When I decided to travel back in time 63 years to tell the (potentially) controversial Green Bay Packers story in this week's ESPN The Magazine about a mysterious fire at the team's Rockwood Lodge practice facility that actually saved the franchise from financial ruin and the NFL scrap heap, I knew what I needed most: eyewitnesses.

But the first person I found with any connection to the lodge told me she might be willing to talk sometime around Thanksgiving before politely asking me to, ya know, get the heck off her porch.

The second person I found was Ken Kranz, 90, a defensive back on the 1949 Packers team and one of the oldest living former NFL players. The only problem, his daughter Kathy Rink informed me, was that Ken was scheduled for heart surgery. I had begun to lose hope about ever getting to the bottom of the Rockwood Lodge saga when Kathy followed up that news with a statement that, I swear, has to be the embodiment of everything we love about the Packers, football and the good old heartland of Wisconsin and the Midwest.

"So," Kathy said, "he's busy in the hospital tomorrow with the heart surgery and all, but dad might be able to do the interview the next day if that will work for ya."

A few weeks later, Ken and his lovely wife Shirley answered the door of their home near Milwaukee dressed in their best Packers gear. In their arms was a thick scrapbook from Rockwood Lodge that contained some of the most amazing football artifacts I have ever seen that, along with Ken and Shirley's memories, served as a time capsule right back to the front lawn of Rockwood Lodge in the summer of 1949.

In fact, the first thing that we turned to was a three-page handwritten quiz on Rockwood Lodge stationary of the Packers' plays for the 1949 season. On the back, perhaps in the handwriting of Curly Lambeau himself, was Ken's grade:

Ken Kranz, 90, met with David Fleming to talk about the Rockwood Lodge shortly after having heart surgery. ESPN

Good job: 100%

That was the first thing I put in my notebook for the story we called "Blaze of Glory." I spent the rest of the summer filling up the rest of those pages. Most of what I found is in the actual piece. But this week's Flem File is a collection of some of the best artifacts that didn't make it into the printed story. Enjoy.

• Kranz also still has the telegram he received from Lambeau informing him he had been selected in the 21st round of the 1949 NFL draft. "Do not obligate yourself to anyone until you hear from me," the coach wrote. Says Kranz, "That was Curly right there in a nutshell: serious, in charge, and not too fond of anyone who would dare question him."

• Speed was every bit as important in football 50 years ago as it is today. Kranz was a 190-pound running back in college but because the Packers were loaded at the position with Hall of Famer Tony Canadeo, Lambeau moved Kranz to defensive back, where he played seven games and had one fumble recovery.

• Lambeau left the Packers after the 1949 season and was replaced by Gene Ronzani. When the new Packers coach failed to make good on a promised $500 raise for Kranz, the defensive back decided to quit and take a teaching job near Milwaukee for -- get this -- the same amount ($3,500) the Packers had offered. Kranz taught sixth, seventh and eighth grade for the next 33 years. Today the starting salary for a teacher in Wisconsin is just nine times what Kranz made in 1950, whereas the average salary of an NFL defensive back is now 343 times what Kranz made.

• Ken on Curly and his Camelot: "If Curly wanted to do something, he did it. That's what made him a good coach and that's what led him to buy Rockwood Lodge. No one wanted him to do it. No one thought he could pull it off. But he did it anyway."

• With passing and scoring off the charts in today's NFL, I'm sure I will come across plenty of eye-popping football statistics in 2013, but nothing quite as incredible as this: Ken, who turned 90 last week, and Shirley, 89, have been married for 67 years.