WholeHogSports
UA, Green Bay great ‘Hawg’ Hanner dies at 78
Posted on Saturday, September 13, 2008
URL: http://www.wholehogsports.com/nwat/69080/
One of the best defensive tackles ever to line up for the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Green Bay Packers died Thursday.
Joel David “ Hawg ” Hanner Jr., 78, suffered a massive heart attack Tuesday and died Thursday at Helen Ellis Hospital in Tarpon Springs, Fla., after being in poor health for the last year and half.
Hanner, a native of Parkin, was a two-time All-Southwest Conference performer in 1950 and 1951, a three-time Razorbacks letterman and co-captain of the Razorbacks as a senior with longtime friend Pat Summerall, a standout placekicker and NFL play-by-play man.
Born May 22, 1930, Hanner, known for always having a chaw of tobacco in his right jaw, is a member of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, the University of Arkansas Hall of Honor, the Razorbacks All-Century Team and the 1950 s Razorbacks All-Decade Team.
After college, Hanner, a fifth-round draft selection by Green Bay, went on to a great playing career in the NFL for the Packers. He manned the defensive line from 1952 to 1964. Hanner was a fivetime NFL All-Pro and twotime Pro Bowl selection.
In 1962, the Packers held a “ Hawg ” Hanner Day in his honor and in 1974 he was elected into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame.
Hanner was a key part of teams that won NFL Championships in 1961 and 1962 and he coached for Packers teams that won the NFL Championship in 1965 and the first two Super Bowls titles in 1967 and 1968.
Summerall opined in a 1997 interview that Hanner could have been an NFL Hall of Famer had he played for another team, particularly in the early days of his career.
“ Until [Vince ] Lombardi came to Green Bay, the Packers were whipping boys of the league, ” Summerall said. “ But Dave was never a joke. Green Bay became great in the twilight of his career, when the roster was filled with stars that overshadowed him — [Paul ] Hornung, [Bart ] Starr, Willie Davis, Ray Nitschke and others. But he was a great player and underrated player and everyone in Green Bay and everyone who played against him knew it. ”
One of the standout moments of his career came when the 6-2, 265-pound tackle stopped legendar y Cleveland Browns runner Jim Brown on three consecutive plays, denying the Browns a first down near their own goal line.
Hanner played in 160 of 164 possible regular-season games during his career, and after his rookie season only missed one game because of an appendectomy.
Hanner went from anchoring the Packers ’ defensive line to coaching it in 1965. He stayed in that position through the 1971 season when he became defensive coordinator. In 1974, he became the Packers’ assistant head coach along with his defensive coordinator duties through the 1979 season.
Hanner, who had been considered for the Packers ’ head coaching job in 1974 when it went to Starr, was fired by the legendary Green Bay quarterback, who was under pressure after a subpar year.
In a 1997 interview, Hanner said he understood why Starr made the move but that the situation was never fully explained.
“ Bart had to make a change, ” Hanner said. “ I was never really told why it was me, but it was politics. We were losing and as it turned out it was one of the best things that happened to me. ”
Hanner worked as scout for the Chicago Bears in 1980-81 and then returned to the Packers organization to scout from 1982-96 before retiring. Just as when he was a player and a coach, Hanner became one of the most respected scouts in the Packer organization.
The red-haired, fairskinned Hanner was a warmhearted man with gregarious laugh, but he was known for his toughness as a player and a coach.
“ Dave was just a country boy who was playing football and this was a perfect spot for him, ” retired Packers President Bob Harlan told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “ I don’t know where else he could have gone and been as comfortable as he was. Easy-going, laid-back. He was a perfect Green Bay Packer guy. ”
While scouting and after retirement, Hanner lived in the Tampa area of Florida, but spent most of the summer at his cabin on Keyes Lake near Florence, Wisc.
While Hanner’s tenure with the Razorbacks wasn’t one of the school’s best eras, he and Summerall had other Razorbacks teammates who went on to play professional football, too. Fred Williams, Muscles Campbell, Buddy Brown, Bob Griffin, Lew Carpenter and Lamar McHan along with their cocaptains combined for more than 60 cumulative years in the NFL. But with the Razorbacks they mustered records of only 5-5, 2-8 and 5-5 under John Barnhill in 1949 and Otis Douglas in 1950-51.
Williams, who played 15 years in the NFL, once suggested that while the Hogs of that era didn’t win as many games as they would have liked, they never lost at a party.
Hanner, however, pointed out that the SWC was strong from top to bottom in the early 1950 s.
“ It wasn’t a two-horse league like in the 1960 s, ” Hanner said in a 1997 interview. “ Teams like Rice, TCU and Baylor were dangerous and SMU was really tough on us. ”
But, he said the Razorbacks’ 16-14 victory over Texas in 1951 was probably the biggest win of his career at Arkansas. It was Arkansas’ first win over the Longhorns in 12 years and sweet revenge after a 27-14 loss to the Steers in 1949.
“ It seemed like we could never hold Texas down, but we did our senior year and it was great, ” he said.
Hanner almost did not become a Razorback. Growing up in eastern Arkansas, Hanner said he was more familiar with Johnny Vaught’s Ole Miss program because of the Memphis-based media.
Hanner actually signed with the Rebels following his senior year at Parkin, but Barnhill appealed to his pride as an Arkansan and persuaded him to attend the UA. Letters of intent were not binding in those days.
Though Hanner struggled with his weight in the offseason, his tough, no-nonsense approach to the game made him a favorite of Lombardi, once the legendary coach took over the Packers in 1959.
“ Lombardi’s life was football and discipline, ” Hanner said in a 1997 interview, “ and that is what he brought to our team. We took pride in ourselves because of the work we did and that pride showed in our performance.
“ He took the same team that won only one game in 1958, and in 1959, we won seven. It was the same crew as before but football was fun again. ”
Like other Packers of his day, he had a love-hate relationship with Lombardi.
“ I loved the man, ” Hanner said in 1997. “ But there were times when I cussed him, but never where he could hear me. He was a great influence on the men on our team. He taught us discipline and respect for ourselves and how to win. ”
Likewise, Lombardi respected Hanner.
In his book “ Run to Daylight, ” Lombardi wrote that Hanner would always be consulted when the Packers were looking to pick up an offensive lineman and lauded Hanner’s play against the run.
Hanner is survived by his wife, Janie Burns of Tampa, Fla., and six children, including Joel, of Marinette, Wisc.; Ed, of Safety Harbor, Fla.; Sammye, of Clearwater, Fla.; Mike, of Fort Worth, Texas; Hollye, of Atlanta; and Jimmy, of Green Bay, Wisc.; seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Visitation is Monday from 6-8 p. m. at Roller-Citizens Funeral Home in West Memphis. Funeral is at 1 p. m. Tuesday at Crittenden Memorial Park in Marion.
Memorials may be given to the Alzheimer’s Association or the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.