Thirteen former Green Bay Packers are included on the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s seniors list under consideration for hall membership.
The hall of fame in Canton, Ohio, recently released a list of 162 seniors who could be elected. The seniors list includes players whose careers ended by the year 2000. Being elected from the seniors list worked for Sterling Sharpe, who was inducted into the hall of fame in August 2025, but it’s a particularly difficult path.
Packers on the list include Cecil Isbell, Verne Lewellen, Carroll Dale, Lavvie Dilweg, Boyd Dowler, Billy Howton, Keith Jackson, Gale Gillingham, Charles “Buckets” Goldenberg, Fuzzy Thurston, Eugene Robinson, Mark Clayton and John Hadl.
Clayton and Hadl made their bones with other teams and had only a brief connection with the Packers. Keith Jackson and Eugene Robinson each had only two years in Green Bay as well, but were contributing members of the Packers’ 1996 Super Bowl champions.
Packers team historian Cliff Christl said the biggest omission from the hall is Verne Lewellen, who played for the Packers from 1924-32.
Christl wrote of Lewellen: “He played nine seasons from 1924-32 and was arguably the Packers’ most valuable player during that period. When the Packers won three straight championships from 1929-31, if the Associated Press had voted for a league MVP at the time, I think Lewellen might have won it in both 1929 and ’30.”
Packers founders Curly Lambeau and George Whitney Calhoun each placed Lewellen and Cecil Isbell on their all-time pre-1960 Packers teams.
Charlie Mathys, a Green Bay native who played quarterback for the Packers and later served on the Packers’ board of directors, was quoted by Christl as saying, “Defensively, offensively — of the players we had in the old days, he was number one. And I’m not alone in saying that. Any of the old-timers I’ve talked to say the same thing … He was way ahead of his time in ability. If he doesn’t get in the (Pro Football) Hall of Fame, it’s a joke.”
Unfortunately, Lewellen and Lavvie Dilweg played before there were official statistics, which is a significant obstacle when asking voters in 2025 to understand their contributions.
The hall of fame website explains the next steps:
“The roster of nominees consists of 90 offensive players, 67 defensive players and five special teamers. The Seniors Screening Committee, an entity created in 2025 to add additional input around the overall selection process, will reduce the list to 50 players (plus ties, if any, for the 50th spot) over the next few weeks.
“Once the Seniors Screening Committee has completed its work, the separate Seniors Blue-Ribbon Committee will make additional reductions in several increments. In late fall, the Seniors Blue-Ribbon Committee will select three Seniors as Finalists for possible election with the Class of 2026.”
To make it more difficult, seniors, coach and contributors are voted on together and have to make certain thresholds to be elected, which is why former Packers coach Mike Holmgren, who won Super Bowl XXXI, did not get elected in in 2025, although Sharpe did.
Contact Richard Ryman at rr****@*****tt.com. Follow him on X at @RichRymanPG and on Instagram at @rrymanPG.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Packers players on seniors list have tough road to Hall of Fame
