They toiled in Upper Peninsula mines and mills. But on weekends, the muscles forged by the sweat of their labor would be on display against some of the NFL's finest football teams. This rich deposit of U.P. football history is being unearthed in a new television documentary titled Linked to Legends: The U.P. Teams that Played the Packers. The film by Northern Michigan University Professor Dwight Brady will debut later this month on WNMU-TV.
Brady is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who has produced numerous documentaries on topics ranging from grey wolves to green energy. This is his first historically driven project.
“When I was a kid growing up near Manistique, the local Ford dealership would give out Packer preseason booklets,” Brady said. “In addition to player profiles, the booklets had the scores of every game from each season. As I studied these old records, I noticed the Packers had played teams from the U.P. It was a fascinating discovery for an 8-year-old Yooper, and as we reach the centennial mark for these games, it seems like the right time to highlight this history.”
The documentary's focus will be on U.P. athletes who played for and against the early Packers, along with other U.P. players who made their mark in the first decade of the NFL.
“The historical link of the U.P. town teams with the Packers is really quite remarkable,” said Brady. “The Packers' very first game in 1919 was against a team from the U.P. Their first road game was that same year against the Ishpeming/Negaunee All-Stars, and the Packers' first Thanksgiving Day game was against a team from Iron County in 1920. The Ironwood and Bessemer teams from that era also played the Packers and other NFL teams in the 1920s.”
Brady's interest in football took root on Dec. 31, 1967, when he watched the Packers defeat the Dallas Cowboys in the Ice Bowl.
“I was 7 years old, sitting on the edge of the couch screaming at our little black and white TV for Donny Anderson to get out of bounds to stop the clock as the Packers made their final drive,” he said. “Moments later, Bart Starr snuck over the goal line for the win, and I was hooked on Packer football for life.”
While he never achieved his childhood dream of playing for the Packers, Brady would go on to earn All-U.P. honors as a running back and lead the Mid-Pen Conference in rushing his senior year at Manistique High School.
“This project has been a great opportunity to combine my interest in football and documentary filmmaking along with my love for the Upper Peninsula,” said Brady, who received a Grace H. Magnaghi U.P. Research Grant through the NMU Foundation to support the project.
The documentary includes interviews with descendants of the early Packers and of players from the U.P. “town teams.” It also features NMU alumnus and former NFL coach Steve Mariucci, who is now an NFL Network analyst, as well as Packers' team historian Cliff Christl and Tony Nagurski, the son of NFL legend Bronko Nagurski.
Linked to Legends debuts at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 28, on WNMU-TV. It will air again at 9 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 3, and 2:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 7. Watch the film's trailer here.
Dwight Brady contributed the content. He can be reached for interviews at dbrady@nmu.edu.
