Arnie Herber: A final honor

Continued from last week

Following his induction into the Professional Football Hall of Fame, Arnie Herber continued to work for the Pepsi Bottling Company in De Pere.

After being diagnosed with stomach cancer, Herber underwent a major abdominal surgery in March of 1969.

Three months later, Herber’s wife was struck by a car while crossing Walnut Street in Green Bay.

She suffered injuries to her leg, back and head.

While she recovered, her husband began losing his battle with cancer.

Ailing and thinning, Herber received a visit at their home from then Packers Co-Captains Willie Davis and Forrest Gregg that September.
The pair gifted him with a game ball.

“We though, it being the 50th year of the Packers, and the occasion itself, as well as because of what you have meant to football,” Davis stated, according to local sportswriter Lee Remmel, “that there was nothing we would rather do than present you with the game ball.”
The football had the signatures of the 40 current players and the date of Sept. 21. 1969, along with “Pack 17 Bears 0.”

Herber responded with, “This is about as big an honor as a man can get. I’m 59 years old, you know.”

Gregg responded with, “You’re so well respected and well thought of by all of football, particularly the Packers. We’re sure you deserve it. We’ve heard a great many stories about what you’ve done.”
Herber responded with, “All you heard was not true… It would take a jury to verify it.

“In my first two years with the Packers, I played without a headgear… It was pretty rough.

“In 1932, I made the all-pro team and Cal Hubbard gave me a pair of shoulder pads — they were only about a half-inch think — and a headgear.

“The rules were different then. You had to be at least five yards behind the line of scrimmage to pass and, if you threw a pass over the goal line, you lost the ball. So when you got down near the goal line it was rough. You were afraid to throw.”

As Davis and Gregg were preparing to leave, Herber expressed his enjoyment for their visit.

“You don’t know how happy this has made me,” Herber stated.” I hope you guys make as much money in two games as I made in my career.”

To be continued