60 Heroes: Holding the Line

The same man who played center on the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers in 1966 and 1967 also served as a sturdy bridge in closing the gap between the NFLPA and the league during its multiple labor battles in the 1970s.

As a player rep for the Packers and member of the NFLPA Executive Committee, Ken Bowman was one of three players, along with Kermit Alexander and Tom Keating, to be a part of the negotiating committees for both 1970 and 1974 strikes. During the latter stoppage, Bowman organized a picket line in Green Bay, going as far as to take the protests onto club property, which resulted in a brief jail stint. 

Following a one-year run in the World Football League in 1975, Bowman volunteered to be the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the NFL after Commissioner Pete Rozelle declared a NFL boycott against signing players from the WFL that season. Bowman’s efforts resulted in a ruling against the ban, allowing players left unemployed by the WFL’s demise to immediately sign with NFL teams.

With his playing career in its final stages, Bowman elected to attend law school at his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin, and became a practicing lawyer after his retirement from football. As a lawyer, he served on the NFLPA Workers Compensation Panel of Attorneys and continued to help the NFLPA make large strides in establishing a fair workplace for its players.