NFL
The Dad Braisher Projects
Long time Green Bay Packers Equipment Manager Gerald “Dad” Braisher was the driving force behind the creation of the team’s iconic “G” logo. It first appeared on the 1961 helmets, the year of Vince Lombardi’s first Green Bay NFL championship.
Photo by Marvin E. Newman/Sports Illustrated
Paul Hornung (5), Dan Currie under Lombardi’s right leg and Dave Hanner, with the coach’s arm draped over his shoulder, are seen celebrating the 37-0 NFL Championship game win over the New York Giants in ’61. Coach Lombardi was very superstitious and winning a title with the “G” on the head gear meant it was going to stay around for quite some time.
It is safe to say Dad Braisher’s classic design has generated hundreds of millions of dollars for the Packers and the National Football League. Dad is not in the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame and we, the fans, need to change that.
Dad Braisher, Equipment Manager, 1956 - 1976
There are two projects that GreenBayNFL.com is spearheading in the name of Dad Braisher:
- Get him into the Packers HOF.
- Raise funds to help Oak Hill Cemetery in Janesville, Wisconsin properly and respectfully bring attention to Mr. Braisher’s final resting place.
Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame
On this website, you will find a petition that you are encouraged to sign. It will eventually be presented to the Packers Hall of Fame selection committee in the hope of getting Dad Braisher enshrined – soon. Your information will not be shared or sold.
We want this initiative to come from the fans – similar to the nostalgic stories of fans passing the hat to collect money and save the Packers’ franchise in the team’s early years. We the fans, many of whom are stockholders, need to move Dad Braisher to his rightful place in Green Bay Packers history.
What symbol better represents the Packers’ image than the “G”?
There isn’t one – and probably never will be. Most likely, Dad is the most deserving person who is not in the Packers Hall of Fame.
Please sign the petition and notice the two questions.
Dave Robinson catches the elusive Fran Tarkenton
Pro Football Hall of Famer Dave Robinson said, “We need to get Dad Braisher into the Packers Hall of Fame. In some ways Dad was as important as Vince Lombardi. We didn’t talk with Vince every day, but the ball players talked with Dad every day. Dad had closer contact with us than Vince. He told us, taught us, about the history of the Packers and what it took to win. We took a lot of pride in being Packers, and that came directly from Dad Braisher.”
Oak Hill Cemetery – Janesville, Wisconsin
Janesville resident Tom Presny has been leading an effort to get a bronze plaque, and perhaps a bench created for Dad Braisher at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Janesville. Tom and the Oak Hill Cemetery Preservation Society volunteers are attempting to honor Mr. Braisher in a dignified manner befitting the hallowed ground in which he and 50,000 others are interred.
GreenBayNFL.com would like to coordinate a ceremony at which time tributes can be appropriately dedicated.
Dad Braisher’s headstone – Oak Hill Cemetery
Packers great Dave Robinson said, “If a vote would have been taken to select the most liked person in the Packer organizaion during the ‘Glory Years’, equipment manager Gerald “Dad” Braisher would have won it hands down.”
Dave Robinson has enthusiastically joined an effort to raise funds to have a commemorative plaque and perhaps bench manufactured. He has volunteered to personally attend an unveiling ceremony in Janesville, Wisconsin.
We are asking for your help to make this tribute become a reality. Again, we want it to come from the fans in the humble tradition of the Green Bay Packers from an era of years gone by.
Please go to our “Donate” page and, if you can, make a contribution to help pay for a plaque and ceremony in honor of the man who designed the “G.”