Brookfield/Elm Grove Monthly

LONG From page 1A "My whole goal, quite frankly, because I didn't think I was gonna make it with one year of football experience — and neither did my friends think I was gonna make it with the Pack- ers because they had all that Hall of Fame talent; I said you are probably right — and with that in mind, my goal was I was gonna be able to tell my grandkids some- day 'Your grandpa was cut by the great Vince Lombar- di.'" But Long stuck around, and his teams won three titles from 1965-67, then he was traded to Atlanta by coach Phil Bengston. He suf- fered a back injury in a car crash 10 weeks into that sea- son, and figured his career was over when Lombardi, then in Washington, called the next season. "First Coach Lombardi asked me to come out there in '69 after my car wreck in Atlanta and I was gonna retire and he talked me into playing. He said, 'We need a flanker in Washington.' I said, you have one, Bobby Mitchell. He said 'No, Mitchell is retiring." ... I said, 'I am not as fast as I used to be.' He said, 'I got all the speed I need in Charlie Taylor,' he was a flanker on other side. He was a Hall of Famer too. "He said to me, 'You still have basketball hands?' I said yeah. He said, 'You don't make mental mistakes, do ya?' He hated mental mis- takes, when guys dropped passes and ran wrong pat- terns. I said, 'No, coach.' He said. 'That's all I need. Come on up to Washington." Long had a career year in 1969 with the Redskins, catching 48 passes for 533 yards in 14 games, then was ready to hang it up again. But former teammate Boyd Dowler called — Dowler was then an assistant coach under George Allen with the Rams before Allen's own move to Washington — but Long lasted three games there before calling it a career. "I said to myself. 'You've been to the mountaintop. You've won a Super Bowl, actually two in Green Bay, and it can't get much better than that.' They tried to get me to play longer but I didn't want to. It was not much money and I was starting my business up here and didn't want to get hurt again," he said. A different side of Lombar- di Long said the Lombardi he knew in Washington wasn't the same fire-breathing coach he'd played for in Green Bay. "A couple of differences stand out in my mind. No. 1, he put up with Jerry Smith, our tight end — great tight end — he had long hair for example and he'd never allowed long hair in Green Bay but he changed a bit and allowed a player to have long hair. "No. 2, I remember he laughed a lot more. I think he was so glad to get back into football as coach of the Redskins. He really laughed a lot more out there, joked around. He was a very seri- ous man in Green Bay as you know; he was hardly ever off the edge. It was teamwork, discipline, the whole deal. And with the Redskins he knew he didn't have the tal- ent he'd had in Green Bay and just loosened up a bit." It showed on the field, too, as the Redskins ended more than a decade of losing sea- sons with a 7-5-2 record in Lombardi's only campaign there, with the help of Long's career year. But there was something else Long noticed, too. Long recalled seeing the coach at practices, rubbing his stom- ach as if it ached, and call- ing to a trainer for Mylanta. Lombardi died less than a year later of colorectal can- cer, after dealing with diges- tive problems. "I will always believe he the had the symptoms of the tumor in his stomach in the fall of '69 and he was taking Mylanta for cancer," Long said. "He had this thing, you play with pain. You're not hurt. You're not cold out in the Ice Bowl. It was cold. It was a 43-below wind chill factor. But a lot of guys played with pain in Green Bay, but he went to the Red- skins, I think he was kind of coaching with pain. He had this pain in his stomach, but he coached right through it in the fall of '69 and to a cer- tain extent playing with pain kind of cost him his life." Reunion He hasn't been asked to participate in any on-field festivities for Super Bowl 50 next month, Long said. But earlier this season, he was in a reunion of players who were part of the Super Bowl I team, the same weekend the 2015 Packers faced their foe from the AFL-NFL Championship, the Kansas City Chiefs. Some 23 former players met with veterans at the Zablocki Medical Center in Milwaukee — Long him- self is a National Guard vet- eran — attended events with Packers sponsors and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and took part in a private dinner at a Green Bay hotel with the Packers before attending the game against the Chiefs. "We went over to watch a practice with the current team and we got to meet Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews and Mike McCarthy and all those won- derful people associated with the active team. It was awesome. I got to say hello to Mike McCarthy and tell him I was a Pittsburgh kid (like McCarthy). He kind of got a chuckle out of that," Long said. He added being honored along with his teammates at halftime on the field was "a great moment. Nice to be remembered 50 years after you played, right?" And that plays into why Long is one of the relative few Glory Years Packers who made Wisconsin their home state after their careers ended. "I do have a strong feeling for the Redskins, like Sonny Jurgensen was my quarter- back and he's a Hall of Famer and all my team- mates out there — it was a great experience. What coach Lombardi and the Redskins did for me is they got me back playing a little bit. I wasn't nearly the same player but I came back and played that year and caught 48 passes, which back in the '60s, that was a lot. ... "So I enjoyed myself with the Redskins. I was a single man then, and I'd be coming home from practice at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, and at the end of day I'd try to figure out what to do after practice, I'd stop in at the Smithsonian. It was a unique place to play. "But I will always be a Green Bay Packer in my mind. There's nothing like being a former Green Bay Packer, especially living in the state of Wisconsin," Long said. "I am proud to have lived here... My busi- ness is up here, but frankly I may not be a legend any- where else in the country, but in Wisconsin I will be a legend forever as part of that great team. "These people never for- get. Packers fans are the best fans ever. That's a big reason I've enjoyed living up here. It's been fun. It's been really quite a ride for me." Email: bhuber@conleynet.com Freeman Brookfield & Elm Grove • Page 3A FEBRUARY 2016 • DESIGNED CURRICULUM • EXPERIENCED TEACHERS • HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT • FLEXIBLE SCHEDULES • NUTRITIOUS MEALS • LEARNING ADVENTURES PROGRAMS TAKE A TOUR TODAY! Enroll in February and take $200.00 OFF your 4th Week! Melisa Maroo, Center Director 18205 W. Bluemound Rd., Brookfield (262) 792-1112 Nancy Coleman, Center Director 4080 N. Calhoun Rd., Brookfield (262) 783-4199 Photo courtesy Washington Redskins Bob Long of Brookfield is the only player to have played for coach Vince Lombardi in both Green Bay and Washington. Though he enjoyed his best personal season on the field in the nation's capital and has strong feelings for the team, Long said he identifies more as a Green Bay Packer, in large part because of the team's fans. Chipping through the chill By Chris Bennett Special to The Freeman BROOKFIELD — Your golf game does not need to turn cold when temperatures drop and grass once green freezes to ice now white. The mild fall and early winter in 2015 allowed area golfers more time on the links than in years past. Being cooped up inside for several months during the Wisconsin winter might be great for cocoa sales and movie rentals, but it can take a toll on one's golf game. There are simple exercises even the duffers in the crowd can try, and hopefully the effort expended in the win- ter leads to a better experi- ence on the golf course come spring. "Championships are won in the off-season," said PGA Professional David Roesch. "Working on your golf game should not just be for during the season. If you want to make some changes, some of them should be done in the off-season. It can be more beneficial to work on some changes in the off-season." Roesch splits his time between Storms Golf Range in Brookfield and Currie Park Golf Dome in Wauwatosa. He is currently teaching out of the club- house at Currie Park while the dome is down due to inclement weather earlier this winter. Roesch also teaches at The Legend at Bristlecone in Hartland, The Legend at Brandybrook in Wales and The Legend at Merrill Hills in Waukesha. Roesch is the 2014 Wiscon- sin PGA Player of the year and the 2013 Wisconsin PGA Teacher of the Year. He can be contacted for lessons through his website, www.davidroeschgolf.com. A swinging time "The simple thing is just swinging a golf club," Roesch said. "I know we all don't have high ceiling or a net in our basement, but just swinging a golf club gets the body moving and gets the golf muscles moving." Mick Smith is currently teaching out of the Wiscon- sin Indoor Golf Center, and can be reached for private lessons at www.micksmithp- ga.com. Both Smith and Roesch mentioned a simple tech- nique to help practice keep- ing the club straight and the head square as it moves through the ball. Take two sticks or dowels and place them on the floor parallel to each other. Place them as far apart as the width of a club head. Smith said to practice moving the club through the sticks. Start at waist level on the back swing and stop at waist level on your front swing. Pay attention to where the club face is point- ed. "If you swing straight, and the club face is aiming straight, you're going to get straight shots, in general," Smith said. "The direction of all shots gets determined by the club path from waist high to waist high and where the club is at impact." The winter is also an excellent time to work on your putting stroke. You can putt regulation golf balls or use plastic golf balls. There is also an assortment of nets and swing aids available for home use that can be set-up in the basement or garage. You can still take lessons in winter — the Milwaukee area is sprinkled with heat- ed golf facilities. "There is not a bad time for a lesson," Roesch said. "The tough part about win- ter is you're limited, as far as places you can go and prac- tice, but they might have a drill or a teaching idea that maybe can help you." Currie Park, Wisconsin Indoor Golf Center and Moorland Road Golf Center in New Berlin are among local spots for golf in the winter. Be advised — the Oconomowoc location of Wisconsin Indoor Golf Cen- ter closed last fall. The winter is also a good time to check the condition of all golf equipment and either repair or replace any- thing that might not last through the upcoming sea- son. Charles Auer/Freeman Staff General Manager Quin McCallum swings on one of the simulators at Wisconsin Indoor Golf Cen- ter. Golfers can keep their game sharp and even take lessons on indoor simulators over the winter.

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