The Green Bay Packers were riding high. They had won four straight games, shattered the Baltimore Colts (45-7) and Cleveland Browns (49-17), needed only to beat the San Francisco Forty-Niners' flashy "shotgun" offense to gain sole possession of first place in the National Football League's Western Division. Then the blow fell: Private Paul Vernon Hornung was ordered to active duty in the U.S. Army Reserve, effective 30 October.
Packer Coach Vince Lombardi tried to take the news stoically: "Well, no one person is bigger than the team." But Lombardi knew that the loss of Halfback Hornung might well turn the Packers into...
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