Fans of the Packers and Bears know it simply as the "Instant Replay Game." Now, 20 years later, it can be appreciated as one of 1989's most memorable games, and a game that helped to support the use of the league's groundbreaking camera technology.

That season would prove to be one of Green Bay's finest during the 20 years since Vince Lombardi had left the sideline. Not only did the Packers get the best of Chicago twice, but they were one of just two NFL teams to beat San Francisco. And the team's 10 wins under AP coach of the year Lindy Infante were the most the club had posted since the 1972 season.

The organization had struggled under Phil Bengtson and Dan Devine, and experienced a series of ups and downs under Lombardi disciples Bart Starr and Forrest Gregg. Infante was the first true outsider, the first man with a healthy distance from the Lombardi legacy, and someone's whose philosophies had taken the Packers into a new era of football.

Recalls Green Bay's quarterback, Don Majkowski, "We were starting to play really well. (In Infante's) first year, it took us the whole season to learn his offense, it was so complex … but a lot of people don't give him the credit he deserves. We didn't have a lot of talent that year but he had a great system and game-planned tremendously."

During the first half of the 1989 season, Green Bay was a steady 4-4, trailing Chicago and Minnesota (both 5-3) in the NFC Central race. Heading into that fateful Sunday afternoon at Lambeau Field, the Packers hadn't beaten the Bears in the last eight meetings.

Says Infante, "The very first thing any fan said to me after I got off the plane and had accepted the job in Green Bay was, 'You have to beat Chicago.' It's been that way forever, I'm sure."

The Packers got on the board first in the Nov. 5 contest on a 24-yard touchdown pass from Majkowski to Clint Didier. Bears PK Kevin Butler then made two field goals, and the Bears added a touchdown in the third quarter to take a 13-7 lead.

For Sterling Sharpe, who finished the 1989 season with an NFL-best 90 receptions, the game was one of his worst performances of the year (two catches, 19 yards). Says Majkowski, "A lot of times the Bears would roll coverage and take him away. He was our only real superstar receiver. I couldn't force it to him a lot."

Throughout much of the game, even without Sharpe's assistance, the Packers moved the ball with ease. The team just failed to finish drives. In fact, near the end of the game the Packers had several chances to take back the lead but the offense sputtered deep in Bears territory.

On one fourth-quarter drive, Majkowski says a Bears defender kicked the ball out of his hand; Chicago collected the fumble. "The next time we drove the length of the field and I threw an interception on a rollout pass with only a couple of minutes to go. You could hear the boo-birds and I was beside myself because it was a pretty bad decision." Coming to the sideline, Majkowski says he recalls an intense Infante grabbing hold of him. "(He) grabbed me by the facemask, which he never did, and just said, 'Look you're still going to be the hero of this game. You've got to keep your head up.' "

Green Bay got the ball for one last drive and quickly moved the length of the field, again positioning itself deep in Bears territory. Then, faced with a 4th-and-goal from the 14-yard line, with less than a minute remaining, Majkowski completed the most notable pass of his career.

"It was an improvised play, to be honest," Majkowski says. "We were in a four-receiver set and (Sharpe) was spread way out to the left. It was supposed to be a quick, short slant route because we were expecting a blitz on man-to-man coverage. We were thinking that he could catch it at six yards and take it in the rest of the way but when we snapped the ball the Bears fell back into a zone defense and took away the slant."

As the play broke down, Majkowski scrambled from the pocket toward the right sideline. Fearing he was running out of room, he threw back to the middle of the field where he found Sharpe sitting just over the goal line. Touchdown.

The fans at Lambeau went crazy, but the celebration was short-lived; Majkowski was flagged for being over the line of scrimmage on the play. Game officials had to review the play. Part of the league's introductory period of instant replay, the review took four minutes; Majkowski says he wasn't the least bit worried.

"I was confident I wasn't over," he says. "I had a good knack for that sort of thing. I knew I was getting close to the sideline, that was the scarier thing — that I was running out of room."

The replay booth reversed the call, awarding the touchdown to Green Bay. PK Chris Jacke's successful point-after try gave the Packers a 14-13 lead.

Says Infante, "There aren't too many games where you get to celebrate a win twice."

The win not only got Green Bay over the hump against its archrival (it beat the Bears 40-28 in Week 15 in Chicago) but it opened the door to a swarm of marketing opportunities. One of the more popular shirts in Packer country the next few seasons read 'After further review, the Bears still suck.'

"Packer fans were starving for a win," Majkowski says. "It's the one game everyone still wants to talk to me about."

The Packers won five of the remaining seven regular-season contests, including a Week 11 win in San Francisco over the eventual Super Bowl-champion 49ers, but were shut out of the postseason due to a tiebreaker with the 10-6 Vikings. Says Majkowski, "It was a shame we didn't go to the playoffs that year. We had a lot of momentum. I think we could have done some nice things."