Yesterday in La Crosse
The NFL welcomes your halftime entertainment, the Marching Chiefs, 51 years ago
In December of 1967, members of the La Crosse State College band, the Marching Chiefs, were getting ready for nationwide exposure. The campus newspaper, the Racquet, said the band was scheduled to perform at halftime of the NFL championship game, if the Packers were to host the title game at Lambeau Field. But they wouldn’t know until December 23rd, by which time the musicians would all have gone home for the holidays.
The Chiefs planned to play a medley of songs associated with TV sports programs, including the Gillette razor jingle, and “The Stripper,” which was used in ads for Noxzema shaving cream.
It was the league title game between Green Bay and Dallas, the legendary “Ice Bowl” game of New Year’s Eve, 1967. The winner would go to the second Super Bowl. The temperature at Lambeau was well below zero…too cold for the marching band, so it didn’t get to play for halftime at that famous game. But La Crosse’s Chiefs still got to attend the Ice Bowl, yesterday in La Crosse.