Vince Lombardi
American Football Coach
| Date of Birth | : | 11 Jun, 1913 |
| Date of Death | : | 03 Sep, 1970 |
| Place of Birth | : | Brooklyn, New York, United States |
| Profession | : | Football Coach, Footballer |
| Nationality | : | American |
Vincent Thomas Lombardi was an American football coach and executive in the National Football League. Lombardi is considered by many to be the greatest coach in American football history, and he is recognized as one of the greatest coaches and leaders in the history of all American sports.
Biography
At Fordham University, Lombardi was outstanding in the classroom as well as on the football field, where he was one of the group of linemen known as the “Seven Blocks of Granite.” After completing his undergraduate education in business (1937), he studied law at Fordham, briefly played semiprofessional football, and then entered high-school football coaching (1939). Afterward he served as an assistant coach at Fordham (1947–48), at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York (1949–53), and with the New York Giants of the NFL (1954–58). Hired as head coach and general manager of the Packers in February 1959, Lombardi imposed an unusually strenuous regimen (some critics described it as spartan or fanatic) on his players, most of whom had been accustomed to defeat. The players who survived his relentless driving and gained his respect became deeply loyal to him. In his second year, Green Bay led the Western Conference of the NFL. The Packers subsequently won the league championship in 1961–62 and 1965–67 and defeated the Kansas City Chiefs and then the Oakland Raiders in the Super Bowl games in 1967 and 1968. Unlike his chief rival, Tom Landry of the Dallas Cowboys, Lombardi excelled as a motivator rather than as an innovator; however, his teams were known for one signature play—the Green Bay sweep. The play, which saw the ball carrier dash around the end escorted by a host of blockers, was copied by virtually every football team in the 1960s and ’70s.
Retiring as coach, Lombardi served the Packers in 1968 as general manager. He then went to the Washington Redskins of the NFL as head coach, general manager, and part owner, and in 1969 he led the team to its first winning season in 14 years. He died shortly before the 1970 season.
During his most successful years in Green Bay and even after his death, Lombardi was widely esteemed for his views on the virtues of hard work and winning. Upon his death, U.S. Pres. Richard Nixon telegrammed condolences to Lombardi’s widow, signing the message “The People.” His personal philosophy is reflected in a celebrated quotation:
❝Winning is not a sometime thing: it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do the right thing once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit❞
In 1971 the Super Bowl trophy was named in his memory and he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A year earlier the Lombardi award, given annually to college football’s top lineman, had been established.
Personal Life
In the fall of 1934, Lombardi's roommate Jim Lawlor introduced him to his cousin's relative, Marie Planitz. When Marie announced her ardent desire to marry Lombardi, her status-conscious stockbroker father did not like the idea of his daughter marrying the son of an Italian butcher from Brooklyn, a prejudice he would face more than once in his life. Lombardi and Marie wed, nonetheless, on August 31, 1940.
Illness and Death
Lombardi had suffered from digestive tract problems as early as 1967, and he had refused his doctor's request to undergo a proctoscopic exam. On June 24, 1970, Lombardi was admitted to Georgetown University Hospital, and tests "revealed anaplastic carcinoma in the rectal area of his colon, a fast-growing malignant cancer in which the cells barely resemble their normal appearance". On July 27, Lombardi was readmitted to Georgetown and exploratory surgery found that the cancer was terminal. Lombardi and Marie received family, friends, clergy, players, and former players at his hospital bedside. He received a phone call from President Nixon telling Lombardi that all of the U.S. was behind him, to which Lombardi replied that he would never give up his fight against his illness. On his deathbed, Lombardi told Father Tim that he was not afraid to die, but that he regretted he could not have accomplished more in his life. Lombardi died in Washington, D.C. at 7:12 a.m. on Thursday, September 3, 1970, surrounded by his wife, parents, two children, and six grandchildren. He was 57.
Quotes
Total 25 Quotes
The Winner is always part of the answer. The Loser is always part of the problem. The Winner always has a program. The Loser always has an excuse. The Winner says, "Let me do it for you." The Loser says, "That's not my job." The Winner sees an answer for every problem. The Loser sees a problem for every answer. The Winner sees a green near every sand trap The Loser sees two or three sand traps near every green. The Winner says, "It may be difficult but it's possible." The Loser says, "It might be possible but it's too difficult." Be a Winner.
Watch your actions, they become your habits. Watch your habits, they become your character.
Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.
There's only one way to succeed in anything, and that is to give it everything.
If you are not making mistakes, you are not trying hard enough.
The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual. People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society. Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.
The challenge of every team is to build a feeling of oneness, of dependence on one another because the question is usually not how well each person performs, but how well they work together.
The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.
The man on top of the mountain didn't fall there.
The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.
