Much is made, of course, of the Green Bay Packers winning the Super Bowl and the emblematic Vince Lombardi Trophy that comes with it. Lombardi is the avatar of Packer excellence.
But there’s more to the late coach’s legacy than Super Bowl wins, a litany of inspirational quotes and anecdotes and now a Broadway play: “Lombardi.” We’ll not see his kind again–for a lot of reasons.
Surely we’ll see no more 5’8″, 180-pound guards. That’s what Lombardi was as a prominent member of Fordham University’s famous “7 Blocks of Granite” line.
Nor will we likely see head NFL coaches–let alone Hall of Fame candidates–who carved out reputations at the high school level. Lombardi coached St. Cecelia’s (Englewood, N.J.) for eight years–while teaching chemistry, physics and Latin.
In 1967, after leading the Packers to a 35-10 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in the first Super Bowl, Lombardi was honored by his alma mater. He received Fordham’s prestigious “Insignis Medal”–for being a “great teacher.”