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Vince
Lombardi
was a successful football player in his
youth, but is best known for his successes
as an NFL football coach. Over the course
of his life he led teams to two Super
Bowl wins and five NFL Championships with
a total career record of 105 wins and
35 losses.
Born
on June 11, 1913, Vince Lombardi spent
the first years of his life in Brooklyn
New York in the area known as Sheepshead
Bay in south Brooklyn. He attended public
schools in his youth and grew up as the
oldest of five children in a Catholic
household. Lombardi studied to become
a priest for a brief period at the age
of 15, attending Cathedral Prep for four
years, two short of the six year program.
He transferred to St. Francis Preparatory
High School where he began his career
in football. Although the rest of his
life revolved around the sport, Lombardi
always remained a devout Catholic throughout
his career.
In
1933, Vince Lombardi enrolled as a student
at Fordham University with the help of
a football scholarship. He was scheduled
to play under the supervision of legendary
coach Sleep Jim Crowley. Although he was
a light 170 pounds at the time, he was
considered an essential part of the the
offensive line which became known as the
"Seven Blocks of Granite". He
was just as successful in the classroom
and managed to graduate from Fordham in
1937 with a business major at the age
of 24.
Lombardi
pursued his business career for the next
two years, working in finance while taking
night classes at Fordham to complete a
law degree. At the same time, Vince Lombardi
played semi-professional football for
the Brooklyn Eagles and the Wilmington
Clippers. After only one semester with
graduate school, Lombardi took a job as
an assistant coach at a Catholic High
School in Englewood, New Jersey called
St. Cecilia, discarding his future with
law. He was hired by an old Fordman football
teammate, Andy Palau, who had taken over
the position from yet another teammate,
Nat Pierce.
At
the young age of 26, Lombardi was helping
to coach high school football while simultaneously
teaching chemistry, physics, and Latin
at the same school. In 1940, one year
after taking the job at St. Cecilia, Lombardi
married Marie Planitz (cousin of another
former Fordham teammate) and two years
later Vince Lombardi became head coach
for St. Cecilia. In 1947 Fordham asked
him to return to the University to coach
the freshman football team. A year later
he became assistant coach for the varisty
team.
In
1949 Earl Blaik, the football coach for
the US Military Academy in West Point,
asked Lombardi to work for him and help
coach the West Point varsity football's
defensive line. While working with Blaik,
Lombardi learned the necessity for executing
perfect plays with confidence and strength.
Over the next five years Lombardi worked
at West Point, learning from Blaik and
honing his coaching skills. After the
1953 football season, Vince Lombardi took
a job as an assistant coach with the NFL
New York Giants. He was 41 years old.
While
with the New York Giants, Lombardi was
able to work with another former Fordham
teammate, Jim Lee Howell. Under Howell,
Lombardi managed the defensive strategy
of the Giants and helped lead them to
championship seasons.
Vince
Lombardi became head coach and general
manager of the Wisconsin-based Green Bay
Packers in 1959 at the age of 45. At the
time the Packers were suffering from massive
losses and won only two of the twelve
games the season prior to Lombardi's arrival.
Within two years Lombardi, using some
of the cutthroat techniques he learned
with the US Military, led the Packers
to the 1960 NFL Championships.
The
NFL Giants offered him a job as head coach,
but Lombardi declined, preferring to continue
his position with the Green Bay Packers.
Although he continued his career with
the Packers, on two occasions Lombardi
wrote to Notre Dame in an attempt to persuade
them to offer him a position as a football
coach at the school. He never received
a reply and continued his career at Green
Bay.
His
coaching techniques won him an outstanding
career record of 105-35-6. As head coach
of the Green Bay Packers, he led the team
to five NFL Championships and developed
the "Lombardi Sweep", a play
designed for the right offensive lineman
to sweep to the outside to block the pulling
guards. He also was responsible for leading
the team to two winning Super Bowls. He
retired from the Packers in 1967.
A
year into retirement, Lombardi still wanted
to coach. The Washington Redskins offered
him a position as head coach and Lombardi
accepted. He led the team to their first
winning season in 14 years. He fell ill
later that year and died of intestinal
cancer on September 3, 1970 at the age
of 57. Tens of thousands attended his
funeral and Vince Lombardi was inducted
into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in
1971. He is still remembered as one of
the great influential icons who helped
shape American Football.
This Vince Lombardi biography may
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