A collection of more than 30 items consigned by Green Bay Packers great Dave Robinson are on the auction block just ahead of this weekend’s Hall of Fame induction ceremonies.
It took a while but Robinson did eventually get the call to Canton, 40 years after his NFL playing career ended.
Considered one of the greatest linebackers of his era, he’s turned over both of his Super Bowl rings earned as a key member of Vince Lombardi’s title winning teams in 1966-67 and 1967-68.
It was a key play by Robinson that ensured it would be the Packers playing in that historic first Super Bowl game in Los Angeles, rather than the Dallas Cowboys. His late fourth quarter pressure on quarterback Don Meredith led to a game-sealing interception by Packers defensive back Tom Brown as the Packers prevailed, 34-27. Green Bay then defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10 ini Super Bowl I. The next year, the Packers repeated as NFL champs, winning the “Ice Bowl” in Green Bay and then Super Bowl II over the Oakland Raiders.
“I still consider my play against Don Meredith the most crucial play in the history of the Green Bay Packers,” Robinson told the Green Bay Press-Gazette last month. “Without that, we don’t go to Super Bowl I. Without that, we don’t face the Kanas City Chiefs, the Dallas Cowboys do. Without that play, the Super Bowl trophy would be the Tom Landry trophy, not the Vince Lombardi trophy.”
Robinson’s cleats from Super Bowl II are another of the top items he’s turned over to Heritage. They are believed to be the first game-used item from that game ever to come to auction. The shoes are made from kangaroo skin—a fancy pair he treated himself to after enduring the sub-zero temperatures of the December 31, 1967 NFL title game.
Robinson saved them for use again if the Packers would make a third straight trip to the Super Bowl. That didn’t happen, “so he put them away in a closet, and have been there ever since,” Heritage says in its auction description.
Robinson turned 81 in May and says the time is right to let fans and collectors have a crack at some of his memorabilia.
“What am I going to do with the stuff?” Robinson told the Press-Gazette. “It’s just sitting around and taking up space. When I die, it’s just going to go on the market anyway. I might as well get some use out of it. The big thing is that I have a granddaughter in law school, and she needs all the help she can get. I want to take care of her, and my grandson, too.”
Trophies and awards from his college and NFL careers are part of the group of items he’s consigned to the auction as well as college game jerseys, his Super Bowl and NFL championship money clips and both his Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame and College Football Hall of Fame rings.
Bidding in the Summer Platinum Night Auction is underway now and concludes over a two-night period August 27 and 28.
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