Green Bay Packers Draft: 1947-49

Photograph courtesy of packershistory.net.

Photos on this post courtesy of packershistory.net.

Here we are sitting post- NFL Combine weekend and just around the corner from the 2015 NFL Draft, a time when each of the 32 teams, including selections by the Green Bay Packers, will be made.

This year’s draft, for the first time in half a century, is being held this year in Chicago, Ill., beginning Thursday, April 30, and continuing through Saturday, May 2.

With that said, we’ve decided to take a look back at the Packers‘ top choices in each of the drafts through the years – the first of which was held in 1936.

Here is our countdown of first round draft choices already published: 

1936 – Russ Letlow

1937 – Ed Jankowski

1938 – Cecil Isbell

1939 – Jerry Buhler

1940 – Hal Van Every

1941 – George Peskvan – but Tony Canadeo was seventh-rounder

1942 – Urban Odson

1943 – Dick Wildung

1944- Merv Pregulman

1945 – Walt Schlinkman

1946 – Johnny Strzykalski

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We’ve decided to provide you with a full list of the draft picks from each year continuing right up until 2014 … which we will consider just as the draft is kicking off at the end of April and beginning of May.

This exercise gives us the opportunity to look at how the draft process has changed over the years and remember the top draft selections made by the Packers and how they impacted the team and the league.

So, let’s keep the ball rolling today with the full list of Packers’ picks of the college players that were brought to Green Bay in the drafts between 1947 and 1949 … below you will see the Packers’ first choices in these draft, when all was said and done didn’t make huge impacts on the franchise.

It was Jug Girard, an end out of Wisconsin drafted first by the team in 1948, that had the greatest career of those drafted over this time period in Green Bay. Green Bay was also on its way down in league standings during this period.

The Packers were 6-5 in 1947, 3-9 in 1948 and 2-10 in 1949.

Girard played the first three years of his NFL career in Green Bay, then moved on to the Detroit Lions where he spent six years, finishing up in Pittsburgh for one final season.

While in the league, Girard was productive rushing, passing and catching the ball – as a punter and quarterback in Green Bay, he completed 66 passes on 189 attempts for 998 yards, but also threw five touchdowns to 13 interceptions.

But it was his pass-catching abilities that kept him in the league. During his entire career, he caught 109 balls for 1,838 yards and 15 touchdowns. During his four years in Green Bay he caught just 16 passes for 324 yards, but had a healthy per-catch average of 20.3 yards. He scored two touchdowns and his longest reception went for 75 yards.As a rusher, he carried the ball 194 times for 703 yards and three touchdowns.

Green Bay Packers Drafts 1947-49