Bob Harlan: The road to Titletown

Continued from previous week

Bob Harlan worked for the Cardinals baseball team as public relations director 1968-70.

He was just about to go to his boss and ask to be reassigned to another department when fate stepped in.

“I got a call from the Packers. Dan Devine had just been named head coach and general manager. He was looking for someone to come in and help with paperwork and so forth. And he went through work through Bob Broeg, who was the sports editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at the time, and Bob lined me up with an interview with Dan, and Dan hired me right away,” Harlan recalled.

Harlan was just 34 years old when he learned the Packers were looking for someone.

And minus the obvious weather differences, Bob and his wife, Madeline, were able to come up with a long list of reasons why they should move to Green Bay.
He had also become a fan while attending Marquette University, developing a fondness for the community-owned team.

“I became a huge, huge NFL fan, I’d say about 1958, about the time I was getting out of college,” Harlan said.

“When I was growing up, it was all baseball; the NFL didn’t mean much. During the 50s it got bigger and bigger and bigger. So, to come to Green Bay meant a great deal to me.”

But, the move wasn’t without its challenges, as the Vince Lombardi era continued to cast a shadow over a struggling time for the team.

“I was very nervous. I found out later that Devine was not a very popular choice in Green Bay, and people didn’t care for me because I was a young guy coming in to be with him, and they thought, ‘What’s a baseball guy know about football?’ he recalled.

“You know, the first person that ever interviewed me was Lee Remmel. He called me when I was still down in St Louis, and the first thing he said was,

‘What does a baseball guy know about football?’

“I said, ‘Lee, we are going to have to find out. When I get there, we’ll find out.”

Bob’s first day with the Green Bay Packers was June 1, 1971.

He thought that he would be in Green Bay five or six years; he stayed 37.

To be continued