Cliff Christl

Clifford A. Christl (born 1947) is an American sportswriter who is the team historian of the Green Bay Packers, a football team in the National Football League (NFL). Prior to this role, Christl worked as a newspaper reporter for over 30 years at newspapers in Wisconsin, including the Manitowoc Herald Times, the Green Bay Press-Gazette and the Milwaukee Journal (which became the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel during his tenure).

Throughout his years as a reporter, Christl covered the Packers as a sportswriter, while also chronicling the team in his spare time (which included writing two books) and helping establish the Packers Heritage Trail. In 2014, after historian Lee Remmel left the team, Christl was named the team's historian. One of his first activities after being hired was to write The Greatest Story in Sports: Green Bay Packers 1919–2019, a four-part book chronicling the first 100 years of the history of the Packers. Christl also writes articles on the team's history, records oral histories with past Packers' players and coaches and answers fan's questions about the team.

Early life Cliff Christl was born in 1947, in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he attended Green Bay East High School. Christl's father, also named Clifford, fought in World War II, but died shortly after his son's birth. His mother remarried and Christl noted he spent a lot of his childhood with his grandmother, who worked at Wade House Historic Site, and was the one who originally got him interested in history. He attended University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh, where he majored in political science but ended up taking journalism courses in his senior year. As a child, Christl attended numerous Packers games at City Stadium, including Bart Starr's first start and the 1967 NFL Championship Game (known as the Ice Bowl). Christl's parents had season tickets to Packers' home games since the early 1950s. Christl was named Wisconsin sportswriter of the year seven times and had two stories recognized as the best sports story of the year. In 2021, Christl released The Greatest Story in Sports: Green Bay Packers 1919–2019, a four-part book with over 1,000 pages total, as the definitive history of the team. As team historian, Christl continued documenting the team's history through interviews with past players and coaches; he estimates that he has accumulated over 250 oral histories dating back to the 1990s before he was the team's historian. Christl has a close association with the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame, which he helped reorganize during its redevelopment in 2015.

Personal Christl was married to his wife Shirley. In 2007, Christl was inducted into the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.