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Vince Lombardi - Class of 1971
Head Coach & GM (1959-67), GM (1968)
More than 30 years after his death, Vince Lombardi remains one of the most recognizable sports figures of all time.
His name graces the Super Bowl trophy. His likeness can be seen in a 14-foot statue at Lambeau Field. A flamboyant figure, his name remains attached to some of the most famous quotes in American sports history.
In his nine-year career as head coach in Green Bay -- part of an 11-year NFL career -- Lombardi coached the Packers to five NFL Championships and victories in Super Bowls I and II. He tallied a career coaching record of 105-35-6 (regular and postseason combined), including a 98-30-4 record in Green Bay.
And yet, Lombardi's name wasn't always so recognizable.
In the early part of 1959, the Packers were coming off a 1-10-1 season -- the worst in team history. Winners of six NFL championships during the Curly Lambeau era, the Packers hadn't had a winning season since 1947.
Ray "Scooter" McLean had been head coach in 1958, but resigned after one season. Searching for McLean's replacement, Dominic Olejniczak -- then the president of the organization -- became interested in an assistant coach with the New York Giants named Vince Lombardi.
To that point, Lombardi had never held a head coaching position, so when Olejniczak recommended him to the Packers executive committee, longtime committee member John Torinus is said to have replied, "Who the hell is Vince Lombardi?"
It didn't take long to find out.
Feb. 2, 1959, Lombardi arrived in Green Bay and told the committee, "I want it understood that I am in complete command here." Technically he wasn't, not yet, but within two days of his arrival Olejniczak gave Lombardi not only the head coaching job, but the vacant general manager position as well.
Lombardi's first season with the Packers was a stunning success, turning that 1-10-1 team of 1958 into a 7-5 team in 1959 and picking up unanimous Coach of the Year honors in the process.
Lombardi's first game with the Packers was a 9-6 victory over the Chicago Bears in new City Stadium -- later to be renamed Lambeau Field -- and when it was over, the players carried their head coach off the field in triumph.
That form of tribute would be repeated at least four more times during Lombardi's coaching career, including his last game with the team, eight years later.
The Packers' season-opening win against the Bears in 1959 marked Lombardi's first of many wins against George Halas' team. By the end of his tenure, Lombardi had gone 13-5 against the coaching giant.
In 1960, the Packers won the Western Conference title, going 8-4. That brought Lombardi to his first NFL Championship game, which the Packers lost 17-13 to the Philadelphia Eagles at Franklin Field.
It didn't take long for Lombardi to earn redemption, however. In 1961, after an 11-3 regular season, the Packers demolished his former team, the Giants, 37-0 to win the seventh NFL Championship in franchise history, the first since 1944 and the first ever for Lombardi.
In 1962, the Packers repeated as champions, going 13-1 while outscoring their opponents 415-148 -- their only loss a 26-14 setback against the Detroit Lions -- before again making the Giants their title-game victims, this time by a 16-7 margin.
After a pair of second-place Western Conference finishes in 1963 and 1964, Lombardi's Packers put together another championship season in 1965 -- the first of what would be three straight, matching the accomplishment of Lambeau's 1929-31 Packers teams.
The Packers went 10-3-1 in the 1965 regular season before defeating the Baltimore Colts, 13-10, in the Western Conference Championships and then knocking off the Cleveland Browns, 23-12, in the NFL title game.
In 1966, the Packers capped off a 12-2 regular season with a 34-27 victory over the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL Championship.
What followed was football's first Super Bowl, competed not between two opposing conferences, as it is today, but two separate leagues: the NFL and AFL.
Only 61,946 attended Super Bowl I in Los Angeles' Memorial Coliseum to watch the Packers take on the Kansas City Chiefs, 10,470 less than showed up at the same venue one month earlier for the Packers' regular-season finale against the L.A. Rams.
The Packers led by just 4 points at halftime, but scored three second-half touchdowns to win 35-10.
One year later, in Lombardi's final game as head coach in Green Bay, the Packers defeated the Oakland Raiders 33-14 in Super Bowl II at the Orange Bowl in Miami.
But the Packers' 1967 season isn't remembered for that Super Bowl, or for the 9-4-1 regular season that preceded it. Instead, the '67 campaign is remembered for the NFL Championship game against the Dallas Cowboys, perhaps the most famous game in football history.
Now commonly referred to as the 'Ice Bowl,' the temperature at Lambeau Field at kickoff that day (Dec. 31, 1967) was minus-13 degrees, with the wind chill dipping to 46-below.
One of Lombardi's innovations as head coach had been to install heating coils underneath the Lambeau Field turf prior to the season. But on a day when they were dearly needed, the coils malfunctioned or -- some believe -- were intentionally turned off. As a result, the field turned into a sheet of ice.
But with 13 seconds remaining in the game, Bart Starr's one-yard touchdown plunge gave the Packers a come-from-behind 21-17 victory.
Lombardi retired as head coach after the season, but retained his general manger's duties for one more year.
Ultimately, Lombardi was bored being "out of action" and in 1969 accepted the head coaching position with the Washington Redskins, a team that hadn't had a winning season in 13 years, including a 5-9 stint in 1968.
In Lombardi's first and only season in Washington, the Redskins went 7-5-2.
Vincent Thomas Lombardi, born June 11, 1913, in Brooklyn, New York, died of cancer September 3, 1970, at the age of 57.
Shortly after Lombardi's death, before Super Bowl V, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle made what remains arguably the greatest tribute in league history, naming the Super Bowl championship trophy the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
In August 2003, shortly before the rededication of a renovated Lambeau Field, the Packers unveiled statues of Lombardi and team founder Curly Lambeau in what is now the Robert E. Harlan Plaza outside the Lambeau Field Atrium. Each statue is 14 feet high atop a 4-foot base and 2-foot steps.
Lombardi: The Innovator
- In 1959, Lombardi ordered that the Packers' uniforms be revamped. The resulting design was almost identical to the uniforms the team continues to wear today. In fact, the only major modification since was the addition of the 'G' helmet logo, which was added in 1961 and has never left. The logo was designed by then-equipment manager Dad Braisher, at Lombardi's request.
- In 1967, at a cost of $80,000, Lombardi had heating coils installed beneath the Lambeau Field turf to keep it from freezing in the winter months. Later that season, in the coldest game in the stadium's history -- the 1967 NFL Championship, better known as the 'Ice Bowl' -- the system failed. However, some suggest Lombardi actually turned it off intentionally. Regardless, Lombardi's heating grid lasted until 1997, when the Packers replaced it with the current system, which contains more than 30 miles of radiant heating pipe, to maintain a root-zone temperature of 70-plus degrees.
Lombardi: The Perfectionist
- Especially compared to offenses in the 21st century, Lombardi's offense was basic and methodical. Its most famous play is now often referred to as the 'Lombardi sweep' or the 'Packers sweep,' and consisted of either Paul Hornung or Jim Taylor following pulling guards Jerry Kramer and Fuzzy Thurston. Lombardi was famous for his pursuit of perfection, often dedicating long hours of film or practice study to just one element of one play.
- In his first team meeting after being made Packers head coach and general manager, Lombardi made it clear just how determined he was to win. Looking into the eyes of players who just a season before had gone 1-10-1, Lombardi said, "I have never been on a losing team, gentlemen, and I do not intend to start now." True to his word, Lombardi never knew a losing season as head coach.
Lombardi: The Boss
- As general manager, Lombardi had little patience for players who made contract demands, and he did not discriminate. For example, almost immediately upon arriving in Green Bay, Lombardi shipped 1950s superstar Billy Howton to Cleveland in a trade. In 1964, when future Hall of Famer Jim Ringo showed up in Lombardi's office with an agent, the coach allegedly left for five minutes and then returned to tell them that he'd just traded Ringo to the Eagles.
Lombardi: The Man
- Lombardi didn't get his first head coaching job until he was 45 years old. Before coming to the Packers, Lombardi was an assistant coach with the New York Giants. Lombardi also coached at Army. As a player, he was one of the legendary "Seven Blocks of Granite" as a guard at Fordham.
Lombardi: The Quotable
- Perhaps the most famous quote commonly attributed to Lombardi wasn't even his own. Legendary actor John Wayne uttered the phrase "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing!" in a 1953 film called Trouble Along The Way. Lombardi may have borrowed that phrase, but many of his other memorable quotes are believed to be his alone. Click here to read some of Lombardi's words of wisdom.
Lombardi's Coaching Career:
| Year | Overall | Home | Away | Post. | Finish | | 1959 (GB) | 7-5-0 (.583) | 4-2 | 3-3 | - | 3rd-t WC | | 1960 (GB) | 8-4-0 (.667) | 4-2 | 4-2 | 0-1 | 1st WC | | 1961 (GB) | 11-3-0 (.786) | 6-1 | 5-2 | 1-0 | 1st WC - NFL Champions | | 1962 (GB) | 13-1-0 (.929) | 7-0 | 6-1 | 1-0 | 1st WC - NFL Champions | | 1963 (GB) | 11-2-1 (.846) | 6-1 | 5-1-1 | - | 2nd WC* | | 1964 (GB) | 8-5-1 (.615) | 4-3 | 4-2-1 | - | 2nd-t WC* | | 1965 (GB) | 10-3-1 (.769) | 6-1 | 4-2-1 | 2-0 | 1st-t WC - NFL Champions | | 1966 (GB) | 12-2-0 (.857) | 6-1 | 6-1 | 2-0 | 1st WC - NFL Champs - Super Bowl Champs | | 1967 (GB) | 9-4-1 (.692) | 4-2-1 | 5-2 | 3-0 | 1st NFL-C - NFL Champs - Super Bowl Champs | | 1968 (Wash) | 7-5-2 (.583) | 4-2-1 | 3-3-1 | - | | GB Totals | 89-29-4 (.746) | 47-13-1 | 42-16-3 | 9-1-0 | 98-30-4 (.758) overall | | Career | 96-34-6 (.738) | 51-15-2 | 45-19-4 | 9-1-0 | 105-35-6 (.750) overall |
* 'Playoff Bowl' games in 1963 and 1964 were unofficial games. Lombardi's record in those games was 1-1. 1963: 40-23 vs. Cleveland Browns; 1964: 17-24 vs. St. Louis Cardinals.
** Additional note: From 1921-71, the NFL did not recognize ties in figuring winning percentage (since 1972, ties have been recognized as half of a win).
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