Packers Legend Nitschke Dies

March 8, 1998 / 12:00 AM EST / CBS/AP

Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, whose fierce play epitomized the champion Green Bay Packers of the Vince Lombardi era, died Sunday. He was 61.

He died at his winter home in Florida of an apparent heart attack, team spokesman Lee Remmel said.

Nitschke played for the Packers from 1958 to 1972 and was the defensive anchor on the Lombardi teams that won five NFL titles, including the first two Super Bowls. He was a member of the NFL's 75th anniversary all-time team.

Elected to the NFL Hall of Fame in 1978, Nitschke was drafted in the third round out of Illinois, where he was a fullback. At 6-foot-3 and 235 pounds, Nitschke was abnormally large for a linebacker at the time.

Nitschke and Dick Butkus were the standard for the punishing middle linebacker of the '60s and '70s.

"He was one of the great players, not only in Packer history, but in NFL history," Remmel said.

In a recent poll, he was voted the fourth best player in the team's history, behind receiver Don Hutson, current quarterback Brett Favre, and Bart Starr, the quarterback on Lombardi's teams.

Nitschke, who made his home in Green Bay after his retirement, was often at Packers practices and traveled to road games. He would chat with whomever approached him -- a man whose private demeanor was in stark contrast to his fierce on-field persona.

"He was loved by thousands and thousands of Packers fans, because he always had time for them," said Remmel, who covered the Lombardi teams as a reporter and has been with the team since 1974.

"I remember sitting in the hotel lobbies when we were on the road and he obligingly posed for many photos and signed hundreds of autographs."

That persona had its effect on the current Packers, Super Bowl champions for the 1996 season and NFC champions in 1997.

"What people don't understand outside Green Bay is that here we have to exorcise those ghosts -- Willie Wood, Willie Davis, Bart Starr, Ray Nitschke," defensive end Sean Jones said as the Packers were making the run to the Super Bowl in 1996.

"I think Ray Nitschke thinks we stink."

Not so, Nitschke said, but the image lingered -- tough, unyielding, proud.

On the field, Nitschke was a destroyer.

"He was a thunderous tackler," Remmel said. "He didn't know the meaning of taking it easy on the football field. He did that every play of his career."

"He was intense about his profession, about as intense as any performer in the history of the game. He was a very devoted father to his three children off the field."

Nitschke had one of the greatest defensive efforts in postseason history in the 1962 NFL championship game against the New York Giants. He recovered a pair of fumbles that led to 10 points and deflected a pass that resulted in a key interception as the Packers won 16-7.

Funeral arrangements were noimmediately known.