Vince Lombardi's - Possible

Vincent Thomas "Vince" Lombardi (June 11, 1913 – September 3, 1970) was an American football player, coach, and executive in the National Football League (NFL). 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 NFL Championships in seven years, in addition to 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 professional football history. The NFL's Super Bowl trophy is named in his honor. He was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971, the year after his death.

Lombardi began coaching as an assistant and later as a head coach at St. Cecilia High School in Englewood, New Jersey. 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 72.8 (96–34–6), and 90% (9–1) in the postseason for an overall record of 105 wins, 35 losses, and 6 ties in the NFL.

Lombardi was born on June 11, 1913 in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn to Enrico "Harry" Lombardi (1889–1971) and Matilda "Mattie" Izzo (1891–1972). Harry's mother and father, Vincenzo and Michelina, emigrated from Salerno, Italy. Mattie's father and mother, Anthony and Loretta, emigrated from Vietri di Potenza, Basilicata. Harry had three siblings and Matilda had twelve. Vince would be the oldest of five children, Madeleine, Harold, Claire, and Joe. The entire Lombardi and Izzo clan settled in Sheepshead Bay.

Matilda's father, Anthony, opened up a barber shop in Sheepshead Bay before the turn of the century. At about the time of Lombardi's birth, Harry, and his brother, Eddie, opened a butcher shop in the Meatpacking District. Throughout the Great Depression, Harry's shop did well and his family prospered. Lombardi grew up in an ethnically diverse, middle-class neighborhood.

Church attendance was mandatory for the Lombardis on Sundays. Mass would be followed with an equally compulsory few hours of dinner with friends, extended family members, and local clergy. He was an altar boy at St. Mark's Catholic Church. Outside of their local neighborhood, the Lombardi children were subject to the rampant discrimination that existed at the time against Italian immigrants. As a child, Lombardi helped his father at his meat cutting business, but grew to hate it. At the age of 12 he started playing in an uncoached but organized football league in Sheepshead Bay.

In the fall of 1934 Lombardi's roommate Jim Lawlor introduced him to his cousin's relative, Marie Planitz. When Marie announced her ardent desire to marry Lombardi, her father told her that he did not want his daughter marrying an Italian, a prejudice against his heritage he would face more than once in his life. Lombardi and Marie wed, nonetheless, on August 31, 1940.

"He seemed preoccupied with football even on their honeymoon, and cut it short to get back to Englewood ... 'I wasn't married to him more than one week', she later related, 'when I said to myself, Marie Planitz, you've made the greatest mistake of your life.'"

Marie miscarried her first child with Lombardi. The terrible effect this had on Marie caused her to turn to heavy drinking, a problem she would deal with on more than one occasion in her life. As early as 1967, Lombardi had suffered from digestive tract problems, and he had refused his doctor's request for him to undergo a proctoscopic exam.[140] On June 24, 1970, Lombardi was admitted to Georgetown University Hospital, and tests "revealed anaplastic carcinoma in the rectal area of his colon, a fast-growing malignant cancer in which the cells barely resemble their normal appearance." On July 27, Lombardi was readmitted to Georgetown and exploratory surgery found that the cancer was terminal. Lombardi, with Marie at his side, received family, friends, clergy, players, and former players at his hospital bedside. He received a phone call from President Nixon telling Lombardi that all of America was behind him, to which Lombardi replied that he would never give up his fight against his illness. On his deathbed, Lombardi told Father Tim that he was not afraid to die, but that he regretted he could not have accomplished more in his life. Lombardi died in Washington, D.C. at 7:12 a.m. on September 3, 1970. He was 57. He was surrounded by his wife, parents, two children, and six grandchildren.

On September 7, the funeral was held at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan. Approximately 1,500 people lined Fifth Avenue, and the avenue was closed to traffic between 39th and 50th Street. Terence Cardinal Cooke delivered the eulogy. In attendance were team owners, Commissioner Pete Rozelle, past and present members of the Packers, Redskins, and Giants, former students from Saints, colleagues and players from West Point, and classmates from Fordham University, including the remaining Seven Blocks of Granite.[note 6][148] Lombardi was interred in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Middletown Township, New Jersey. On April 27, 1942, their son, Vincent Harold Lombardi (Vince Jr.), was born and on February 13, 1947, their daughter Susan was born.

Lombardi's perfectionism, authoritarian nature and temper, instilled in his wife a masterful ability to verbally assault and demean Lombardi when he verbally abused her. His children were not immune from his yelling. When Lombardi had not lost his temper, he would often be reticent and aloof.

Lombardi's grandson, Joe Lombardi, was named the offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions in January 2014. He was relieved of this position midway through the 2015 season. Lombardi was previously quarterbacks coach for the New Orleans Saints. In the 2009 season, he helped lead the Saints to win the trophy bearing his grandfather's name and Drew Brees to win a Super Bowl MVP award.