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A Brief History
The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are currently members of the North Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL).
The Packers are the last remaining example of the "small town teams" that comprised a majority of the NFL during the 1920s. Green Bay is by far the smallest media market to be the home of a North American major professional sports league team (though their fanbase includes Milwaukee, most of Wisconsin, and cheeseheads scattered throughout the United States and Canada).
Founded on August 11th, 1919 by former high school football rivals Earl "Curly" Lambeau and George Whitney Calhoun as a new version of the semi-pro town teams that had been playing in Green Bay since 1896, the Packers turned professional. It joined the NFL in 1921.
Today, the team holds the record for most NFL league championships with 12: nine NFL Championships prior to the Super Bowl era; three additional titles in 1966, 1967, 1996 after which they defeated the American Football League/American Football Conference champion in Super Bowl I, Super Bowl II and Super Bowl XXXI. The team has a fierce, long-standing rivalry with the Chicago Bears, whom they have played in over 170 games. The team also holds the distinction of winning the first two AFL-NFL Championship Games that were held before the AFL-NFL Merger, later referred to as Super Bowl I and II.
The Packers are currently the only non-profit, community owned major league professional sports team in the United States. Currently, a total of 4,750,925 shares are owned by 111,967 stockholders — none of whom receive any dividend.
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