Although there are plenty of coaches in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Vince Lombardi has a unique legacy. The New York native not only won the first two Super Bowls in NFL history as the head coach and general manager of the Green Bay Packers, but the league named the championship trophy after him following his death in September 1970.
After playing football at Fordham University, Lombardi started his coaching career as an assistant at Salesianum School in 1937, a private high school in Delaware. He then moved to Cecilia High School (New Jersey) in 1939, beginning as an assistant before his head coaching stint from 1942 to 1946.
Lombardi then worked as an assistant for Fordham from 1947 to 1948 and Army from 1949 to 1953 before breaking into the NFL as an offensive coordinator with the New York Giants from 1954 to 1958. He took control of the struggling Packers after that, winning Coach of the Year honors in 1959 after leading the squad to a 7-5 record. That was Green Bay's first winning season since 1944.
Lombardi then guided the Packers to five NFL championships before winning Super Bowl I and II.
Vince Lombardi's Motivational Message
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Lombardi's hunger to win not only helped make him one of the greatest coaches to ever grace the sideline, but he also paved the way for other Hall of Fame coaches like Bill Belichick, Bill Parcells, and Don Shula. In addition, he helped players like Hall of Fame Packers quarterback Bart Starr develop into legends in their own right.
However, Lombardi clarified in a famous quote that the final score is not the most important aspect of the game, using former UCLA coach Red Sanders' "winning isn't everything, it's the only thing" line as inspiration. Although winning is the ultimate goal, it can't happen without that aforementioned hunger.
