Packers likely to celebrate Bart Starr's life at halftime of early-season game

GREEN BAY - Nothing is official, but the Green Bay Packers most likely will celebrate legendary quarterback Bart Starr’s life at halftime of a game this fall.

Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy said Friday on WTMJ-620 AM that a ceremony is tentatively planned for halftime of an early-season game in 2019.

“We’re going to do it around a home game," Murphy said. "It’ll be one of our early home games, we’ll have a special celebration. It’ll probably be halftime of a game. Just to be able to celebrate everything that he did in his life.” 

Starr, the Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback and leader of Vince Lombardi’s championship teams, died early Sunday in Birmingham, Ala. He was 85, and his health had deteriorated since a near-fatal stroke in September 2014.

A funeral for Starr was held Thursday in Alabama, Murphy said.

Bart Starr Jr. said this week “dozens of ideas” were being considered for a celebration of life in Green Bay, and that any event would be coordinated to accommodate the Packers’ schedule.

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“We want to do something that in no way conflicts with anything the Packers are about to do this year,” Starr Jr. said, referring to the team’s 100th birthday. “Because this is a big season for them. We want to pick a time and a place that, if anything, would be supportive of the city of Green Bay and the Packers rather than conflict in any way.

“Dad would just not do anything unless he felt like it was fully embraced, and he felt like he was contributing to the community rather than distracting from it. So we will get that right.”