Cowboys Downplay Ice Bowl Legend
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GREEN BAY, Wis. — Much is going to be made of the fabled Ice Bowl throughout the week in advance of the NFC divisional playoff game at Lambeau Field on Sunday between the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys.
After all, the NFL championship played Dec. 31, 1967, in subzero temperatures was the last time the Cowboys met the Packers in Green Bay in the postseason.
That game, nicknamed The Ice Bowl, was frozen in time and thawed out almost annually with use of the odd phrase “frozen tundra.”
The latter was penned by NFL Films production genius Steve Sabol, who died in 2012. It is often referenced, especially by ESPN’s entertaining Chris “Boomer” Berman, who repeats the two words in a deep voice intended to mimic that of dulcet baritone voice-over artist John Facenda, aka “The Voice of God.”
Facenda is well known for giving voice to Sabol’s best poetry in 1974, “The Autumn Wind,” which likened the Oakland Raiders to pirates. No stretch, that, back in the day.
The historical twist to the “frozen tundra” story is that those words said by Facenda weren’t in the Packers’ highlight film of the season, but rather that of the Cowboys.
When Sabol wrote the phrase for Green Bay’s film, legendary Packers coach Vince Lombardi wanted no part of it. Lombardi was upset that an underground heating system he purchased for the
field didn’t work that day.
A teacher by trade, Lombardi also disliked the phrase because it was redundant. Tundra, he would remind, is, by definition, frozen.
When Sabol told Cowboys general manager Tex Schramm the story, Schramm said he was perfectly fine with the phrase being used in Dallas’ film. Thus, the words endure to this day.
Still, few people with either organization today will have any recollections about that iconic game won by the Packers 21-17 on a 1-yard touchdown sneak by quarterback Bart Starr with 13 seconds left.
“Oh, I think we have guys (on the team) who are football fans and know some history,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said Monday. “But, having said that, we’ve got a lot of guys who were born in 1991 and 1992, so that seems like ancient history to them. The ’90s seem like history to them.”
Garrett, born in the Philadelphia suburb of Abington, was only 21 months old when the famous game was contested at Lambeau.
Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy, born and raised on the opposite side of Pennsylvania, also has no memories of the Ice Bowl.
“Well, I’m sure I was in (my native) Pittsburgh, 4 years old, but I can’t tell you exactly what I was doing,” McCarthy said Monday.
What Garrett does know is his third-seeded Cowboys team will have to contend with arctic conditions at Lambeau this weekend against the second-seeded Packers.
The long-range forecast for Sunday is a high of 16 degrees with a wind chill that could hover around 0.
“It’s probably going to be cold there. We have a pretty good feeling about that,” Garrett said with a laugh. “Whatever the numbers say, we’re going to have to deal with those elements. That’s what happens when you go up to Green Bay this time of year. We’ll try our best to be informed of it and just prepare the right way.
