LOMBARDI, VINCE 1913-1970

Professional football coach

Winning Is the Only Thing

Vince Lombardi is regarded as professional football's greatest head coach. Lombardi guided the Green Bay Packers to league titles in 1961, 1962, 1965, 1966, and 1967 and to Super Bowl victories in 1967 and 1968; the Packers never finished lower than second during the Lombardi era. In his nine seasons in the National Football League he compiled a record of 141 wins and 39 losses, with 4 ties. Sportswriters, fans, and students of the game consider Lombardi's winning numbers all the more impressive given the poor-quality football teams he inherited at Green Bay and later at Washington as coach of the Redskins. The success of these teams under Lombardi is due largely to his demand that his players share his drive and determination to win at all cost. He once insisted, "Winning isn't everything. It is the only thing."

Lombardi the Ram

Reared in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Italian immigrants, Lombardi attended local Catholic schools and graduated with honors from Fordham University in 1937. In that year, Lombardi also had led the Fordham Rams to a 7-0-1 record, the tie coming in a scoreless game with heavily favored Pitt. The Rams enjoyed an immense following among fans in the New York area, and the team's front line, popularly known as the Seven Blocks of Granite, was one of the Rams' main attractions. Standing only five feet eight inches and weighing 175 pounds, Lombardi was a standout guard, winning the respect of his larger opponents for his ferocious style of play.

The Altar or the Bar?

Lombardi considered entering the priesthood after graduation from college. He attended church daily, and the depth of his religious devotion away from the football field—where he was mostly known for his fury and profanity—would later be a source of wonder and amusement to his players. (Green Bay quarterback Bart Starr concluded that his coach "needs to go to church every day") Lombardi, however, decided to study law instead, and attended law school for one year while supporting himself playing football for the Brooklyn Eagles, a minor league team, and working as an insurance investigator.

Fordham

In 1939 Lombardi left law school for a $l,700-a-year job as an assistant football coach and a teacher of science, math, and Latin at St. Cecilia High School in Englewood, New Jersey. He soon became head coach of the football, basketball, and baseball teams. During his seven-year stay at St. Cecilia, the football team won six state championships and had a remarkable stretch of thirty-six consecutive victories. Lombardi returned to Fordham in 1947 to coach the freshman squad, and in 1948 became an assistant under Ed Danowski. Lombardi left Fordham in 1949 to become a member of the football coaching staff at West Point. While there he was influenced by head coach Col. Earl Blaik, whose military style of discipline Lombardi much admired.

The Giants

Lombardi entered professional football in 1954 as an offensive coach under Jim Lee Howell, who was rebuilding one of the National Football League's prize franchises, the New York Giants. At the age of forty, Lombardi was considered too old by NFL standards to be entering into his first job as a professional coach; assistant coaching positions throughout the league were filled by much younger men who by forty years of age either became head coaches or moved out of the game entirely. Lombardi nevertheless soon gained a reputation at New York as a brilliant tactician whose offenses displayed a stylish and imaginative brand of football. In commenting on Lombardi's evolution as an offensive coach in the NFL, Giants star Frank Gifford once said, "Vince didn't understand our game; at first we players were showing him. But by the end of the season he was showing us."

Complete Control

Despite quick success at New York, Lombardi did not receive an offer to become a professional head coach until 1959. When the offer finally came, however, it met Lombardi's demands; the directors of the Green Bay Packers made him the team's head coach and general manager, giving him complete control in running the organization. His agreement with the directors stipulated that Lombardi had five years to revive Packer football. At the time many NFL insiders and sportswriters believed that a turnaround of Packer fortunes within five years would be impossible. The community-owned franchise representing the small Wisconsin city of seventy thousand had recorded its worst record the year before, finishing the season at 1-10-1; the team's last winning season had come in 1947.

Developing a Winning Attitude

Lombardi wasted no time establishing a domineering presence at Green Bay. He made it clear to the Green Bay directors that all decisions regarding the team would be made solely by him and that the organization would no longer be run by committee. He immediately sought to land players with talent and experience—which had been especially lacking at Green Bay—through trades. In choosing players to cut or trade, Lombardi weeded out those who would "not make the sacrifices," later explaining that he had to make an immediate "example of them" to other players. From the beginning the message he sent to his players was clear: anything less than a winning attitude would not be tolerated.

Lombardi Time

Lombardi ordered many of the local bars off limits to his players and demanded that they show up on time for meals, meetings, and workouts. (Players soon realized that "on time" to Lombardi meant arriving fifteen minutes early, soon known as "Lombardi time.") Those who were overweight were ordered to get into shape by spring training, and everyone was expected to play with "small hurts." Players soon learned that Lombardi played fairly in handing out fines for rule violations; star veterans and rookies were treated alike. Lombardi purchased green sport jackets with a gold Packer emblem and required his players to wear them with a dress shirt and a tie when the team appeared in public or traveled on the road. He wanted his players to take pride in their organization and community—once regarded by the athletes as the Siberia of the NFL.

Practice, Practice, Practice

In the preseason of his first year at Green Bay, the full brunt of Lombardi's obsession with excellence was felt by the Packers assembled at training camp. Players found Lombardi's drills to be sadistic in their intensity. Most of the players came to respect Lombardi and his system, when they found themselves in the best shape of their football careers and well prepared mentally as well as physically for game day. They appreciated their coach's ability to make quick decisions and command the team authoritatively. Some players even considered him a moral leader, crediting his Jesuit training. Lombardi believed that in imparting football wisdom he simultaneously was offering important lessons about life to his players, and many of his explayers credited Lombardi for their success outside of football

The Payoff

Success on the football field for the Green Bay Packers came quickly under Lombardi's leadership. In his first season, the Pack played to a 7-5 record and finished third in the western division. The next year they won their division with an 8-4 record and lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in a close title game. In 1961 the Packers won the league championship, and in the following season they successfully defended the title. Green Bay, Wisconsin, became known as Title Town, U.S.A.; the Pack continued to championships three years in a row, beginning in 1965. In the first two Super Bowls (1967 and 1968) Lombardi's Packers routed the AFL champion, taking the trophy that would later be named after Lombardi.

Coaching Respite

Early in 1968 Lombardi retired as Packers head coach, remaining in the organization as general manager. By 1967 it had become clear to him and to his wife Marie that the immense pressures of running a football team coupled with his maniacal desire to win was taking a physical and mental toll. Retirement, however, proved to be even more of a strain than coaching. Lombardi had to watch from the general manager's box as the Packers limped to a losing record of 6-7-1 in their first season under another head coach, and he began looking for a way to return to coaching. He found it early in 1969 with the Washington Redskins, a once-proud organization that had fallen on hard times. The Redskins recorded their first winning season in fourteen years, going 7-5-2 under Lombardi. Considering that he started with much less talent and experience in Washington than he had found at Green Bay, Lombardia 1969 campaign is considered by some to be his greatest as a head coach.

Coach Goes to Washington

Lombardi did not get another season with the Redskins. He died on 3 September 1970 of cancer. He had finished his coaching career at Washington without ever having suffered a losing season. The way in which he won—his often harsh and unrelenting style—however, increasingly made him the object of criticism, especially among the younger generation. To many Lombardi came to symbolize much of what was wrong with sports and with the social beliefs of the older generation. Social critics and sportswriters alike castigated Lombardi for his hold over his teams and what was perceived to be his win-at-all-costs attitude. By the end of the decade Lombardi became identified with the governments hawkish policies in Vietnam. He had come to Washington at a time of social unrest, and he viewed with outrage the contemptuousness of anti-war demonstrators as they squared off against authority. Although he was often unsympathetic to the masses of demonstrators whose hair, he believed, was too long and whose actions he deemed unpatriotic, Lombardi's social and political beliefs were simple. To him life was football and vice versa, and when asked to comment on the ills of American society he summed up his views as he might upon hearing a rookie had violated curfew: "What's the matter with the world? There has been a complete break-down of mental discipline."

Sources:

Michael O'Brian, Vince: A Personal Biography of Vince Lombardi (New York: Morrow, 1987);

Joseph J. Vecchione, ed., The New York Times Book of Sports Legends (New York: Times Books, 1991).

Vince Lombardi

Vince Lombardi (1913-1970) was one of the most successful football coaches in the history of the game. His penchant for winning and doing one's best left a strong imprint on the game, as well as on players and fans.

Vincent Lombardi was born the first of five children in Brooklyn, New York, on June 11, 1913. The son of an Italian immigrant, he was raised in a strict religious Catholic atmosphere. After spending two years studying for the priesthood, he changed his mind and transferred to St. Francis Preparatory where he starred as full-back. Upon high school graduation he majored in business at Fordham University and starred on the football team at guard, where he was a member of Fordham's famous "Seven Blocks of Granite." He graduated magna cum laude in 1937 and worked for a finance company during the day while attending evening classes in law. In 1939 he accepted a position at St. Cecelia High School in Englewood, New Jersey, as an assistant football coach and teacher. He taught Latin, algebra, physics, and chemistry. In 1942 he became head coach, and from 1942 to 1946 he compiled a record of 39 wins, seven losses, five ties, including a winning streak of 25 games and an unbeaten streak of 32.

In 1947 he accepted a position at his alma mater, Fordham, as freshman football coach and one year later moved up to be an assistant at the varsity level. But it was at West Point, in 1949, that Lombardi developed his basic coaching philosophy while he served as an assistant to the most successful college coach in the country: Red Blaik. Lombardi was influenced by Blaik's concept of keeping football simple (blocking and tackling) and of achieving perfect execution by constant repetition in practice. In addition, Lombardi picked up numerous expressions which were to become his trademarks, such as "There is no substitute for victory" (Douglas MacArthur) and "You have to pay the price" (Red Blaik). Working primarily with the offensive line, Lombardi soon established himself as an enthusiastic workaholic, putting in as much as 16 or 17 hours daily.

His penchant for hard work and organization for detail paid off when he was hired in 1954 as an assistant to Jim Lee Howell of the New York Giants. Vince was in charge of the offense, and Tom Landry, future coach of the Dallas Cowboys, was in charge of the defense. It was here that a pattern emerged which was to follow Lombardi in future years, that of inheriting a poor team and turning it into a winner. The year before Lombardi went to the Giants, they had lost nine of 12 games and had scored the fewest number of points in the league. In the five years that Lombardi was an assistant with the Giants, they never had a losing season. Part of the reason was Lombardi's decision to build the offense around untested Frank Gifford, who had been used primarily on defense the previous year. Gifford possessed great speed, hands, and blocking talent, along with the ability to pass, and Lombardi created offensive plays which used these skills to such an advantage that Gifford was nominated to the pro bowl all five years that Lombardi was with the Giants.

By 1957 Lombardi had become a desirable coaching commodity to other professional clubs, and in 1958 he accepted a five-year contract as head coach of the Green Bay Packers. Cast into the leadership role of a professional head coach for the first time, Vince changed from a coach who was quite openly friendly with the players to more of an aloof leader whose violent temper soon became his trademark along with his supposed passion for winning. (The slogan "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing, " has been unfairly attributed to Lombardi, when in actuality he believed making the effort was most important.)

Having only won one game the previous year, Lombardi's Packers proceeded to win seven games his first year and thereafter won six divisional titles, five National Football League championships, and two Super Bowls (I and II). His success during this period placed him at the pinnacle of his profession, and he was looked upon as the master of the game. While much of the credit should go to Lombardi, it should be noted that he inherited an ideal situation in Green Bay. He was, as they say, the right man at the right time.

At this time, Green Bay was looked upon by others in the league as Siberia, with few attractions for players since there was little to do except play and think football. This fit in quite well with Lombardi's spartan ethos. Added to this was the fact that the public liked Lombardi so much that players had little chance of doing anything besides football, since Lombardi was notified by fans wherever the players turned up—within or outside of curfew. The team Lombardi inherited actually wasn't as bad as the previous year's record might indicate; it had a solid core of talent ready to be developed. Chief among them were Paul Hornung, who possessed all of the qualities of a Frank Gifford and who could also kick field goals, and a 16th-round quarterback draft pick named Bart Starr. Both became all stars and legends.

With several top draft choices and shrewd trading, Lombardi surrounded himself with players who were willing to take his tongue lashings to go the extra yard in order to become winners. He treated all players the same ("like dogs, " one player remarked) and never had the racial problems some other teams had at the time. So formidable was the Packer running attack that today the term "The Green Bay Sweep" is etched in football terminology.

Exhausted after the 1967 season, Lombardi retired as head coach and stayed on as general manager of the Packers. It wasn't long before he realized his mistake, and in 1969 he left Green Bay to become head coach of the Washington Redskins. He soon led them to their first winning season in more than a decade.

Lombardi was a popular public figure in America and was looked upon as a spokesperson for values which many felt were being discarded during the permissive 1960s. Businessmen, politicians, and church leaders looked to him for direction. Earl Warren, retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, noted, "He had the ability to build the kind of character we need in these times." With such a following, it came as a shock to the public after the 1969 season to learn that Lombardi had intestinal cancer. Over 500 letters of encouragement a day poured in from the across the country, including a telegram from President Nixon. On September 3, 1970, Vince Lombardi died. Thousands poured out for his funeral, which was held not only in Washington, D.C., but in New York as well.

After his death Lombardi was inducted into the professional football Hall of Fame and today is honored by having his name adorn the trophy awarded to the NFL Super Bowl champions. His reputation as a man far exceeded that of a coach. In 11 seasons as head coach he won 149 games; in contrast, the winningest football coach was Eddie Robinson of Grambling State University, who set the record in 1985 with 324 victories.

Further Reading

Instant Replay (1968) and Winning Is the Only Thing (1971), both by Jerry Kramer, and Lombardi (1971) by John Wiebusch give good descriptions of what Lombardi was like to players and acquaintances. Tom Dowling's Coach: A Season with Lombardi (1970) describes his last year of coaching for the Washington Redskins and his realization that talent—not just effort alone—wins football games. Run to Daylight (1968) by Vince Lombardi is an account of the 1967 football season and is enlightening for its visualization of a typical season with Lombardi. For those interested in Lombardi's coaching techniques, see Vince Lombardi on Football, George L. Flynn, editor (1973). A look at Lombardi and his impact on Green Bay players 20 years later is provided in Distant Replay (1985) by Jerry Kramer and Dick Schaap.

Additional Sources

Flynn, George L., The Vince Lombardi scrapbook, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1976.

O'Brien, Michael, Vince: a personal biography of Vince Lombardi, New York: Morrow, 1987; Quill, 1989.

Vince Lombardi: memories of a special time, United States: October Football Corp., 1988. □

Vince Lombardi (Vincent Thomas Lombardi), 1913–70, American football coach, b. New York City. As a student at Fordham, he was a member of the famed "Seven Blocks of Granite" line. After great success as a high school coach (1939–46), Lombardi coached at Fordham and West Point. Entering professional football in 1954, he was a coach with the New York Giants. In 1958 he became head coach of the Green Bay Packers. In nine seasons with the Packers (1958–68), he led the team to six conference titles and five championships, including victories in the first two Super Bowls (1967–68). In 1968 he became general manager of the club, but in 1969–70 he moved to coach the Washington Redskins. He was elected to the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 1971.

Bibliography: See D. Maraniss, When Pride Still Mattered (1999).