It must have meant a lot to his team in that day to have a leader like that. Too bad he is not coaching the Packers today, I’m sure 99% of the team could use an understanding and protective coach like Lombardi , right Aaron ! Lombardi was enshrined in the NFL's Pro Football Hall of Fame, in Canton, Ohio in 1971. What you got to have is faith and discipline when you're not a winner.

You will never lose another championship. Dave Kopay, the first former NFL player to come out, also played on those 1969 Redskins, and he says that while he never told Lombardi, he believes Lombardi knew not only that Kopay was gay, but that Kopay and another Redskins player, Jerry Smith, were in a romantic relationship. God bless and I will see you on the other side. Henry Lombardi also had a brother whose name was Michael Lombardi, who was also a butcher in Brooklyn.

May 3, 2013 2:43 PM

Brooklyn Prep that season was led by senior Joe Paterno, who, like Lombardi, would rise to legend-status in football. He is the grandson of Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi.. Career. And when a black defensive end, Lionel Aldridge, revealed his plans to marry his white girlfriend, Lombardi blessed the union at a time when some around Green Bay, and around the league, were less than enthusiastic about it. As noted by Doug Farrar of Yahoo! '[67] He died on September 3, 1970 at the age of 57. He didn’t view his players as black or white but Packer Green.

[164], The funeral was held on September 7 at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan. [36][note 3][37] In a game against Pitt, he suffered a severe gash inside his mouth and had several teeth knocked out. Vincent Thomas "Vince" Lombardi (June 11, 1913 – September 3, 1970) was an American former football Head Coach/General Manager and Pro Football Hall of Famer as Head Coach. However it must be kept in context that his quotes were based on his football experience.
Some players are natural attention-seekers for whatever reason and that’s fine. The angst in Green Bay extended to the NFL as a whole, as the financial viability and the very existence of the Green Bay Packer franchise were in jeopardy. He left no doubt of this when he told the executive committee, "I want it understood that I am in complete command here."[77]. Chuck Noll was their coach and he was a great one. ...In later years, he [Lombardi] would try to explain his position on racial matters by saying that he viewed his athletes as neither black nor white, but Packer green. You are comparing God, your creator; to Santa Claus. "Lombardi time" is the principle that one should arrive 10–15 minutes early,[71] or else be considered late. But even during his coaching prime, in less enlightened times, Vince Sr. would never run down a player with the kind of homophobic slurs still heard around some of today's playing fields. "[82] In later years as coach of the Packers, Lombardi made it a point to admonish his running backs that if they failed to score from one yard out, he would consider it a personal affront to him and he would seek retribution. Take your favorite fandoms with you and never miss a beat. In May 1967, Lombardi "... received Fordham's highest honor, the Insignis Medal ... On January 13, 1969, he was inducted into the, Inducted into the Fordham University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1971, In 1968, Highland Avenue in Green Bay, home to the Packers', The Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at.

First, Lombardi…awesome. Please when ever logical says something just do the right thing and ignore it he is just a troll looking to get a rise out of people. Would you like me to find past articles and email to you? There is only one place in my game and that is first place. Lombardi served as offensive line coach[15] under legendary head coach Colonel Red Blaik. And Gibbs is the only one of those two who has accomplished that with three different QBs, none of which is HoF caliber. The Vince Lombardi Cancer clinic at Aurora BayCare Medical Center in Green Bay is named after him. He did not care if you were gay, straight, had a disability, or about the colour of your skin. You know, the ones that get ripped on by here because they have a voice. 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. And why does it seem that many followers of Jesus Christ, humble or not, are the most intolerant?

Through their work both on and off the field. Lombardi created punishing training regimens and expected absolute dedication and effort from his players. If you look in Romans, the bible says: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly. He worked with local business owners in Green Bay to secure half decent apartments that the black players could rent. Forgot Don Shula, 4 trips – 2 Lombardi’s.

[63] The Giants had finished the previous season under 23-year coach Steve Owen with a 3–9 record. So you’re choosing not to whine, stomp your feet and lash out in anger? Given his success in the cap era, Belichick has to be in the top 5. Vince Lombardi is buried next to his wife Marie and his parents Harry and Matilda, in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Middletown Township, New Jersey.[70]. Maybe the two aren’t connected but I see it as a way to stay relevant and get some more checks. [107], In the fall of 1934, Lombardi's roommate Jim Lawlor introduced him to his cousin's relative, Marie Planitz. [62] Following these five seasons at Army, Lombardi accepted an assistant coaching position with the New York Giants. He was 57. Like Jason Collins, Kopay said he was a tough, physical athlete who never shied from contact. Approximately 1,500 people[165] lined Fifth Avenue, and the avenue was closed to traffic between 39th and 50th Street. In a 1975 newspaper interview, three years after he retired, Kopay became the first major team-sport athlete to come out as gay. And let's get the hell out of here.' The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall. If someone such a Mike Wallace says he don’t understand it or someone states they are for traditional marriage then they are boneheads. He'd won his five championships in Green Bay, so he arrived as something of a rock star in D.C. "Supreme Court justices would come out to Saturday morning practices," Kopay said, "just to be around Lombardi. After the 1962 championship win, President John F. Kennedy called Lombardi and asked him if he would "come back to Army and coach again." A social scientist is one who is a professorn researchern and academician of the social sciences (business, political science, economics, anthropology etc). I didn’t know about Vince’s belief in equal rights until today, but given his success it does not surprise me. But the 1951 and 1952 seasons were not successful due to the aftermath of a cadet cribbing scandal (a violation of the Cadet Honor Code[18]) which was revealed in the spring of 1951. Insisted his team stay together when on the road, even in the south, where many hotels would segregate the black players. The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.

Confidence is contagious. [160] Lombardi and Marie received family, friends, clergy, players, and former players at his hospital bedside. [43] On April 27, 1942, their son Vincent Harold Lombardi was born[44] and on February 13, 1947, their daughter Susan was born. logicalvoicesays says: He believed in evaluating football players by how they played football, and people by how they treated other people. The Vincent T. Lombardi Center at Fordham University was named for the coach.


Hope I’m wrong. There is no room for second place. "He would've responded to Jason Collins just like Doc Rivers and these other coaches have. Too bad he wasn't alive this week to congratulate Jason Collins. [121], Lombardi did not serve in World War II though he was in his late 20s when the war broke out.

Gotta love the gays they make such a positive effect on the worlds morality. His legacy should find room for his acceptance of all, right next to the titles in Titletown. The son sounds like the father, too, especially when he speaks of treating everyone with dignity. ), The Packers would defeat the Giants for the NFL title in 1961 (37–0 in Green Bay) and 1962 (16–7 at Yankee Stadium), marking the first two of their five titles in Lombardi's 9 years. Pp. [4] Prior to the start of his sophomore year, Lombardi was projected as a starter at tackle. [21] The Giants had finished the previous season, under 23-year coach Steve Owen, with a 3–9 record. Coughlin did a double take. "[61] Before he left his home each morning in Green Bay, he would drop to his knees in prayer in his bedroom. By the way, Lombardi never had the class and morale as Tom Landry did. Nicholls and Harold met in 1970, the year Vince succumbed to cancer at 57. President Richard Nixon went so far as to send a telegram of condolence signed "The People". In 1972, the Green Bay School District named its new junior high school (later a middle school) "Vincent T. Lombardi Junior High (Middle) School," located on Green Bay's southwest side. [25] He enrolled at St. Francis Preparatory high school for the fall of 1932. He was a great coach and a class act. After two years, Lombardi decided not to pursue this path and transferred to the St. Francis Prep, where he was a standout on the football team, played baseball and was a Charter Member of Omega Gamma Delta fraternity. View the list The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall. Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. Following a one-year retirement from coaching in 1968, he returned as head coach of the Washington Redskins for the 1969 season.

How do we know – how does anyone know that there have not been openly gay – as in their teammates know it and keep it quiet – players in the NFL for years? Agree with me or not we will all learn the truth and I hope you think that your 70 to 80 years on this earth satisfy your needs because I know that it does not satisfy mine. It appears its followers are too. Lombardi inherited a team which in 1958 had lost all but 2 of its 12 games (a win & a tie), worst in Packers history. He’s one of those great football minds that you can’t help but admire. On one side of the aisle sat the team owners and Commissioner Pete Rozelle, who three days later would name the Super Bowl trophy the Vince Lombardi Trophy.[69]. [69] The running back then was expected to run toward any hole that was created. [13][14], Church attendance was mandatory for the Lombardis on Sundays.

There was also an incident in a southern town during the exhibition season that the hotel owner wanted black players to stay at a segregated hotel. The 1949 and 1950 seasons were successful, but the 1951 and 1952 were not, due to the aftermath of a cadet cribbing scandal (a violation of the Cadet Honor Code[59]) which was revealed in the spring of 1951. Joseph died in 2002. His Senior Year, the 1936 Rams went 5-0-2 before losing, what Lombardi called; "The most devastating loss of my life," when they lost the final game of the season 7-6 to NYU, and with it, the hopes of playing in the Rose Bowl.

But dark skinned Italian-Americans is a whole other matter. [30] Vince Lombardi had coached the Green Bay Packers to complete championships in 5 of 7 seasons, 1961-67. The year after his sudden death from cancer in 1970, he was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and the NFL Super Bowl trophy was named in his honor. This victory, along with his well-known religious convictions[80] led the Green Bay community to anointing him with the nickname "The Pope. He accepted a job that would later become known as the offensive coordinator position for the NFL's New York Giants, under new head coach Jim Lee Howell.

The play received positive reviews, as did Lauria's performance. Vince Lombardi Square (with a plaque dedication in the sidewalk on the square) is near Sheepshead Bay Road and East 14th Street in Brooklyn, New York.