Lindy Infante, 1940-2015

He brought some hope to that team during that dark time. Good guy. Best wishes to his friends and family.

Yep, that 1989 season was a really fun season surrounded by many awful ones.  Who knows, had Majkowski not torn his rotator cuff, maybe Infante would have been a bit more successful and been there longer.  RIP Lindy and thanks for the memories!!

 

Originally Posted by Boris:

 That's sad. I liked Lindy. 1989 was a very Majikal year.

 

 It sure was.

 

 

It was his 1989 team that really turned me into a football fan.

A good man. The organization was so screwed up at that time I'm not sure any sort of sustained success was possible. 

As awesome that Bears game was, and trust me, it's BLOODY AWESOME, I still believe my favorite win of that season was beating the Niners in San Francisco 21-17.  They looked like a legit team at that point.  There was a lot of fluky type wins that season, but that game, they legit beat, and were the better team that day, the defending Super Bowl Champs that would go on to win a 2nd consecutive one in dominant fashion.  The niners lost on a last second FG to the Rams after a Rathman fumble late.  They lost to the Packers in SF.  And they won every other game.  This is one of the "greatest ever team" discussion teams.   Outscored opponents in the playoffs 126-26.  

 

Played them even in the first half.  Several turnovers in the 3rd that neither team could capitalize on.  Great drive early the 4th was capped off by a Majikowski QB Draw that was beautiful with ~11 to go.  Then the defense held on the rest of the way, allowing one FG, before ending the Niners last drive in GB territory.  

 

Huge win.  That was the win that made me think this team was for real, that despite missing the playoffs because of the early season struggles that moving forward we'd be *GASP* good.  

 

No year will ever top 2010 for me, but that was easily the most fun, unexpected, out of the blue, crazy fun year that didn't end up in the playoffs.  Loved that season.  

 

EDIT - The other weird thing I just noticed, the Packers played the Cowboys twice that season.  Bizarre.  I get that the divisions were 5/5/4 in NFC at that point, but so weird.  We played the NFC West(4) that season, our division foes 2x (8), Dallas 2x (2) and 2 games vs AFC. Crazy scheduling.  

"my favorite win of that season was beating the Niners in San Francisco 21-17"

 

Mine too! 

mine too!  had Wisconsin friends in the stands at that game and they tore it up, giving those 9ers fans all the grief they could handle.

Sad to read about Infante. He started the turnaround after the average years from hopefuls Starr and Gregg.

 

That SFO game was special. So many Jacke wins that year.

 

Agree with all the above. His Packer teams really represented the formative years for me as a fan. 1989 was incredible, the rest not so much. If anything it made me appreciate the resurrgance in 1992-? even more. That's not meant to be a slight on Lindy, it was that 1989 year that was my first taste of success as a fan that ever really resonated with me.

I was on leave from overseas in 1989 and I came home during the last weekend of the NFL season.  In my lifetime (I was born at the tail end of the Lombardi years) I had only known miserable football teams and the excitement in and around the state was crazy!

thanks coach for giving us that season I will always remember it!

great memories

 

 

Infante we Trust!

Yeah, I liked Infante, but it did seem many did not like him as a coach.  Before coaching the Packers, he was the offensive coordinator of the Browns and he devised his own offensive scheme.

 

Regarding the 1989 team:

 

1. Troy Aikman

2. Tony Mandarich

3. Barry Sanders

4. Derrick Thomas

5. Deion Sanders

 

I did read that Infante wanted Sanders over Mandarich.

 

I wonder how that 1989 team would have fared plus Barry Sanders.

 

Regardless, RIP Lindy Infante.

Remember George Perles accepting the job and then changing his mind and they went with Infante. Remember that victory in SF very well and felt it might be the beginning of something big.

 

It wasn't.

After quite a few miserable years in the mid-80s, 1989 was finally the  year "The Pack Was Back". Or so we thought...

The hope and excitement had been a long time coming. Going from 4-12 to 10-6 was quite the swing, and if memory serves, we lost out on a tiebreaker for the #6 seed in the playoffs.

And then the disappointment of the 1990 follow-up, and the even poorer 1991 had us grumbling about "the same ol' Packers". 

Then came TOG.

Pretty wild times for Packers fans!

You guys are killing it.  My favorite memory from 1989 was going to the Chiefs game.  Not because the stadium announcer set the all-time record for saying "Okoye" in a 3 hour span, as you would suspect.  Rather, while tailgaiting for what seemed to be 8 hours or so, my hands had gotten so cold I could only make the form necessary to hold a beer can.  I was getting assists to open. 

 

My brother and me head into the stadium, both hit the can.  I can't make my hands work to get my zipper down.  So my brother did it for me.  They thawed enough over the urinal cake and spatter that I was able to zip back up myself.

 

And that's how football can bring families together.

 

RIP Lindy.

Awesome Brak.  That Chiefs game in '89 was the first regular season game I ever went to at Lambeau.  As a matter of fact, it was so long ago, I barely remember it, but I do remember being cold... and I remember the Pack losing.

 

My funniest memory of 1989 was going to Port Plaza Mall in Green Bay to stand in line to get Tony Mandarich's autograph.  The line was so long it went almost all the way out the mall.  It's amazing what hype there was for Mandarich back then, and he never even slightly came close to the hype.

 

Years later, I ended up throwing that autographed picture away, it felt so worthless to keep it after everything that happened.

 

 

I have 3 brothers. They'd have let me pee my pants.

 

 

Christmas night 1989 Bengals at Vikings on MNF last game of the year....we were praying for a Cincy miracle, but Esiason and the boys didnt care enough to pull it out.

I believe they had cut it to 1 point in the 4th. ARRGHH.... 

 

at the time 10-6 and missing the playoffs was rare

Good thing Majic got hurt, a successful run by him and Lindy could have prevented a Holgrem signing, a Favre trade and a certain FA named Reggie not getting a message from God.

 

What  would you prefer, a Lindy/Majik team or what we had?

 

I liked Lindy and Don, very exciting but give me the new regime.  RIP Lindy.

Yup, and I well remember that game.   They had a camera at some house in GB with Packer players, including Majkowski and also I am pretty sure the same with Steeler players.

Bastiges!

 

Oh, I agree with you Pikes, for us fans cleaning house and bringing in Wolf/Holmgren/TOG, etc. was the best thing that could have ever happened.  For Lindy though, he probably didn't feel quite the same way about it the rest of us did though.   

The day I started hating the Queens. 

Minnesota was granted an NFL franchise at the league owners’ meetings in Miami on Jan. 28, 1960.

 

 

Chris Doleman barely touched Esiason's shoelace and the play was blown dead as "in the grasp".  One of the tougher to endure non-Packer losses.

watching Dave Roller chase Tark around and never catching him started all the despising for me. 

       
       
Too bad they never ended up with one

I have 8 brothers. They'd have let you pee your pants as well...

And posted a video.