The original voice of the Green Bay Packers on WTMJ Radio, Russ Winnie, will posthumously join 2010 Packers Super Bowl champions Chad Clifton and Nick Collins as members of the Packers Hall of Fame.
The team announced Friday that they will be inducted in the Lambeau Field Atrium on Saturday night, January 23.
Winnie was the Packers' play-by-play voice on WTMJ from 1929-46. He called six NFL championship teams - 1929-31, 1936, 1939 and 1944. His was the first in a long line of historic WTMJ Packers play-by-play voices including Ted Moore (1960-69), Gary Bender (1970-74), Jim Irwin (1975-98 as well as analyst from 1969-74) and Wayne Larrivee (1999-present).
Winnie also called Wisconsin Badgers games on WTMJ.
“I grew up with Russ Winnie," the late Packers historian Lee Remmel once said, according to a Packers news release. "I liked his dramatic style. He had an excellent vocabulary and expressed himself very well."
Chad Clifton's football vocabulary was pass protection. Only one offensive tackle, Forrest Gregg, played more games than Clifton's 165 in a Green Bay uniform.
A two-time Pro Bowler in his 12-year career (2000-11), Clifton was an anchor on the line that protected Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, along with Packers runners, to eight playoff appearances and a win in Super Bowl XLV.
Nick Collins was also part of that Super championship team, and his interception return in the first quarter was part of the first-half points explosion which powered the Packers to victory over Pittsburgh that evening in February 2011. Clifton, who played from 2005-11, earned three Pro Bowl berths.
