No. 15 in Green Bay has always belonged to Bart Starr.
That’s not just because he was the best Packers player to wear it. It’s because the number itself sits in rare company. No. 15 is one of only six jerseys retired by the Packers, joining No. 3 for Tony Canadeo, No. 4 for Brett Favre, No. 14 for Don Hutson, No. 66 for Ray Nitschke and No. 92 for Reggie White.
So while a long list of Packers have worn 15 over the years, the conversation ends where it should: with Starr. The rest of the names include Dick Afflis, Myrt Basing, Charlie Brackins, Cub Buck, Red Dunn, Rex Enright, Ray Frankowski, Bobby Garrett, Paul Held, Hal Hinte, Swede Johnston, Verne Lewellen, Del Lyman, Paul Minick, Babe Parilli, Chuck Sample, Deck Shelley, Red Smith, Damon Tassos and Paul Young.
Four Packers Hall of Famers are on that list too, with Cub Buck, Red Dunn, Swede Johnston and Verne Lewellen all wearing the number in the 1920s and 1930s. Still, the jersey is forever tied to Starr.
His path to Green Bay was hardly straightforward. Starr had a solid sophomore season at Alabama, but a back injury slowed him as a junior and kept him on the field sparingly as a senior, with head coach Jennings B.
Whitworth leaning on younger players. Even so, Alabama basketball coach Johnny Dee, who was close with Green Bay personnel director Jack Vainisi, recommended him to the Packers, and Green Bay grabbed Starr in the 17th round of the 1956 NFL Draft with the 200th overall pick.
He didn’t walk into the starting job. Starr opened his career behind Tobin Rote, then split time with Babe Parilli and Lamar McHan before Vince Lombardi finally made him the full-time QB1 during the 1960 season. That year, Green Bay reached the NFL Championship Game for the first time since 1944, falling to the Philadelphia Eagles, but the foundation was there.
The real run came next. Starr made the Pro Bowl in each of the next two seasons and helped the Packers win 24 of 28 regular-season games, then beat the New York Giants twice in a row for the NFL title.
After Green Bay missed the championship game in 1963 and 1964, Starr was back in the Pro Bowl in 1965 and guided the Packers to another championship. Then came 1966, the season that put him at the center of a changing league.
Starr earned Pro Bowl and First-Team All-Pro honors, won NFL MVP, and led the league by completing 62.2 percent of his passes for 2,257 yards, 14 touchdowns and just three interceptions. He also ran for 104 yards and two scores.
That was the first year the NFL met the AFL’s champion in what became the Super Bowl, and Starr delivered on the biggest stage. In the NFL Championship Game against the Dallas Cowboys, he threw for 304 yards and four touchdowns in a 34-27 win to send Green Bay to the first title game. Then he passed for 250 yards and two touchdowns in a 35-10 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs and earned MVP honors in the AFL-NFL World Championship Game.
He wasn’t done. Starr added another Pro Bowl selection the next season, led the Packers past the Cowboys again in the Ice Bowl, and then took MVP honors once more in Green Bay’s 33-14 win over the then-Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl 2, Lombardi’s final game as the team’s head coach.
Starr retired after the 1971 season with 24,718 passing yards and 152 touchdowns, both franchise records at the time and still third on the Packers’ all-time list. The Packers retired No. 15 in 1973, and Starr was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977.
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