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Former Packers PR Director dead at 82

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GREEN BAY -- Green Bay Packers Former Director of Public Relations Chuck Lane died Jan. 19 at 82.

Lane worked under Packers Former Head Coach Vince Lombardi.

“Lane also was heavily involved in the organization of the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame Association. In fact, he was one of seven men in attendance at the association's first meeting in February 1970,” Packers Historian Cliff Christl wrote.

“Lane was a member of the hall's original board and selection committee. At the time of his death, he was a director emeritus of what is now Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame, Inc.

“A native of Minneapolis, Lane was a 1963 graduate of Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Va., where he earned seven letters as a quarterback in football and shortstop on the baseball team. Upon graduation, he was hired by Max Winter to promote the Harlem Globetrotters in a five-state area in the Midwest. Along with overseeing promotions for Globetrotters owner Abe Saperstein, Winter also was one of the founding owners of the Minnesota Vikings.

“In early 1966, Lane was hired by Lombardi at age 23 to be the Packers' publicity director. Thus, Lane was in charge of public relations for the Packers when they won Super Bowls I and II, and for Lombardi's final season in Green Bay when he served strictly as general manager.”

"I came (to Green Bay) in March, 1966, and had three, four months working with (Lombardi before camp started)," Lane told Christl in a 2009 interview. "So I knew him and I would honestly say feared him. He inspired a great deal of respect but also there was that fear factor that kept you on your toes. Anybody who said they weren't afraid of him I think was lying. We all were."

"[Lombardi] was more of a fatherly figure (to me)," said Lane, who lost his own father when he was 5 years old. "I thought (Lombardi) was the most inspirational guy I ever met in my life. I grew up without a father and suddenly I had this male influence in my life who I had so much respect for. It was just a wonderful three-year relationship that I had with him."

“Lane continued working for the Packers in that position until March 1974, when he resigned before Dan Devine's final season as coach and went to work for Bart Starr, helping to promote his candidacy as the next Packers coach while it was becoming more and more inevitable that Devine would be fired at the end of the season,” Christl said.

“Starr rehired Lane as public relations director immediately after he was hired in December 1974 but then fired him in early January 1980. Lane remained a resident of the Green Bay area and was active in the community until his health deteriorated in recent years.”

Read more from Christl at https://www.packers.com/news/chuck-lane-vince-lombardi-former-pr-man-obit

Green Bay Packers, Former Director of Public Relations, Chuck Lane, Lombardi, Christl, Leonhardt, Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame, Inc., obituary

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