Legendary Packers QB Bart Starr dies at 85

Bart Starr was an ordinary quarterback until teaming with Vince Lombardi and serving as the catalyst for the powerhouse Green Bay Packers teams that ruled the 1960s and ushered in the NFL as America's most popular sport.

The quarterback's graceful throws helped turn a run-heavy league into a passing spectacle, yet it's a run for which he's most famous: the sneak that won the famed "Ice Bowl" in 1967.

Starr died Sunday at age 85 in Birmingham, Ala., the Packers said. He had been in failing health since suffering two strokes and a heart attack in 2014.

Starr is the third of Lombardi's dozen Hall of Famers to die in the past eight months. Fullback Jim Taylor died in October and offensive tackle Forrest Gregg died last month.

"A champion on and off the field, Bart epitomized class and was beloved by generations of Packers fans," Packers President Mark Murphy said in a statement. "A clutch player who led his team to five NFL titles, Bart could still fill Lambeau Field with electricity decades later during his many visits."

The Packers selected Starr out of the University of Alabama with the 200th pick in the 1956 draft. He led Green Bay to six division titles, five NFL championships and wins in the first two Super Bowls.

Until Brett Favre came along, Starr was known as the best Packer ever. The team retired his No. 15 jersey in 1973, making him just the third player to receive that honour. Four years later, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

After losing the 1960 NFL title game in his first playoff appearance, the Packers never lost another playoff game under Starr, going 9-0, including wins over the Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders in the first two Super Bowls.

Starr's college career wasn't very noteworthy and it wasn't until Lombardi's arrival in Green Bay in 1959 that Starr, living by his motto "desire and dedication are everything," began to blossom.

Lombardi liked Starr's mechanics, his arm strength and especially his decision-making abilities. Under Lombardi's nurturing, Starr became one of the league's top quarterbacks.

"If you work harder than somebody else, chances are you'll beat him though he has more talent than you," Starr once said. He credited Lombardi for showing him "that by working hard and using my mind, I could overcome my weakness to the point where I could be one of the best."

Glory years followed by decades of futility 

The gentlemanly quarterback's status as a Packers icon was tested by his struggles as the team's head coach. In nine seasons from 1975-83, he won just 41 per cent of his games, going 53-77-3, including 1-1 in the playoffs, part of three decades of futility that followed the glory years.

After football, Starr, became a successful businessman in Birmingham, Alabama, not far from his hometown of Montgomery, where he was born on Jan. 9, 1934.

Starr was a four-time Pro Bowl selection and two-time All-Pro. He won NFL titles in 1961, '62, '65, '67 and '68. He was the 1966 NFL MVP and was named to the 1960s All-Decade team. He also was named MVP of the first two Super Bowls.

"Bart was a true gentleman, a great player and a great pioneer for the NFL," fellow Hall of Famer John Elway tweeted. "He set a tremendous example for all QBs to emulate."

When Starr retired following the 1971 season, his career completion rate of 57.4 per cent was tops in the run-heavy NFL, and his passer rating of 80.5 was second-best ever, behind only Otto Graham.

Epic play in NFL championship game

But the play he was most famous for was a run.

In the NFL championship on Dec. 31, 1967, Starr knifed into the end zone behind guard Jerry Kramer and centre Ken Bowman with 16 seconds left to lift the Packers over the Dallas Cowboys 21-17 in what became known as the "Ice Bowl."

The Packers had spent $80,000 for a heating coil system that was to have kept the field soft and warm, and forecasters said not to worry because the approaching cold front wouldn't arrive until after the game.

"It was 20 degrees the day before," the late Tom Landry once recalled. "It was great. Vince and I were together that night and we talked about how good the conditions were and what a great game it would be."

They were half-right. When the grounds crew rolled up the tarpaulin, a layer of condensation had formed underneath and, with 40 mph wind, the field promptly froze like an ice rink. Packers running back Chuck Mercein would later compare the ground to "jagged concrete."

With a temperature of minus-14 and a wind chill of minus-49, it was the coldest NFL game ever recorded. The wind chill had dipped another 20 degrees by the time the Packers got the ball at their 32 trailing 17-14 with five minutes left.

With one last chance for an aging dynasty to win a fifth NFL title in seven seasons, Starr took the field as linebacker Ray Nitschke hollered, "Don't let me down!"

Starr wouldn't, completing all five of his passes and directing one of the most memorable drives in NFL history.

"We all have a capacity to focus and to concentrate to a unique degree when we're called upon to do it," Starr said on the 30th anniversary of that game. "That's exactly what I did that day. And I think the same was true of the Cowboys. Let's face it, they obviously were not accustomed to something like that and yet they were the team which had surged and come back in the second half and were in a position to win it."