GREEN BAY — One thing the Packers and Seahawks have in common: both were at one time coached by the legendary Mike Holmgren, who led Green Bay to a victory in Super Bowl XXXI and Seattle to its first ever Super Bowl appearance in the 2005 season.
- This week, NBC 26's John Miller caught up with Holmgren as he is now on the doorstep of the hall of fame, being named a finalist a little over a week ago.
- Holmgren says his career almost didn't happen: he nearly quit coaching after starting out 0-22 as a high school coach in California.
- He credits his relationship with then-general manager Ron Wolf, a Hall of Famer himself, for Green Bay's success in the 1990s.
- The 76-year-old said he is still asked regularly about his decision to leave Green Bay for Seattle following the 1998 season.
“It would mean a lot, obviously," Holmgren said of a potential Hall of Fame induction. "Not only to me but to my coaching staff. The players. They all had a part of this and so it’s pretty cool.”
While Holmgren and his family are tempering their Hall of Fame excitement and expectations, he can't help but use this moment as a chance to reflect.
Holmgren has come a long way after almost getting out of coaching as soon as he started at Sacred Heart high in San Francisco.
“You know the story of my first high school job, we didn’t win a game for two years, we were 0-22,” Holmgren said. “I said, ‘I’m not sure I’m going to stay in this’, then the head coach talked me into staying one more year and then we finally won a couple of games and then the rest kind of happened.”
That head coach was Steve Ellison, who went on to coach at Petaluma High School in California.
“They named the stadium after him at the high school, so he did quite well,” said the former Packers coach. “(He) stayed in high school coaching the whole time and good friends, still.”
As a kid, Holmgren knew all about the success of the Packers during the Vince Lombardi era. He said he still remembers when he came to Lambeau to interview with GM Ron Wolf for the head coaching gig. He was a little starstruck at seeing all the history.
“(I was) just gazing for a while, just looking and saying, ‘wow, I’m here among all these people, How am I going to do this?'” he said. "So I made a decision early on – there’s only one coach Lombardi, I can’t be another, but I'm going to work very very hard to get this thing done.”
And he did get it done, lifting the Packers to a Super Bowl XXXI victory in New Orleans in January of 1997. Holmgren said the relationship he had with then-general manager Ron Wolf was the key to their success during his tenure with Green Bay.
“We didn’t care who got the credit or all that kind of stuff and when you see organizations that aren’t functioning — that’s usually the fact that they aren’t getting along,” Holmgren said. “I was fortunate to have Ron Wolf there. That’s what I say.”
Holmgren's favorite memory with Green Bay - outside of winning a Super Bowl - isn’t football related at all. it’s the people that are in the city.
“They get out their snow blowing machines, it was like it was a party,” he laughed. “They loved it. snow blowing everywhere, but fortunately the people at the facility, the guys that worked there, came over and did my driveway. I didn't have a snow blowing machine, it allowed me to get to work.”
But all good things must come to an end. Holmgren departed for Seattle after the 1998 season. He says people still ask him to this day why he left.
“It was a new challenge,” he said. “I got to be coach and general manager in Seattle and so that appealed to me. But it wasn’t easy. I loved those guys and I love the city.”
He wound up spending more time in Seattle than Green Bay, leading the Seahawks to seven winning seasons and their first Super Bowl appearance. He's one of only seven coaches to take two different franchises to the Super Bowl, but he said he wants to be remembered as more than just a coach.
“I also was a teacher," Holmgren said. "I thought about my high school background – I always say that when I got into professional football that I taught big little kids."
"I have a great family, Kathy and I have been married 53 years," he added. "I care about people. I want to do what I can to help our community and sorts of things like that.”
Holmgren isn’t the only former Packer to be up for a Hall of fame induction. Former Green Bay wide receiver Sterling Sharpe is a finalist as well. Holmgren says he’s always felt Sharpe should be enshrined in Canton and if they both could get in, Holmgren said: "It would be really something."
