Believed to be the oldest living Green Bay Packers player and the final tie to the hallowed days of coach Curly Lambeau on the frozen tundra, Dan Orlich passed away on Jan. 18 at the age of 94, the Packers' team website announced on Friday.
Orlich, an end who played three NFL seasons, died in Reno, Nev.
An eighth-round pick in the 1949 draft out of Nevada, Orlich played in all 36 games over his three seasons; the first in 1949 was the last for the legendary Lambeau, whose name famously adorns Green Bay's homefield.
"Curly was very serious," Orlich told ESPN in October. "He pretty much owned the team, but he was very serious. He wasn't difficult to get along with, but you couldn't get too close to him. And of course he favored some of his old-time players."
In the October piece with ESPN, Orlich confirmed the historical data, stating that Alex Wizbicki, at 97, was the oldest living Packer, but he was "the only living person who played for Curly Lambeau. Wizbicki, however, died in December.
Thirty years after he was drafted, Orlich, a native of Chisholm, Minn. made famous by Field of Dreams' Moonlight Graham, was inducted into the national Trapshooting Hall of Fame as he garnered 37 Grand American World Trapshooting Championships from 1956 to 1971.
According to ESPN, in October he said he was living alone with two daughters and three granddaughters living close to him. No cause of death was given.
