RIP, Fuzzy Thurston

Yesterday was a shitty day all around for the Packers. Not only did they lose to the Bills, they lost one of their all-time great players:

Fuzzy Thurston, a key player on Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers championship teams of the 1960s, died Sunday after a long illness. He was 15 days shy of his 81st birthday.
His family announced the death on Sunday afternoon via Twitter, prompting an outpouring of sympathy messages from Packers fans. He died of cancer and complications of Alzheimer's disease, according to an obituary prepared by his family.
. . .
The 6-foot-1, 247-pound Thurston, whose given name was Frederick, teamed with fellow guard Jerry Kramer to clear the way for running backs Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor as part of the famed Green Bay power sweep. He played in 112 games for the Packers, retiring after the 1967 season. He played on five NFL championship teams under Lombardi and was a first-team All-Pro in 1961.

Fuzzy was one of Green Bay fans all-time favorites. He attended Packers fan events in Green Bay until recent years when health issues interfered. He could frequently be found at Fuzzy's #63, a bar and grille he owned in Green Bay.

Fuzzy -- reading obituaries was how I learned his given name for the first time -- was a key member of the Packers teams that turned me into a life-long fan of the team. There weren't many football games on each week, but teams that win the NFL championship three years in a row tend to be on TV more often than other teams. I remember watching games with my brother (and my father, when he wasn't deployed) at five years old, and naturally I jumped on the winner's bandwagon. Used to love seeing that power sweep:

Fuzzy is No. 63; 64 is Jerry Kramer, the right guard, and 31 is Jim Taylor. Godspeed, Fuzzy.