Former Green Bay running back Donny Anderson is probably remembered by most Packers  fans for his heavy usage in the legendary Ice Bowl in 1967. In that game, Anderson had a total of 22 offensive touches for 79 yards, including a pair of key receptions on the game-winning drive. In fact, he could have been the one to score the winning touchdown, if only he’d been able to get his footing on the icy turf from inside the 5. (Some argue that he did score, but the refs marked the ball wrong.)

Many, however, don’t remember that the Texas native served as the Packers’ punter for five seasons. In the process, he essentially invented the concept of what came to be known as “hang time.” 

While Anderson averaged less than 40 yards per kick during his career, his left-footed style made the ball difficult for returners to field. And rather than rely on leg strength to boot the ball as far as possible, he focused on kicking the ball as high in the air as he could – the goal was to give his teammates time to get downfield to tackle the returner.

And it worked. Before too long, punters around the league began to emulate his style, giving rise to the concept of hang time.

For his Green Bay career, he sent 315 punts into the sky, with a career average of 39.6 yards. But no one, including his head coach, Vince Lombardi, was complaining about the yardage.

"I never gave up a punt return for a touchdown, and in 1967 we gave up an average of less than two yards per return (1.7)," Anderson said in a 2011 interview with Packers.com. "Being left-footed, I had this high, hanging, backwards spiral going. Most guys weren't used to it. I was a punt-returner, too, so I knew it was a backwards ball. That was just the system back then. Coach Lombardi said, 'You're punting.' So I punted."

In a 2021 interview, he said, “My ball had a backward spin, made it tough for punt returners, plus there was the hang time factor and the fact I kicked the ball high. Anyway, I would punt early in practice to Elijah [Pitts] about 15 minutes before everyone else got on the field. And on this occasion, Elijah was having a tough day catching my punts. Coach Lombardi was watching us and Elijah said to him, ‘Coach, I’ve never caught a left-footed punter before and it’s really hard to catch.’ The main reason Elijah was having a tough time was because the spiral was going the opposite way.”

He also told the story that the first time he punted against the Bears, Gale Sayers dropped two of his punts, which the Packers turned into 10 points.

Additionally, Anderson was a prolific running back and receiver. In fact, he had such good hands that at the time Lombardi considered making him a wide receiver. Anderson can be forgiven for not living up to his first-round draft pedigree – the Packers took him seventh overall in 1965, ahead of names such as Joe Namath and Fred Biletnikoff, both of whom became NFL Hall of Famers -- simply because was so all-around productive. He also was prolific at returning kicks.

Truly, even if he didn’t fully fill the shoes of his predecessor, Paul Hornung, he was so good at so many things that he cemented himself in Packers lore and was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame. Heck, he was even a pretty good passer.

For starters, when he signed with Green Bay, he received a then-unprecedented $700,000 thanks to a bidding war with the Houston Oilers, who had selected Anderson in the AFC draft. He and fellow running back Jim Grabowski, who also was handsomely paid, were referred to as the Gold Dust Twins.

Following Anderson’s pivotal role in the Super Bowl II victory over the Oakland Raiders, Lombardi threw an arm around Anderson and said, "You became a man today. I'm really proud of you." 

Following Lombardi’s departure from Green Bay, Anderson stuck around for several seasons, eventually being traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for running back MacArthur Lane. But before he left, he would put up nearly 5,000 scrimmage yards in green and gold: 3,165 yards rushing and 125 receptions for 1,725 yards for an average of 13.8 yards per catch.