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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

It’s A Shame He Missed The Party Defensive Tackle Henry Jordan Dearly Loved An Audience

Associated Press

Henry Jordan loved people, loved talking and loved laughing. So he would have loved his induction this weekend at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Jordan, the standout defensive tackle for the Green Bay Packers, died more than 18 years ago of a heart attack. He was 42.

“He would have loved this. He loved an audience,” said his widow, Olive Frey. “He was a people person. It didn’t make any difference where you were in the social register, he enjoyed everybody. He would sit and have coffee with the women who cooked for him at the training camp at St. Norbert’s or he would be equally happy talking to President Nixon.”

Instead, Henry Jordan Jr. will accept induction on behalf of his father. Jordan’s two daughters, four grandchildren - two more are on the way - will all be there.

Frey, now remarried and living in Texas, said despite the delay the ceremony is still “the highlight of my life.”

Jordan was a backup for two seasons with the Cleveland Browns before being traded to the Green Bay Packers in 1959.

Jordan, who had to report to Green Bay within 24 hours, packed the car. He put a rack on the roof of the car to carry suitcases, but when it rattled midway to Wisconsin he took it down and left it by the side of the road. One practice with the Packers and first-year coach Vince Lombardi was all Jordan needed to realize he had been given a new start.

It was also a new start for the Packers, 1-10-1 the year before. Over the next decade, with Jordan as a fixture at right defensive tackle, the Packers won six divisional titles, five NFL championships and the first two Super Bowls.

Even though Jordan was selected to the All-NFL team six times, he didn’t really think he would ever go into the Hall of Fame.

One year the Jordans stopped in Canton and toured the hall on their way to Virginia to visit family.

“There was a huge picture of two football players sitting on a bench in the rain. One of them in the picture was Henry,” Frey said. “He saw that and said, ‘You know, that’s probably as close as I’ll ever come to this wonderful place.’

“That’s all he ever said, but I knew that it meant as much to him as it did to anybody. … And Henry did get there. He did make it. And I think he’d be so proud and so pleased and so humbled by it.”