Gifts for a Packers Fan Who Loves Team History

If you are shopping for a Packers fan who would rather talk about the 1960s than this Sunday, start with a trivia book, a Lambeau Field tour or a good book about Vince Lombardi. All of them are available right now, and I have checked each one against the publisher or the team’s own site.

I wrote one of these, so I put it first and you can weigh that however you like.

All-Time Best Green Bay Packers Trivia Quiz Book

This is the book I wrote, and it is the one I would pick for a fan who loves arguing about the past. It has 200 questions in 20 chapters, running from the first Packers game in 1919 through the 2024 playoffs, at three levels of difficulty. Under every answer there is a short factoid, so a fan learns something even when they miss the question.

Chapters cover the Lambeau and Hutson years, the Lombardi dynasty, Favre, Rodgers, the Super Bowls, Lambeau Field, the Hall of Famers and the Bears. The book also has instructions for turning it into a group game, which is how it tends to get used at tailgates and at the kitchen table. It comes in paperback and Kindle, and readers have reviewed it on Amazon.

You can read more about the book, with sample questions before you buy. If you want to know what the questions are like, try the free Packers trivia quizzes first.

A Lambeau Field stadium tour with Hall of Fame admission

Walking through Lambeau Field is the closest a fan can get to the history without a time machine. The Packers offer Classic, Champions and Legendary stadium tours, and the longer ones cover more of the building, including the visiting team locker room on the Legendary tour. A combo package pairs a stadium tour with Hall of Fame admission.

Tours run on home game weekends the day before and the day after a game, but not on game days. The Packers say they often sell out on those weekends, so book early if the trip is built around a game. Details are on the Lambeau Field page at packers.com and in the team’s announcement about home weekend tours.

The Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame

The Hall of Fame sits inside Lambeau Field and has been collecting Packers history since 1966. It has a re-creation of Vince Lombardi’s office, a plaque for each inductee and the Lombardi trophies from the team’s four Super Bowl wins. A fan who already knows the names gets to stand next to the objects.

A ticketed visit makes a good gift on its own, or as the first stop before a stadium tour. Hall of Fame access is listed on the Lambeau Field page at packers.com.

If the gift is a surprise, give the Hall of Famers quiz first. The Packers Hall of Famers trivia quiz makes a decent warm-up.

When Pride Still Mattered by David Maraniss

This is the standard biography of Vince Lombardi. David Maraniss published it with Simon & Schuster in 1999, and it follows Lombardi from the son of an Italian immigrant butcher through Fordham and on to the Packers.

It is a long book, so it suits a fan who likes to settle in for a winter. It also gives the 1960s Packers dynasty a human side that the highlight reels leave out. For the stories on this site about the same era, see the Packers history page.

Instant Replay by Jerry Kramer

Instant Replay is a diary of the 1967 season written by Packers guard Jerry Kramer with Dick Schaap, and it came out in 1968. It builds toward the Ice Bowl, where Kramer threw the block that let Bart Starr sneak into the end zone. Kramer wrote it from inside the locker room, which is why it still sounds like a player talking.

The book was re-released in 2006, so a newer copy is easy to find. Give it to someone who has watched the Ice Bowl clip a dozen times and wants to know what the huddle sounded like.

Run to Daylight by Vince Lombardi with W. C. Heinz

Run to Daylight is a week in the life of the 1962 Packers, told through Lombardi himself. Sportswriter W. C. Heinz followed Lombardi through meetings, practice and home life during the week leading up to the October 1962 game against the Detroit Lions, and Prentice-Hall published the result in 1963. The book is shorter than the Maraniss biography.

It works well as a pair with Instant Replay, since one is the coach’s week and the other is a player’s season. A fan who owns both has two views of the same dynasty from the inside.

A Packers game at Lambeau Field

A game at Lambeau is the biggest gift on this list, and it takes planning. Single-game tickets are listed on the Packers tickets page at packers.com, which sends buyers to Ticketmaster and the NFL Ticket Exchange. Season tickets run through a waiting list, which I cover on the Packers season ticket waiting list page.

Pair the ticket with a tour or a Hall of Fame visit and the trip becomes a history lesson with a game attached. For a fan who has never been, add the Lambeau Field trivia quiz for the car ride.

Packers stock gets suggested as a history-lover gift because the team is owned by its fans. The team has sold shares six times, in 1923, 1935, 1950, 1997, 2011 and 2022, and the most recent offering ended on February 25, 2022.

Packers.com says common stock is not available outside an offering period and that future offerings are not currently being considered. The team’s shareholder page at packers.com has the current status.