June 11, 2013: 100th anniversary of Vince Lombardi's birth
Vince Lombardi took over a downtrodden Green Bay Packers team in 1959 and turned it into professional football's most dominant organization of the 1960s.
Lombardi, a tireless worker with exacting standards, led Green Bay to five championships in nine seasons as head coach. His Packers won the first two Super Bowls, and the trophy given to the league champion now bears his name. In his 15 seasons as an NFL assistant and head coach, his teams never had a losing season.
Lombardi was born in Brooklyn and played college football at Fordham University, at which he was a member of the offensive line known as "The Seven Blocks of Granite." After a stint coaching high school football and working as an assistant at Fordham, Lombardi joined the staff of the legendary Red Blaik at Army in 1949.
His next move was to the New York Giants, for whom he was offensive backfield coach (while Tom Landry was defensive coordinator) for five seasons (1954-58) under Jim Lee Howell. The 1956 Giants won the NFL championship, a taste of things to come for Lombardi.
TRIBUTE & MORE: http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/page/greatestcoach1/greatest-coaches-nfl-history-vince-lombardi
