Chicago Bears to or from Green Bay football extras.

[NP Eddie]

ALL:

Today Chicago is playing at Green Bay. Did the CNW or MILW run passenger extras to or from the above towns? How did the Green Bay fans get to Soldier Field?

Just curious.

Ed Burns

[rcdrye]

The Packers seem to have used the C&NW - not particularly surprising as they provided about twice the service to Green Bay that MILW did.  Chicago would be no problem - Parmalee Transfer coaches between Soldier Field C&NW's Chicago Passenger Terminal.

[richhotrain]

Don't forget that before 1971 the Bears played at Wrigley Field.

Rich

[rcdrye]

Since the Bears or Packers would need to move lots of equipment they could either use the C&NW's CPT downtown or C&NW's Davis St in Evanston, where a baggage elevator was available.

[wjstix]

I'd be interested to know if they ran passenger extras from Milwaukee to Green Bay for Packers game. Hard to picture now where you have to put a kid on a waiting list when they're born in hopes of getting Packers season tickets before they die, but at one time the Pack didn't draw that many fans...and of course Milwaukee & suburbs are a huge chunk of Wisconsin's population. (Of course up until recently the Packers used to play a home game in Milwaukee each year, so maybe Milwaukee folks were happy with that?)

[BaltACD]

wjstix

I'd be interested to know if they ran passenger extras from Milwaukee to Green Bay for Packers game. Hard to picture now where you have to put a kid on a waiting list when they're born in hopes of getting Packers season tickets before they die, but at one time the Pack didn't draw that many fans...and of course Milwaukee & suburbs are a huge chunk of Wisconsin's population. (Of course up until recently the Packers used to play a home game in Milwaukee each year, so maybe Milwaukee folks were happy with that?)

As I recall - back in the 50's & 60's the Packers played several of there 'home' games in Milwaukee each year.

[rcdrye]

I doubt either C&NW or MILW ran many extra trains - both of them had enough equipment to run either longer trains or extra sections if demand was there.  After 1958 C&NW regularly "borrowed" 162-seat commuter coaches for their bilevel 400 service when needed - they just had to get them back to Chicago commuter territory by Monday morning.

[BaltACD]

rcdrye

I doubt either C&NW or MILW ran many extra trains - both of them had enough equipment to run either longer trains or extra sections if demand was there.  After 1958 C&NW regularly "borrowed" 162-seat commuter coaches for their bilevel 400 service when needed - they just had to get them back to Chicago commuter territory by Monday morning.

Back in the 50's and 60's pro football crowds were more variable than they are in the 21st Century - back then most stadiums WERE NOT sold out with Season Ticket Holders.  As such there was a lot of marketing to group sales - get Tweedledum High School to have 150-200 attend a game; Have the Fraternal Order of Eagles send 150-200 to the game - with that type of marketing - transportation to and from the game had to be a part of the package - be that on busses or trains.  For the most part, existing train schedules would not accomodate the starting and ending times of games and if trains were used, Passenger Extras would be used operated to arrive before the game and departing after the conclusion of the game.

[wjstix]

BaltACD

 

wjstix

I'd be interested to know if they ran passenger extras from Milwaukee to Green Bay for Packers game. Hard to picture now where you have to put a kid on a waiting list when they're born in hopes of getting Packers season tickets before they die, but at one time the Pack didn't draw that many fans...and of course Milwaukee & suburbs are a huge chunk of Wisconsin's population. (Of course up until recently the Packers used to play a home game in Milwaukee each year, so maybe Milwaukee folks were happy with that?)

 

 

As I recall - back in the 50's & 60's the Packers played several of there 'home' games in Milwaukee each year.

 

 

You are correct! When I looked it up, I found out the Packers played two or (most often after WW2) three "home" games a year in Milwaukee from the 1930s until 1994. Last was 12/18/94 against Atlanta.

[billslake]

wjstix

I attended a number of Packer games at old County Stadium.  Tickers seemed to be easier to get than at Lambeau.

 

 

BaltACD

 

wjstix

I'd be interested to know if they ran passenger extras from Milwaukee to Green Bay for Packers game. Hard to picture now where you have to put a kid on a waiting list when they're born in hopes of getting Packers season tickets before they die, but at one time the Pack didn't draw that many fans...and of course Milwaukee & suburbs are a huge chunk of Wisconsin's population. (Of course up until recently the Packers used to play a home game in Milwaukee each year, so maybe Milwaukee folks were happy with that?)

 

 

As I recall - back in the 50's & 60's the Packers played several of there 'home' games in Milwaukee each year.

 

 

 

 

You are correct! When I looked it up, I found out the Packers played two or (most often after WW2) three "home" games a year in Milwaukee from the 1930s until 1994. Last was 12/18/94 against Atlanta.

 

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

BaltACD

Back in the 50's and 60's pro football crowds were more variable than they are in the 21st Century - back then most stadiums WERE NOT sold out with Season Ticket Holders. 

In that vein, the first Super Bowl was NOT sold out.  The Packers were huge favorites and the AFL as a whole was considered to be the weaker league.

[wjstix]

I suspect in pre-Amtrak days you would find many more passenger specials being run for college football games than the NFL. I know Pennsy ran many special trains for the Army-Navy game each year for example. In the 1950s, except for San Francisco and Los Angeles, all NFL teams were in the northeast quarter of the US. In many areas, the state university was the big deal.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Quite true.  Most people consider the 1958 NFL championship game to be the moment when the NFL hit the big time.