Mudbaths and Bloodbaths: The Inside Story of the Bears-Packers Rivalry

If you are a Bears fan or Packers fan this is a must have on your shelves. this book is jam packed with so much history and so many true life stories of the gridiron games between two of the oldest teams in the NFL. Nuff said.

This may be one of the best (and most apt) titles ever for a book. I'm not really a Bear or Packer fan and I loved every page of this book. It's got great history, great stories, and has a lot of laughs. It makes you feel like you're alongside other fans in the "bar car" of the train travelling from Green Bay to Chicago and back. It has Halas v. Lambeau, Halas v. Lombardi, Hinkle vs. Nagurski, Gregg vs. Ditka, etc. It also features Hall of Famers like Nitchke, Hutson, Butkus, Sayers etc. It's very well written and is a first rate football book. My only regret is that I was not able to see the 1963 Packer - Bear game at Wrigley Field. I should mention that I read the updated edition which I think was released in 2005.

Plain and simple, this book is about football in its purest form. Forget the 49ers v. Cowboys, Vikings v. Packers, Yankees v. Red Sox, this is the greatest rivalry in sports. Many of the reviews for this book seem to indicate that the book is slanted heavily in favor of the Packers. I would disagree. While the second chapter favored the Pack a little more, the other chapters seem to favor the bears slightly but are close to even. Overall, I think the book was reasonably balanced. I can honestly say the book would make a great gift for a fan on either side of the rivalry. To be honest, I had trouble putting this book down. D'Amato and Christl did a commendable job of retelling the stories that transpired in this rivalry between charter members of the NFL. From this first game in 1921 though 1997, the great stories are collected. Included are the Lambeau v. Halas years, Lombardi v. Halas years, Gregg, v. Ditka years, and Holmgrem v. Wannstedt years. From the begining through the 80's, these teams hated each other. Even when one of the teams stuck, they still put it all on the line against their rival. Two chapters that I particularly enjoyed were the chapters on Seven Memorable Names from the rivalry and the Twenty Greatest Games. Names like Brute Trafton, Bronko Nagurski, Clarke Hinkle, Bulldog Turner, Ray Nitschke, Mike Ditka, Dick Butkis, and Don Majkowski are the story. So many names I remember and grew up with are here. These are the stories of legends. The only disappointment is in that the fans seem to carry the tradition of the rivalry alone. Perhaps this because of the Packers recent dominance of the Bears. Nevertheless, I wish the teams would hate each other again.

I bought this book for my Dad for Christmas - & I just had to read it before passing it on! I approached it with some trepidation, though, as it is written by "Award-winning Wisconsin sportswriters," and published in Madison, Wisconsin. But the foreward is written by a nice man from the Chicago Tribune and I found the book to be fairly evenly balanced. The style is easily readable - not in chronological order but arranged by interesting topics. For the chronically chronologically-oriented, there is an appended game-by-game synopsis from the first meeting of the Staleys (who soon became Da Bears) and the Packers on November 27, 1921 to the 152nd meeting at the end of the 1996 season. There are many clever turns of phrase - for instance, the rivalry as "uncivil war," or "Once again, Ditka had added insult on top of victory." These meetings are not just games, they are "events." As the authors tell us, "The Catholic churches in Green Bay recognized in short time what kind of impact the rivalry had on people's lives. By 1928, St. Mary's parish had scheduled a special mass at 5:15 Sunday morning, so fans could catch the early train to Chicago." Chapter 5 is entitled "Hard-Edged Names in Hard-Nosed Games" and begins: "The seven men to which this chapter is devoted had two things in common. One was that their names didn't roll off the tongue, but rattled around in the mouth and forced their way through the teeth. Hard-edged names, full of consonants and resonance." Names that were uttered in hushed reverential or loud cursing tones at family gatherings. (My family straddles both sides of the Illinois-Wisconsin line so it depends on which part of the family was talking ;-). Names like Nagurski, Nitschke, Butkus and Ditka. The chapter tells inquiring minds "what ever happened to" these guys too.Bear/Packer "games" are not genteel affairs. Here's a recap of the November 4, 1945 encounter (before mouthgaurds and sturdy helmets.) "Packers halfback Roy McKay suffered a broken nose and had several teeth knocked lose. Halfback Irv Comp suffered a knee injury, and tackle Baby Ray sustained a one-inch cut on his upper lip. Guard Pete Tinsley was thrown out of the game for punching Bears quarterback Sid Luckman, and Goodnight also was sent to the showers for punching Hoptowit. The Bears casualty list included rookie halfback John Morton, who visited the Illinois Masonic Hospital to have a cut under his eye stitched, and, of course, Artoe. With one well-placed elbow, in the final two minutes of the game, Keuper broke Artoe's upper and lower jaws, along with his nose, and knocked out 11 teeth." (p. 68) Now, THAT'S smash-mouth football! The chapter "Twenty Memorable Games" includes "Prelude to a [Bears] Title" - November 17, 1963; Wrigley Field (yes, we played there for a long time before moving over to Soldier Field - there's a whole other chapter on the playing fields: " Sacred Fields Forever.") "No professional football game in Chicago, before or s

If you want to feel the pure energy of football mudbaths & bloodbaths is definitly a book for you. In this book you gonna read all about the oldest rivalry in sport history,the hate between two teams,the cheap shots,the fans,the coachs and for sure the players.From the first game at Cubs park on november 27 1921 to their last meeting of 96 season at Lambeau field.The players from the oldies and the ones from now gave theirs versions of the story.Curly Lambeau,George Halas,Brett Favre & Erik Kramer to name few of them. Mudbaths & bloodbaths is more than just the story of bears-packers rivalry,this book bring you back to the beginning,when football was football.When the players from each teams can do anything to beat the other team.When the rules book had only two words"jungle law".