The Lumberjack Band: ‘Go! You Packers Go!’

The 1939 Lumberjack Band, front row from left: Walter Remick, James Collard and Franklin Le Roy; second row: Wilner Burke, Norbert Ecker, Russell Walters, Joseph Hartinger, Gordon Beseau and Bill Johnson; third row: Tony Vandenberg, Ray Du Puis, James Aerts, Howard Sheldon, Bernard Paulson and Carl Sturdevant; fourth row: Leo Klamert, Elmer Kapp, Quinten Willems and Merrill Guerin; fifth row: Wendell Shaw, Donald Barber, Robert Le Claire, Clifford Ahasey and Eugene Stiller.

Press-Gazette photo

The original sheet music for "Go! You Packers Go." Written and published in 1930 by Erich Karll.

Staff photo

Posted Sunday, March 2, 2025 4:00 am

By Kris Leonhardt
MMC Senior Editor

Continued from previous week

Back in 1931, the Lumberjack Band had been leading the crowd with the fight song, “Go! You Packers Go!” — composed and written by Erich Karll.

“The original idea for the Packers song was one of those things which seemed like a ‘screwball’ idea at the time but which caught on and paid off,” a Sept. 4, 1953, Press-Gazette article stated.

“Karll lived in Green Bay at the time and wrote the words for the song. He pestered a number of musicians to help him set it to music.”

One day Karll went to WHBY, where local musician, Billy Burt, sat down at the piano and created the sheet music.

“And then, in 1930, Karll had the song copyrighted and published,” the article added.

The lyrics:

Hail, hail, the gang’s all here to yell for you,
And keep you going in your winning ways,

Hail, hail, the gang’s all here to tell you, too,

That, win or lose, we’ll always sing your praises, Packers;

Go, you Packers, go and get ‘em
Go, you fighting fools, upset ‘em
Smash their line with all your might
A Touchdown, Packers, Fight! Fight! Fight,

Fight on, you Blue and Gold, to glory
Win this game, the same old story,

Fight, you Packers,
Fight, and bring the bacon home to OLD GREEN BAY.

In September 1939, Sports Editor John Walter of the Press-Gazette wrote that the song was being revived for the rebirth of the Lumberjack Band.

“[Alex Enna] is having some New York arrangers work on ‘Go! You Packers Go!’ to get a more satisfactory arrangement, one which will show to the best advantage of his particular grouping of instruments,” he stated.

The new Lumberjack “swing band” made its first appearance dressed in bright colorful uniforms as they cheered on the Green Bay Packers against the Chicago Cardinals on Sept. 17, 1939.

According to Walter, Tony and Jim Collard were the only members of the original band who reprised their roles with the reboot of the band.

When performing for games, the band was often joined by members of local high school groups.

“We have been sold on the Packers Lumberjack band ever since it was organized, and Sunday it sounded peppier than ever, established in an attractive shell at the northwest corner of the gridiron. We feel, too, that additional musical organizations add to, rather than subtract from, the utility of the Lumberjack group,” Walter wrote in 1940.

To be continued