The

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the th ...

season was their 54th season overall and their 52nd season in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

. The team finished with a 10–4 record under second-year head coach

Dan Devine Daniel John Devine (December 23, 1924 – May 9, 2002) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Arizona State University from 1955 to 1957, the University of Missouri from 1958 to 1970, and the Unive ...

, earning them the

NFC Central The National Football Conference – Northern Division or NFC North is one of the four divisions of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). Nicknamed the "Black and Blue Division" for the rough and tough ...

division title. The Packers returned to the playoffs after a four-year drought (and qualified for the first time since Vince Lombardi departed as head coach); their most recent division title was in

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establ ...

, completing that postseason with a decisive win in

Super Bowl II The second AFL-NFL World Championship Game (known retroactively as Super Bowl II) was an American football game played on January 14, 1968, at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. The National Football League (NFL)'s defending champion Green Bay P ...

in January 1968. In 1972, Green Bay entered the penultimate regular season game at

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minne ...

on December 10 with an 8–4 record. The Vikings (7–5) had won the season's earlier game at

Lambeau Field Lambeau Field is an outdoor athletic stadium in the north central United States, located in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The home field of the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL), it opened in 1957 as City Stadium, replacing ...

in Green Bay by breaking a fourth quarter tie with two interceptions for touchdowns. This time, the Packers overcame a 7–0 halftime deficit at

Metropolitan Stadium Metropolitan Stadium (often referred to as "the Met", "Met Stadium", or now "the Old Met" to distinguish from the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, Metrodome) was an outdoor sports stadium in the West North Central states, north central United States, ...

with 23 unanswered points to clinch the division title. Running back

John Brockington John Stanley Brockington (born September 7, 1948) is a former American football player, a running back in the National Football League (NFL) with the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs. He was a first round draft choice out of Ohio State Un ...

became the first in NFL history to rush for 1,000 yards in each of his first two seasons, and did it again the following season. Placekicker Chester Marcol established an NFL rookie record for field goals in a season (since broken).NFL 2001 Record and Fact Book, Workman Publishing Co, New York,NY, , p. 409 It was the fifteenth and final season of hall of fame linebacker

Ray Nitschke Raymond Ernest Nitschke (December 29, 1936 – March 8, 1998) was a professional American football middle linebacker who spent his entire 15-year National Football League (NFL) career with the in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in , he was the a ...

. The Packers' next division title came 23 years later, in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

Offseason

In February , running back (and punter)

Donny Anderson Garry Don "Donny" Anderson (born May 16, 1943) is a former professional football player, a halfback and punter for nine seasons with the Green Bay Packers and St. Louis Cardinals of the National Football League. From Texas Tech (then Texas ...

was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for MacArthur Lane. Hall of Fame quarterback

Bart Starr Bryan Bartlett Starr (January 9, 1934 – May 26, 2019) was an American professional football quarterback and head coach for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at the University of Al ...

retired as a player in July; he was the quarterbacks coach and play caller in 1972. (He then pursued business interests and was a color analyst for CBS, then returned to the Packers as their head coach in the

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

season.)

NFL draft

* Yellow indicates a future

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players. The format has changed thro ...

selection

Undrafted free agents

Roster

Regular season

Schedule

In Week 3, the Packers defeated the defending Super Bowl champion

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divis ...

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

, improving their all-time record to 7–1 over Dallas; the sole loss was in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and 1 ...

. :

Monday Monday is the day of the week between Sunday and Tuesday. According to the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 8601 standard, it is the first day of the week and in countries that adopt the "Sunday-first" convention, it is ...

(October 16) Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Playoffs

Green Bay met the NFC East champion

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) ...

(11–3) in the divisional playoffs on Christmas Eve at

RFK Stadium Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, commonly known as RFK Stadium and originally known as District of Columbia Stadium, is a defunct multi-purpose stadium in Washington, D.C. It is located about due east of the U.S. Capitol building, near the ...

. The Packers practiced the week before at

Wake Forest University Wake Forest University is a private university, private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, North Carolina, Wake Forest, north of Rale ...

Winston-Salem, North Carolina Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in ...

. The two teams had played four weeks earlier at the same venue; the Redskins won by five points on November 26, and were favored by in the playoff game by 4½ points. The results were similar, as Green Bay scored first but lost again in

D.C. DC, D.C., D/C, Dc, or dc may refer to: Places * Washington, D.C. (District of Columbia), the capital and the federal territory of the United States * Bogotá, Distrito Capital, the capital city of Colombia * Dubai City, as distinct from t ...

, this time by thirteen points, 16–3.

Standings

Awards, records, and honors

* Chester Marcol, NFL rookie record (since broken), most Field Goals in one year by a rookie, (32) * Willie Buchanon – AP Defensive Rookie of the Year

References

Sources
Sportsencyclopedia.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:1972 Green Bay Packers Season Green Bay Packers seasons NFC Central championship seasons