Packers Alumni Spotlight: Ron Hallstrom

Wayne Larrivee sits down with former Green Bay Packers guard Ron Hallstrom to recount playing with strong offenses in the 1980s (1:56), playing through a dark Monday Night Football matchup as the strike began (5:06), and what it was like to see the transition from Bart Starr to Mike Holmgren (10:24).

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
For more than a century, the Green Bay Packers have
been a benchmark for football excellence. Thousands of players have
helped pave the way, and we're here to tell you
their stories. I'm Wayne Laravie. This is the Packers alumni.
Spot White offensive guard Ron Hallstrom was the Packers' first

(00:26):
round draft choice out of Iowa in nineteen eighty two.
His eleven year career in Green Bay spanned four coaching
stamps and the revitalization of a historic franchise.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Well, my lasting impression is when people ask me, you
know when I played, I said, I played in that
era when we didn't win a lot, but I got
a chance to feel it right at the end of
my career here. But I just tell people that's my
super Bowl. I made it through five head coaches, four
here and when in Philadelphia it was interesting. You know,
the league was changing, Everything was changing then, you know,

(01:01):
and we were just we were probably a couple steps
behind until we got into the nineties. You know, when
things start changing and coaching wise, what we were doing
coaching wise, and it's it's tough because I wanted to
keep playing and going. But you know, you get to
a point in your career where it's over, but I
could feel what was going to happen here. So it

(01:22):
was it was. It was good to you know, it
was good to be part of it. I'll never deny
that I don't care win, loss, whatever. Packer fans are
the best the community, you know. The involvement in how
they treat their players second to none.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Alstrom played on some of the Packers' most talented offensive
teams in the early eighties, featuring quarterback Lynn Dickey Hall
of Fame, wide receiver James Lofton, tight end Paul Kaufman,
and running back Eddie Lee.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
I've offensively, I thought that we could score on anybody.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
We had Lynn Dickey. Lynn Lynn could air of the
ball out couldn't move that well, you know, I mean,
and you know he had some injury issues. But we
could score points, you know, we could. It was it was.
It was fun to be part of it and watch
it happen. But we were always chasing, you know, trying
to trying to score more points, you know, and the
defense hadn't caught up with what the offense was doing.

(02:20):
But then you go back to you know, the coaching
changes every every time a new coach came in, everybody
was gone, you know, and it started all over all
new players. I tell people I probably played with two
or three thousand different guys since I bet here, so
but you know, it was always, uh, you know, we

(02:40):
had some We had some super great talent.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
You know.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
You look at James Lofton, you know, Eddie Lee, you know,
just the guys that the guys that we could run
the ball, we could pass the ball. Paul Kaufman, I
always tell people, they said, was Paul Kaufman tight? I said,
he was the first George Kittle. If you look at him,
that guy could do anything. He was a wasn't a
huge tight end, wasn't a he was, but he was
a big wide receiver. So he did everything George did.

(03:03):
Of course he feels it today, but you know, it's
just great times, great times for me and the career
that I had, you know, but I wish we would
have won a little more.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
There seemed to be a certain bond with that group.
I've gotten to know several of the players from your era,
that eighty two eighty three team. Jan Stenerud, who was
on that team you mentioned, Lynn Dickey and so many
other players Larry McCarron part of that team. Take me
back to those days at training camp. You're working under
Bart Starr, you got two of a practices, You're staying

(03:35):
out at Saint Norbert's and you're going to Nicky's to
have dinner. Right.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Oh yeah, I you know, I look at it today
and what the guys do today and what we did,
and you know, you know, you think of bart Starr,
who loved the man, but I can think of his
updowns when it comes to bart Starr, you know. And
then when Forrest got here, he had to magnify it,
you know. But you know, we did the old school
type of training. You know, in the league was changing then,

(03:59):
the players were changing, the league was changing, and some
of the stuff, you know, the hazing and the things
that they did that was kind of going on of
the league at that time. I think because we were
in that transition between you know a lot of the guys.
I really liked that era just because of the closeness
everyone had. But as we as I got later in

(04:21):
the career, people started to spread out a little more
sure and didn't have that you know, I don't know
that closeness.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Eleven years is a long time to play in the NFL.
A lot of stuff happens, like two strikes, including the
nineteen eighty two work stoppage that punctuated a rare playoff
season for the Packers of that era. The Packers actually
played the last game before the strike that year in
the Meadowlands against the Giants, and perhaps as a portent

(04:53):
of dark times ahead, there was a blackout that night.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
We're delayed what two hours or an hour we had
to wait. We knew we were going on strike. We're
on East Coast time, Monday night game and I'm like, oh, man,
can't we just can't we just end it now? You know?
But yeah, yeah, I remember. I think James had a great,
a big play in that game, big pass or a
big reverse or something like that. I remember you had

(05:21):
a huge, huge play in that game. Then all sudden
lights went out and it was like it was like
it was over. It was like proficient that that's what
was going to happen. The lights are going out, you
know what was.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
The plane light ride back to Green Bay?

Speaker 2 (05:34):
Like, well, there was a lot of a lot of
indecision at that time, you know, we didn't know where
we were going or what we were doing. But but again,
you know, you talk about the closeness of the of
the team. Back then, we had our own practices out
at Saint Orbert's. We all studied together, we met, you know,
met together all the things I think you weren't supposed
to do back then, but we did.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
It. Did that help you when you came back? And
because you made a play off run? I mean you
had qualified for the quote unquote tournament. Yeah, one, an
emotional playoff game here at Green Bay, I think the
first playoff game since the Ice Bowl in Green Bay
that year over the Cardinals talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
You know, it was it was strange coming back because
you know, we you know, eight games. You know, we
didn't play eight games. You know, it was a long time.
You know, we did our best to stay in shape.
So I think it was you could tell who who
stayed together during the strike and who didend you know,
with the teams. You know, we kind of had that
we had a chance to do something, and I think

(06:34):
because we stayed together, it gave us that opportunity. And
you know, we came out firing on all cylinders, you know,
and it was great. Like you said, to have, you know,
one of the first playoff games, you know since Lombardier,
I believe it was, you know, at that time. So
it was fun. I remember Ernie McMillan was the offensive

(06:55):
line coach and we were playing the Cardinals, and that's
where Ernie did this. You know, Ernie always had great speeches.
He didn't care where he played. He just wanted us
to beat him.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
So let me the build up to the next season,
the eighty three season. You guys are supposed to be
one of the better teams in the league, and it
was a struggle. We were winning one, losing one. You
played five overtime games. My god, yeah, five overtime games.
That eighty three season. Came down to a field goal
in Chicago that kind of changed the course of everything.

(07:27):
Tell me about that.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Well, like you say, we were scoring, you know, I
mean that Monday night game against the Giants or Washington.
You know, you look at that game, you know how
that game went, you know, I mean it was just
back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and
missfield goal by them, we get a last opportunity. That's
kind of how our season.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Was that year.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
You know, it was just always last second opportunity. Defense
was doing enough, but we were struggling a little bit defensively.
Everyone thought we were going to do it that year,
you know, and it just happened, you know, and then
you know, and then you look at eighty four, you know,
Forrest coming in. You know, we we had a couple
of good teams there, but they you know, I think

(08:08):
we won seven and one or one and seven and
ended up seven to one second half of the season,
you know, I mean we struggled for you know, we
still had talent on a team. Then that was a
nice thing, you know, that first couple of years, you know,
after Bart left, but then everything got cleaned down and
it was you know, what they called just to redo.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
You know. Bart once said that one of the worst
decisions of his career was becoming the head coach of
the Packers because he had really had no coaching experience.
But by nineteen eighty three, and I remember the people
in Chicago, Mike Dick is specifically telling me Bart Starr
had become a very good coach by then. What was

(08:48):
it like when you guys lost that game in Chicago
on the field goal. Had you won that game, you're
in the playoffs. Yes, there's no forest, Greg Era, did
you understand the gravity of what had happened on the
way back to Green Bay?

Speaker 2 (08:59):
I think we all did, But there was there was
that underlying that, you know, background noise that Bart had
been here too long, you know, that he had he
had been coaching here too long. So it was a
do or die, you know, and that kind of got
to the players.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
You know.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
Of course, everyone loved Bart, so it didn't it didn't matter,
you know, we just we just wanted what was you know,
what was great for Bart. But there was that feeling,
you know that we kind of knew if this doesn't happen,
you know, it's probably going to go the other way.
Very somber on the plane, you know, because we knew
that we didn't know what was going to happen the

(09:37):
next day, and the possibilities were enormous either way.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
Forrest greg replaced Bart starrs head coach in nineteen eighty four.
Lindy and Fante would follow him, and the team of
the eighties eventually moved on. Then in the early nineties,
things started changing for the better in Green Bay. Bob
Harlan takes over Wolf comes in Mike Hombrian comes in.

(10:02):
What was different because you were this was historic now
and it's context of the history of this franchise. That
was a historic moment. You're a part of it. What
did you, from a players standpoint, notice that was different
with this new regime? And could you foresee that the
renaissance was beginning?

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yes, you know, I look at it like this and
it's and it's no knock on, you know, it's just
a league was changing. Things were changing. We were getting
out of the Lombardi era. You know, we were getting
out of that mentality that we had here for so long.
You know, and and you know, don't get me wrong,
that was phenomenal history. But the game was changing, the

(10:39):
league was changing, and we were catching up. You know.
It started with the administration, you know, Bob coming in.
You know, Bob. I don't know what the connection or
the feelings between Forest and Bob war, but I know
once you know, uh or Lindy once, once Lindy was
out of here and Bob was in there, everything kind

(11:02):
of just changed. The whole attitude changed, everything changed. You know.
Mike brought a lot of that with him, though, you know,
I mean when you get a court coach of his
caliber and his talent that comes in here and you
can see the success that he had, you know, and
it was kind of like the players were thinking, man,
that's what we need. We haven't had this, you know,
we haven't had this offense, we haven't had this type

(11:23):
of defense. You know, this is what we need here,
you know. And you know, with Ron just changing the
attitude of the whole organization, and you could feel it
as a groundswell. You could feel it just you know,
from the first day Mike got here.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
Today, Ron enjoys the Packers the way most fans do
from the stands, with family and friends.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
Just being able to survive the forehead coaches for one thing.
But my two beautiful children were born here. They're both
cheese heads, you know, they were born at Bellant so
and they still live in the state. So you know,
that memory of just family and the Packers and and
being part of this whole, this whole crazy Packer world.

(12:07):
You know, it's hard to really pinpoint any one thing.
I still come back for the games. You know, I've
had a box here since nineteen eighty nine. I got
a house in the South End zone, so we do
our packer weekends. I'm retired now finally, and I can
make long weekends a good time. So the memories are

(12:29):
still happening, you know, that's the best, and I'm turning
it over, you know, showing my kids and friends and
family and everything what it's like to hang out at
you know, at a packer game.