Sports Then and Now

Though he was only a head coach for a decade, many consider Vince Lombardi the greatest coach in NFL history.

There are plenty of candidates for the title of best football coach ever, but there can only ever be one winner; by common consent, that is Vince Lombardi.

He was a tough taskmaster who thrived on hard work, had exacting standards, and expected nothing less than 100 percent from his players. He coached Green Bay to five championships in his nine seasons at the helm and, in a period that saw the Packers take the first two Super Bowls, the ultimate accolade from the NFL, the World Champions Trophy now bears his name.

Lombardi started his football on the field and was a formidable player on the offensive line at Fordham University but coaching proved his true metier, as modern fans of live football commentary will attest. After working as an assistant at Fordham, he joined the staff of the legendary Red Blaik at Army in 1949.

His professional coaching career started at the New York Giants, alongside another legendary coach in Tom Landry, with Jim Lee Howell as the head; that triumvirate coached the Giants to the 1956 NFL championship.

It was in Green Bay that he found his true calling though, and with a team that had not finished with a winning record since 1947. The Packers hired Lombardi as head coach and general manager in January 1959, after Iowa coach, Forrest Evashevski, turned it down. Read the rest of this entry →