Vince Lombardi

Who was Vince Lombardi?

Vincent Thomas "Vince" Lombardi was an American football player, coach, and executive. He is best known as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers during the 1960s, where he led the team to three straight and five total league championships in seven years, including winning the first two Super Bowls following the 1966 and 1967 NFL seasons. Lombardi is considered by many to be one of the best and most successful coaches in NFL history. The National Football League's Super Bowl trophy is named in his honor. He was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971.

Lombardi played football at St. Francis Preparatory School and Fordham University. He began coaching as an assistant and later as a head coach at St. Cecilia High School. He was an assistant coach at Fordham, at the United States Military Academy, and with the New York Giants before becoming a head coach for the Green Bay Packers from 1959 to 1967 and the Washington Redskins in 1969. He never had a losing season as a head coach in the NFL, compiling a regular season winning percentage of 73.8%, and 90% in the postseason for an overall record of 105 wins, 35 losses, and 6 ties in the NFL.

Famous Quotes:

• Individual commitment to a group effort -- that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.
• The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.
• All right Mister, let me tell you what winning means... you're willing to go longer, work harder, give more than anyone else.
• It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.
• Teamwork is what the Green Bay Packers were all about. They didn't do it for individual glory. They did it because they loved one another.
• Coaches who can outline plays on a black board are a dime a dozen. The ones who win get inside their player and motivate.
• Mental toughness is many things. It is humility because it behooves all of us to remember that simplicity is the sign of greatness and meekness is the sign of true strength. Mental toughness is spartanism with qualities of sacrifice, self-denial, dedication. It is fearlessness, and it is love.
• There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game and that is first place. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay and I never want to finish second again.
• The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur.
• I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline... I firmly believe that any man's finest hour-this greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear--is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle -- victorious.