{image1}For a young man coming of age in the 1950s, Paul Hornung led a dream life. A Heisman Trophy winner at Notre Dame in 1956; the bonus pick (No. 1 overall) of the Green Bay Packers; a Hall of Fame career playing for one of the NFL's greatest dynasties; and booze, women and famous friends accompanying him every step of the way.
"Golden Boy: Girls, Games and Gambling at Green Bay (and Notre Dame, Too)" is an entertaining, anecdotal look at that dream life. After beginning the project with the late Dick Schaap, Hornung wrote "Golden Boy" with the help of former Sports Illustrated staffer and Louisville Courier-Journal sports editor William F. Reed. Simon & Schuster published the autobiography earlier this month.
Fans seeking details about the football tactics of those great Packers teams had best look elsewhere. This book is more yarn than dissertation, with Hornung spinning tales of late-night curfew violations, endless parties with power-drinking teammates, and beautiful women at nearly every NFL port of call.
In fact, it's hard to believe Hornung ever had time or energy to excel on the football field. How did he do it?
"When you're young, you can handle it," Hornung said by phone from Louisville last week. Apparently so -- Hornung, a left halfback whom Vince Lombardi called "the best clutch player I've ever seen," still holds the NFL's single-season scoring record (176 points, 1960).
After covering Hornung's three-year Notre Dame career, "Golden Boy" quickly shifts to Green Bay. Hornung admits he was hoping the Chicago Cardinals would win the 1956 bonus pick because the windy city was "a great Notre Dame town." In fact, Hornung says, when Green Bay won the coin toss and selected him, "It was kind of a letdown." In the book, he calls 1950s Green Bay "the Siberia of sports." The Packers hadn't had a winning record since 1947.
In his first two seasons, the Packers finished with records of 3-9 under Lisle Blackbourn and 1-10-1 under Ray "Scooter" McLean. Hornung says he was ready to call it a career, head back to his native Louisville and go into real estate. Then came Vince Lombardi.
As with any book about Titletown, tales of Lombardi dominate the pages of "Golden Boy." Hornung says he immediately sensed things were different under the future legend. "He drove it in our head we weren't going to lose. We were going to be winners."
The Packers went 7-5 in Lombardi's first season (1959), which Hornung says may have been Lombardi's best coaching job. In 1960, the Packers lost the NFL title game to Philadelphia, 17-13. In 1961, they beat the Giants 37-0 for their first title since 1944. There would be four more NFL titles (including two Super Bowls) under Lombardi.
Hornung and Lombardi had a tumultuous but loving relationship. While Lombardi considered his left halfback to be one of the NFL's best and toughest players, he was continually frustrated by the Golden Boy's off-the-field activities. Hornung talks often in the book about his primary partner-in-crime, wide receiver and Super Bowl I hero Max McGee.
The duo continually tried the master disciplinarian's patience. "He would say 'You all go ahead and test me, it's going to cost you money,'" Hornung says of Lombardi, who tossed fines around like Bart Starr did spirals. The fine money Lombardi collected each year was always used for a post-season party among players and coaches. Hornung says the events were known as the "McGee and Hornung" parties.
Hornung had other problems with authority figures. NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle suspended him for the entire 1963 season for gambling. Hornung openly admits to betting on NFL games and writes that gambling in the league was fairly rampant. But the NFL felt it was better to suspend one of its biggest stars rather than risk him appearing before a Senate subcommittee hearing.
While Hornung returned to play a key role in each of the next two championship seasons, his best days on the gridiron were behind him. When asked if the suspension shortened his career, Hornung replies, "It really did." He believes he was too thin when he returned in 1964, which led to injuries wearing him down over his final three seasons. By 1966, Elijah Pitts would earn more carries than the Green Bay legend.
Hornung was injured and didn't play in Super Bowl I. Before the next season, he was selected in the expansion draft by New Orleans. But he retired with arm and vertebrae problems before ever playing a down for the Saints.
The Packers won a second Super Bowl without Hornung, but it wasn't long before Lombardi left, too, paving the way for the Packers' descent into NFL oblivion for the better part of two decades. That all changed with the arrival of Brett Favre. "Favre is the catalyst that's moved the Packers into the new era," Hornung says.
Perhaps it's merely ironic that Favre, too, served time as a carousing NFL superstar. While Hornung believes today's athletes may be in better shape ("Our locker room looked like a damn stove pipe," he told me, referring to the number of smokers on the team), good times are not a thing of the past. "Most athletes like to get out on the streets," he says.
In fact, Hornung believes one key difference between today's athlete and his generation's is the prevalence of attorneys. "We didn't know anything about attorneys back then," he laughs, suggesting that perhaps they should have.
Hornung has clearly enjoyed his success. Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Kim Novak and even President Kennedy make appearances in the pages of "Golden Boy." While he may be guilty of name-dropping at times, Hornung doesn't seem to take himself too seriously, either.
Today, Hornung works in real estate in Louisville and is also involved in several other business ventures. During our conversation, he suggested that he might even write another book someday. But it's hard to believe he left much out of this one.
Hornung will be in Milwaukee promoting "Golden Boy" on Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 13 and 14. He'll appear at a cocktail reception and book signing at the Milwaukee Athletic Club, 758 N. Broadway, Wednesday starting at 5:30 p.m., with dinner and discussion following between 7-9 p.m. Contact Anne Rice (414-273-4114) for more information. Thursday, Hornung will appear at Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop in Shorewood, 4093 N. Oakland Ave., at 7 p.m. to sign additional copies of his book. Contact Amber Boardman at (414-963-3111) for details.
Sports shots columnist Tim Gutowski was born in a hospital in West Allis and his sporting heart never really left. He grew up in a tiny town 30 miles west of the city named Genesee and was in attendance at County Stadium the day the Brewers clinched the 1981 second-half AL East crown. I bet you can't say that.
Though Tim moved away from Wisconsin (to Iowa and eventually the suburbs of Chicago) as a 10-year-old, he eventually found his way back to Milwaukee. He remembers fondly the pre-Web days of listenting to static-filled Brewers games on AM 620 and crying after repeated Bears' victories over the Packers.
