That Era When the Braves and Green Bay Packers Shared a Stadium

The Atlanta Braves and Green Bay Packers are rarely in the same sentence nowadays, but there was a time when the two teams were connected

It sounds like a weird combo of teams now, but it made sense for the era | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via Imagn Content Services, LLC

Before Turner Field, before Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, there was Milwaukee County Stadium. Milwaukee built it to attract a Major League Baseball team. The Braves took a flyer on it, leaving Boston and jumpstarting the league’s push to the west, and ultimately to the south. 

Just weeks before the 1953 season, the Braves were approved to move to their new home, going on to set attendance records in the National League. However, while the stadium was primarily built for baseball, there was another motive: football. 

The Green Bay Packers had already started a tradition of playing part of their home schedule in Milwaukee 20 years earlier. However, the city was hoping to bring them over from Green Bay on a full-time basis. The legendary Lambeau Field didn’t exist yet, and the Packers were playing at City Stadium (also known later as East Stadium), which seated 25,000. 

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The plan didn’t work, but even after Lambeau was built, the Packers would continue to play in Milwaukee well after the Braves moved to Atlanta. The Packers' last season playing in Milwaukee was 1994.  

For a few seasons, the Packers found themselves in a much larger part-time stadium. This also meant that there was what now sounds like an unusual pairing of tenants. During the entire Braves’ stay in Milwaukee, they shared it with the Packers. Two teams that you would never associate with each other nowadays played home games in the same building for 13 years. 

The Packers would play in Milwaukee two to four times per season. Sometimes, there was an overlap between an NFL home game and baseball season, but most of the Packers games in Milwaukee at the time were played after the World Series. 

Because of this split schedule, the Packers spent a lot of time at baseball stadiums. In this era, it was common for NFL teams to play at MLB stadiums. We’re not talking multi-purpose stadiums like the old Oakland Coliseum. We mean Yankee Stadium, Wrigley Field, Forbes Field (Pirates), Tiger Stadium and Griffith Stadium (Senators). 

There are other examples too, but these are some of the examples of road stadiums the Packers played at while overlapping with the Braves. 

Overall, those who followed the Braves and the Packers from 1953 to 1965 were certainly spoiled. The Braves won the 1957 World Series and the 1958 National League pennant. The Packers followed those up with three NFL championships in 1961, 1962 and 1965. 

Coincidentally, both teams got their share of postseason action at Yankee Stadium. The Braves played the Yankees in both World Series, and the Packers beat the Giants twice, one of those occurring in the Bronx. However, the NFL Championship played in Wisconsin took place in Green Bay. 

Milwaukee sports fans had it good for a time. They had Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Warren Spahn, Bart Starr and Vince Lombardi playing or coaching games in their backyard. 

However, it wouldn’t last forever. The record attendance for the Braves eventually gave way to woes, and they took the opportunity to head for the growing city of Atlanta. 

The overlap of 13 years may not sound long, but if someone was 10 years old in 1953, they would have grown up and graduated from university around the time that the Braves left Milwaukee. 

The old popular ABC show, Happy Days, which ran for 11 seasons and took place in Milwaukee, overlaps entirely with this era of the Braves and Packers sharing Milwaukee County Stadium. 

Even though the time in a stadium together ended after the 1965 MLB season, some final connections between the two teams occurred much later. 

The Packers’ final game at Milwaukee County Stadium was coincidentally against the Atlanta Falcons. Up until a few seasons prior, the Falcons had been sharing Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium with the Braves. 

It was a battle of the former Braves roommates. If we want to up the stakes a bit, the Packers’ quarterback, Brett Favre, played his first NFL season for the Falcons while the team still shared a stadium with the Braves. He can say he called two former Braves stadiums home. 

In the modern day, these teams feel as far apart from being relevant to each other as they can get. The Brewers overlapped with the Packers for way longer in the same building. The same is true for the Braves and Falcons down in Atlanta. Even the Braves' connection to the Red Sox is more relevant. 

But it was fun bringing that small blip in history back into the spotlight. Two teams with deep histories in their respective leagues had an overlap for a time when some of their biggest names represented them. There’s something cool about that.