GREEN BAY – Former Packers assistant coach Sherman Lewis, video director Al Treml and equipment manager Bob Noel were honored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame this week as recipients of the Awards of Excellence for 2023.
This year's 17 honorees were celebrated with an evening reception Wednesday at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, and their awards were presented to the individuals or a representative on Thursday at a luncheon hosted by Hall of Fame QB Dan Fouts.
The Awards of Excellence, a program in its second year, recognize significant contributors to the game from five categories – assistant coaches, athletic trainers, equipment managers, film/video directors and public relations personnel.
Lewis served as the Packers offensive coordinator from 1992-99 – all of head coach Mike Holmgren's tenure plus the team's one year with Ray Rhodes in charge.
He had come to Green Bay after working with Holmgren as an offensive assistant in San Francisco, and after leaving the Packers he went on to serve as offensive coordinator for three other NFL clubs (Minnesota, Detroit, Washington). In the 1996 season, the Packers won Super Bowl XXXI and had the league's highest-scoring offense under Lewis.
His coaching career spanned 34 years in all, beginning at his alma mater, Michigan State. From there, he was selected in the 1964 AFL Draft by the New York Jets.
Treml was hired by Vince Lombardi as the team's film/video director in 1967 and held that post for 34 years. He began filming Packers games three years earlier on a part-time basis while working for a local TV station, WBAY in Green Bay.
Upon being hired by Lombardi, Treml became just the second full-time film director in the NFL and he worked for nine Green Bay head coaches. He was elected the NFL's first chairman of the NFL video directors committee in 1986, and when he retired in 2001, he was the NFL's longest-serving video director.
Treml was inducted in the Packers Hall of Fame in 2008.
Noel was hired by Lombardi as the first full-time employee in the team's equipment department. He worked as the assistant equipment manager until 1977, when he was promoted to head equipment manager, a position he held through the 1993 season.
