Best of the Packers: Top 10 quarterbacks since 1960
By Phil Watson
Zeke Bratkowski, shown on a 1990 Pacific Trading Cards football card.
9. Zeke Bratkowski (1963-68, 1971)
Zeke Bratkowski came to the Green Bay Packers in October 1963 for a $100 waiver claim after he had been cut by the Los Angeles Rams.
He wound up being Bart Starr’s trusted backup for seven seasons in Green Bay, with the team posting a 4-4-1 record in the games he started. He made five starts in 1968, throwing for 835 yards, three touchdowns and seven picks.
But his best effort came in a 1965 Western Division playoff, when he led the Packers to an overtime win over the Baltimore Colts after taking over for an injured Starr early in the game.
He was part of three championship teams and retired after the 1968 season to become an assistant coach for Phil Bengston in Green Bay.
His rights had been lost the Minnesota Vikings off waivers in 1970 and in 1971, when the team needed a quarterback, Bratkowski was reacquired for a third-round pick in 1972.
He played in six games, starting one, and retired again.
He went on to work as an assistant coach for more than 20 years, with the Bears, Indianapolis Colts, New York Jets, Cleveland Browns, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Jets, while also spending seven seasons (1975-81) with the Packers.
He threw for 3,147 yards and 21 touchdowns with 29 interceptions in 43 appearances for Green Bay, compiling a passer rating of 65.5.
He was a second-round pick by the Bears out of Georgia in the 1953 NFL Draft and signed with Chicago in 1954. Sitting out two seasons to serve in the military, Bratkowski was a part-time starter for the Bears through the 1960 season.
In March 1961, the Bears traded Bratkowski to the Los Angeles Rams to complete an earlier deal in which Chicago acquired quarterback Billy Wade.
He started 24 games for Los Angeles, with the team going 3-21, before he was waived in October 1963.
Bratkowski was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in 1989.
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