Art Daley
Inducted: 1993
Sportswriter: 1941-43, 1946-2011
Daley covered the Packers on a near-daily basis as sports editor of the Green Bay Press-Gazette for 21 years, but wrote about them for close to 70 years in all. He started covering the team when it played in old City Stadium, but also was a fixture in the press box at Lambeau Field from the time it opened in 1957 as new City Stadium until his death more than 50 years later.
Times were vastly different when Daley started writing about the Packers, and he was expected to be as much a cheerleader as a reporter. Andrew B. Turnbull, his boss and a member of the Packers' executive committee, instructed Daley early in his career not to write anything so negative that it might jeopardize the Packers' standing in the NFL. At the time, the Packers were living from year-to-year – if not day-to-day when things were really bad – and Daley's positive coverage undoubtedly helped their cause.
"When you grow up in this business and you find certain people that make an impression on you, he was one of them," said Green Bay attorney and Packers executive committee member Tom Olejniczak, who started reading Daley in the 1950s about the same time his father, Dominic, became president of the Packers. "He commanded a lot of respect. (He) had a great sense of what the Packers meant to the community."
Daley also was a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee, serving on it from 1963 to 1998. He and Jack Yuenger founded the Green Bay Packers Yearbook in 1960. He also was an original member of both the board of directors and the selection committee of the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame. In 1977, Daley was presented with the Dick McCann Award, given to a reporter who had made a long and distinguished contribution to pro football through his coverage. From 1978 until his death, Daley wrote for Packer Report.
Born Aug. 16, 1916, in St. Paul, Minn. Given name Arthur James Lunkenheimer. Grew up in Fond du Lac, Wis., and adopted his stepfather's last name, Daley, around the time he launched his writing career. Served in the Army during World War II. Died Feb. 19, 2011, at age 94.
- By Cliff Christl