American professional football player, quarterback for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL) through five NFL championships and the team's first two Super Bowl titles. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977.
Born Bryan Bartlett Starr in Montgomery, Alabama, he was an outstanding quarterback in high school. Success in his first two years on the University of Alabama football team was followed by disappointing junior and senior seasons, and he was not chosen until the 17th round of the professional football draft in 1956. He played primarily as backup quarterback for the Packers until the latter half of the 1959 season, when he became the first-string starter for the team's new coach, Vince Lombardi.
During the 1960s Starr excelled as the Packers' quarterback. In 1960 the Packers won the Western Conference, and the next two years the team won the NFL title. After 1965 the team began to rely less on its running backs and more on the passing of Starr. The Packers won the NFL championship in 1965 and 1966. In 1967 the team won its first Super Bowl title. Later that year the team won its fifth NFL championship. In 1968 the Packers again won the Super Bowl. Starr was voted the most valuable player in both the 1967 and the 1968 Super Bowls. He retired before the 1972 season and became an assistant coach of the Packers. He was named head coach in 1975, but as a coach he never enjoyed the success he had had as a player. During his playing career, Starr completed 57.4 percent of his passes—an NFL record—and he was the league's best passer in 1962, 1964, and 1966.