a Starr, Dies at 88

He had all the tools to lead a team and often excelled on the field, but he was fated to serve as the understudy to the future Hall of Famer Bart Starr.

By Richard Goldstein Nov. 12, 2019

Zeke Bratkowski was an outstanding passer with a keen football mind; he played at quarterback for 14 seasons in the N.F.L.; and he later engineered passing attacks as an offensive coach for six pro teams, including the Jets.

He spent seven seasons with the Green Bay Packers, mostly under Coach Vince Lombardi in the 1960s, when Lombardi transformed a long-moribund franchise into pro football’s dominant team.

But for all his talents, Bratkowski faced a formidable obstacle: He was the backup to the Packers’ future Hall of Famer Bart Starr, stepping in when Starr was injured or being rested, on teams that won three consecutive National Football League championships.

Bratkowski died on Monday at 88 at his home in Santa Rosa Beach, in Florida’s Panhandle. His wife, Mary Elizabeth Bratkowski, said the cause was a heart attack.

His death came six months after Starr died at 85.

Bratkowski had made the most of his opportunities.

His signature moment came when the Packers faced the Baltimore Colts in a playoff for the 1965 Western Conference title. Starr incurred chest and rib injuries on the Packers’ first offensive play while trying to stop a Colts defensive player from returning a fumbled reception for a touchdown. Bratkowski came in, completed 22 passes for 248 yards and steered Green Bay to a 13-10 overtime victory. The Packers went on to defeat the Cleveland Browns in the N.F.L. championship game.

Earlier that season, Bratkowski twice entered games in the third quarter with the score tied. He led the Packers to victories both times.

He replaced Starr several times during the 1966 season, and in the last game, when he was the starting quarterback for the first time that season, he took the Packers to a 27-23 triumph over the Los Angeles Rams. Green Bay went on to defeat the Dallas Cowboys for the N.F.L. championship.

In 1967, Bratkowski led the Packers to a victory over the Atlanta Falcons after Starr sustained a bruised shoulder, and he started two games that season. He played briefly in Super Bowl I, when the Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, and in Super Bowl II, when they beat the Oakland Raiders.

Bratkowski with the quarterback Tim Tebow in 2010 during a Pro Day for N.F.L. scouts at the University of Florida, where Tebow had won the Heisman Trophy. Bratkowski was an offensive coach for several N.F.L. teams in his later years.Credit...Phil Sandlin/Associated Press

Edmund Raymond Bratkowski was born on Oct. 20, 1931, in Westville, Ill., to Kasmer and Elizabeth (Kraninock) Bratkowski, and grew up in nearby Danville, not far from the Indiana border. His father worked in a zinc factory, and his mother pressed clothing for a jacket company.

His father, who played semipro baseball, recruited his son to he his team’s batboy and bought him a baseball uniform bearing the name and image of Zeke Bonura, a slugging first baseman for the Chicago White Sox, resulting in his son’s nickname. (Baseball’s Zeke, actually named Henry John Bonura, evidently got his nickname in high school, when he was known as “Physique” for his impressive build.)

Bratkowski starred in the offensive backfield on Schlarman High School’s football team in Danville before gaining a football scholarship to the University of Georgia, where he was transformed into a quarterback by the Bulldogs’ coach, Wally Butts.

“Coach Butts worked with me before practice, during practice and after practice,” Bratkowski told the magazine Georgia Trend in 2008. “He had me throwing the football when it was dark. He stayed on my back every day, telling me how to grip the ball, pinpoint receivers, dodge oncoming defensive linemen.”

Playing at Georgia from 1951 to 1953, Bratkowski threw for 24 touchdowns and 4,863 yards and was also an excellent punter.

The Chicago Bears selected him in the second round of the 1953 N.F.L. draft as a “future” pick. When they signed him to a three-year contract in September 1954, George Halas, the Bears’ owner and coach, called him “the best quarterback in college ball in years.”

After his rookie season, Bratkowski served in the Air Force and then played with the Bears from 1957 to 1960. He was traded to the Rams in 1961 before being obtained by the Packers in October 1963.
Marc Stein's Newsletter

Marc Stein has covered Jordan. He's covered Kobe. And LeBron vs. the Warriors. Go behind the N.B.A.'s curtain with basketball's foremost expert.

Bratkowski played for Green Bay through the 1968 season, became an assistant coach with the team, then returned as Starr’s backup in 1971. He was later an assistant under Starr when he became the Packers’ head coach in 1975. In addition to the Packers and Jets, he was an assistant with the Bears, the Baltimore and Indianapolis Colts, the Browns and the Philadelphia Eagles

In his pro career he threw for 65 touchdowns and 10,345 yards and ran for five touchdowns.

In addition to his wife, who was born Mary Elizabeth Harman, he is survived by a son, Bob, who had been a longtime offensive coordinator in the N.F.L., mostly with the Seattle Seahawks and the Cincinnati Bengals; a daughter, Kathryn Bratkowski; a sister, Patricia Stitt; three grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. Another son, Stephen, died before him.

Bratkowski was among several Packers from the Lombardi era, including Starr, to die in just over a year. The others included the lineman Forrest Gregg and the fullback Jim Taylor, who are both, like Starr, in the Hall of Fame.

Starr and Bratkowski studied game films together, conferred on the sidelines and became friends.

“Bart and I could play off each other,” Bratkowski told George Bozeka, the editor of “The 1966 Green Bay Packers” (2016). “It was like one single mind.”
In Luce tua Videmus Lucem KRK
Fan Shout
Martha Careful (22h) : I have always admired the pluck of the man
Zero2Cool (1-Feb) : I remember thinking he was going to be something good.
Mucky Tundra (1-Feb) : The Dualing Banjo!
Zero2Cool (31-Jan) : Jets have named Chris Banjo as their special teams coordinator, Former Packers player
Zero2Cool (31-Jan) : Jaguars have hired Anthony Campanile as their DC. We lose coach
Zero2Cool (30-Jan) : QB coach Sean Mannion
Zero2Cool (30-Jan) : DL Coach DeMarcus Covington
dfosterf (30-Jan) : from ft Belvoir, Quantico and points south. Somber reminder of this tragedy at Reagan Nat Airport
dfosterf (30-Jan) : So eerily quiet here in Alexandria. I live in the flight path of commercial craft coming from the south and west, plus the military craft
dfosterf (30-Jan) : So eeri
Mucky Tundra (30-Jan) : Now that's a thought, maybe they're looking at the college ranks? Maybe not head coaches but DC/assistant DCs with league experience?
beast (30-Jan) : College Coaches wouldn't want that publicly, as it would hurt recruiting and they might not get the job.
beast (30-Jan) : I thought they were supposed to publicly announce them, at least the NFL ones. Hafley was from college, so I believe different rules.
Mucky Tundra (30-Jan) : Who knows who they're interviewing? I mean, nobody knew about Hafley and then out of nowhere he was hired
beast (30-Jan) : I wonder what's taking so long with hiring a DL coach, 2 of the 3 known to interview have already been hired elsewhere.
Zero2Cool (27-Jan) : Packers coach Matt LaFleur hires Luke Getsy as senior assistant, extends Rich Bisaccia's deal
Zero2Cool (27-Jan) : Chiefs again huh? I guess another Super Bowl I'll be finding something else to do.
Mucky Tundra (27-Jan) : Chiefs Eagles...again...sigh
dfosterf (27-Jan) : Happy Birthday Dave!
Mucky Tundra (27-Jan) : happy birthday dhazer
TheKanataThrilla (26-Jan) : Exactly buck...Washington came up with the ball. It is just a shitty coincidence one week later
buckeyepackfan (26-Jan) : I forgot, they corrected the call a week later. Lol btw HAPPY BIRTHDAY dhazer!
buckeyepackfan (26-Jan) : That brings up the question, why wasn't Nixon down by contact? I think that was the point Kanata was making.
buckeyepackfan (26-Jan) : Turnovers rule, win the turnover battle, win the game.
packerfanoutwest (26-Jan) : well, he was
TheKanataThrilla (26-Jan) : Eagles down by contact on the fumble....fuck you NFL
Mucky Tundra (26-Jan) : I think this games over
beast (26-Jan) : Eagles sure get a lot of fumbles on kickoffs
Mucky Tundra (26-Jan) : This game looks too big for Washington
packerfanoutwest (26-Jan) : that being said, The Ravens are the Browns
packerfanoutwest (26-Jan) : Browns, Dolphins have longest AFC Championship droughts
packerfanoutwest (26-Jan) : As of today, Cowboys have longest NFC Championship drought,
beast (26-Jan) : Someone pointed out, with Raiders hiring Carroll, the division games between Carroll and Jim Harbaugh are back on (who can whine more games)
beast (26-Jan) : I'm confused, Pete Carroll and Brian Schottenheimer? When Todd Monken, Joe Brady, Kellen Moore, Kliff Kingsbury and Zac Robinson are availab
Zero2Cool (25-Jan) : Any reason I'm catching a shot here about my intelligence?
Martha Careful (25-Jan) : thank you Mucky for sticking up for me
Martha Careful (25-Jan) : some of those people are smarter than you zero. However Pete Carroll is not
Mucky Tundra (24-Jan) : Rude!
beast (24-Jan) : Martha? 😋
Zero2Cool (24-Jan) : Raiders hired someone from the elderly home.
dfosterf (24-Jan) : I'm going with a combination of the two.
beast (24-Jan) : Either the Cowboys have no idea what they're doing, or they're targeting their former OC, currently the Eagles OC
Zero2Cool (23-Jan) : Fake news. Cowboys say no
Zero2Cool (23-Jan) : Mystery candidate in the Cowboys head coaching search believed to be Packers ST Coordinator Rich Bisaccia.
beast (23-Jan) : Also why do both NYC teams have absolutely horrible OL for over a decade?
beast (23-Jan) : I wonder why the Jets always hire defensive coaches to be head coach
Zero2Cool (22-Jan) : Still HC positions available out there. I wonder if Hafley pops up for one
Zero2Cool (22-Jan) : Trent Baalke is out as the Jaguars GM.
dfosterf (22-Jan) : Jeff Hafley would have been a better choice, fortunately they don't know that. Someone will figure that out next off season
Zero2Cool (22-Jan) : Aaron Glenn Planning To Take Jets HC Job
Please sign in to use Fan Shout
2024 Packers Schedule
Friday, Sep 6 @ 7:15 PM
Eagles
Sunday, Sep 15 @ 12:00 PM
COLTS
Sunday, Sep 22 @ 12:00 PM
Titans
Sunday, Sep 29 @ 12:00 PM
VIKINGS
Sunday, Oct 6 @ 3:25 PM
Rams
Sunday, Oct 13 @ 12:00 PM
CARDINALS
Sunday, Oct 20 @ 12:00 PM
TEXANS
Sunday, Oct 27 @ 12:00 PM
Jaguars
Sunday, Nov 3 @ 3:25 PM
LIONS
Sunday, Nov 17 @ 12:00 PM
Bears
Sunday, Nov 24 @ 3:25 PM
49ERS
Thursday, Nov 28 @ 7:20 PM
DOLPHINS
Thursday, Dec 5 @ 7:15 PM
Lions
Sunday, Dec 15 @ 7:20 PM
Seahawks
Monday, Dec 23 @ 7:15 PM
SAINTS
Sunday, Dec 29 @ 3:25 PM
Vikings
Sunday, Jan 5 @ 12:00 PM
BEARS
Sunday, Jan 12 @ 3:30 PM
Eagles
Recent Topics
5h / Green Bay Packers Talk / Zero2Cool

1-Feb / Green Bay Packers Talk / Martha Careful

1-Feb / Green Bay Packers Talk / wpr

1-Feb / Green Bay Packers Talk / wpr

29-Jan / Green Bay Packers Talk / Mucky Tundra

27-Jan / Green Bay Packers Talk / packerfanoutwest

27-Jan / Green Bay Packers Talk / beast

25-Jan / Green Bay Packers Talk / beast

25-Jan / Green Bay Packers Talk / Martha Careful

25-Jan / Random Babble / Martha Careful

20-Jan / Green Bay Packers Talk / Martha Careful

20-Jan / Green Bay Packers Talk / bboystyle

20-Jan / Green Bay Packers Talk / Zero2Cool

20-Jan / Green Bay Packers Talk / beast

19-Jan / Random Babble / Martha Careful

Headlines
Copyright © 2006 - 2025 PackersHome.com™. All Rights Reserved.