Book #63: “When Pride Still Mattered” by David Maraniss

 

When Pride Still Mattered

David Maraniss

 Released: September 3rd, 2000

My 6th book for 2025 was David Maraniss' “When Pride Still Mattered”.

You will never find a more Vince Lombardi title for a book about the man than "When Pride Still Mattered".  The legendary Green Bay Packers coach was known for discipline, standards, excellence, greatness, and glory.  The title suggests that "pride" is no longer a sufficient virtue in the modern world.

This was a difficult book to read.  The material itself is very good, and you learn a lot about the man and his lifetime.  For some reason, whether the font size or formatting of the book, I struggled getting through it, and reading one page felt like reading three pages.  There were many days when my total page count read was 7, 8, or 10, as opposed to 20, 30, or 40.

To help me understand it, I watched ESPN's documentary series "A Football Life".  This is a series of films chronicling stars and legends from the NFL's past.  They recount tales of impactful games, and different things that built the foundations of NFL Lore.

If you're a Lombardi fan, or just love seeing the excellence of an amazing person build their journey in life, I highly suggest watching this video:

"A Football Life: Vince Lombardi" Dec. 24th, 2013. (1hr 26 min).

The book contains a wealth of great knowledge about the man, inspiring quotes, and all the elements that created the Lombardi Legend.

Vince Lombardi is the standard of excellence.  Even in the post-Tom Brady world of the NFL, Lombardi still carries a great amount of weight when speaking about legends.  He dominated the league throughout the 1960's and remains a looming figure over the storied history of the league.  He is the only coach to have ever won a 3-peat NFL Championship in the modern NFL.  The closest anyone has come to matching it would be the 2023-2025 Kansas City Chiefs teams who posted 3 straight AFC Championship wins in a row (The AFC Championship is the modern equivalent of the AFL Championship Game).  However, they did not complete the cycle as they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in this year's game.

Vince was a tough and principled man.  He was known for his brutal practice regiments.  An example of this is making scoring from 1-yard outside the endzone a non-negotiable task for his running backs.  If they failed to score, he would take it as a personal attack on himself and would seek retribution.  

I always remember the Simpsons episode where Homer sets Bart up in a mini-putt game against Todd Flanders.  During the pre-competition pep-talk, Homer attempted to intimidate Bart by saying "Remember what Vince Lombardi said boy: If you lose, YOU'RE OUTTA THE FAMILY!"  Marge takes offense to it, and reprimands Homer for his tough nature.  While seemingly funny, Lombardi's reputation suggests this method of motivation was not as farfetched as one might think.

He was also a deeply religious man.  He attended mass daily and would take communion every day of his life.  He initially studied to become a priest before discovering his love of football.

Lombardi was an incredible teacher.  He would take his time and patience to educate the weakest link on his teams.  As they improved, the team improved.  He learned this from his time teaching classes at St Cecilia.

Despite an appearance and a reputation for being a strong family man, Lombardi struggled to balance his workload with his family life.  He would sometimes work up to 18 hours a day to prepare for each game.  This led his wife to abusing alcohol, and his children being kept from bothering him at certain times during the week.  He sometimes treated his players as his sons than his own family.

He perfected the "Packer Sweep" running play.  He was known to give 8-hour classes on how to run the play perfectly.  NFL Legend John Madden once recalled being a young coach and going into a Lombardi clinic.  The cocksure young coach felt he knew it all, and didn't think the class was necessary.  After hearing an 8-hour lecture on one single play, Madden walked away saying "I don't know a damn thing."

Lombardi struggled for 2 decades with being overlooked.  His initial hope was to take over as coach of his hometown New York Football Giants.  He took the opportunity in Green Bay believing he would return home one day to become the next big guy.  Instead, he did so well in Green Bay, that he stayed there and built a legacy unlike any other.  He even defeated his former team in the NFL Championship game.

He was a longtime smoker, quitting in 1963.  He at one point was a 3-carton-a-week smoker.  His house and office were had full ashtrays and would sometimes need to be emptied 2-3 times a day.

Lombardi was known as an FDR democrat.  This was revealed both with his support of President John F. Kennedy, but also when Richard Nixon once speculated nominating him for Vice President.  Despite his tough demeanor did not judge people for their stances, skin color, sexuality, or any other division.  He simply judged them on their ability to play football and work hard to achieve their goals.  He made it very clear that any racially biased attitudes would not be permitted.

It is interesting to note that, despite political differences, Lombardi transitioned with the times.  He found himself to be a more conservative figurehead as a response to the Vietnam War protests.  He commanded order and structure leading to his stature as an authoritarian figure.  As a result, he complimented both sides for their strengths.

I always remember hearing legends about football players and coaches of the past as a child.  Vince Lombardi was a huge name, and I was always disappointed that I could only find information on his accomplishments in the 1960's.  I was sad the day I learned why this was so.  Lombardi was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1969.  He passed away in 1970.

When news of his terminal cancer got out, every player from the Packers, Redskins, and Giants showed up to Georgetown Hospital in Washington DC, to say goodbye to a man who was essentially a father to all of them.  Even in more modern interviews, players, family members, and coworkers still become very emotional over his loss.

I'll admit, I cried reading the final 44 pages of this book.  To lose a teacher, friend, mentor - someone who built you into who you are today...part of you dies in the process.

I definitely see elements of myself in Lombardi, even the things I don't practice dutifully.  I respect his need for organization and clear structure.  I enjoy the way he promoted his faith in good character, and held strong to his sense of beliefs while being fair, consistent, and loyal to his causes.  He intertwined his faith to victory.

His son moved to DC to be closer to his family.  He left after a few weeks to return to Minnesota due to limited career options and general disconnect with the family.  I feel that because I have done simliar things in life.  I left a life I loved in Vancouver, WA to find peace with family and friends.  Sometimes I struggle with my decision.

I also see his frustrations with an evolving modern world.  The world has gone from an authoritarian, structured order, to a very loose and open interpretation world.  Lombardi sought to fight this as he grew in power.  When a question is answered, many answers will be prompted until the full answer is obtained.  The larger the question, the smaller the answers fitting piece by piece like a jigsaw puzzle.  Lombardi felt that too much was being allowed to slide, and had cause a decay in society.

Part of me feels some sympathy for Marie Lombardi.  She was taken out of her home.  Moved to a frigid small area.  Endured a decade of hardship there.  Moved closer to home in a different city, and watched her husband pass away in front of her.  She was dedicated and loyal, almost to a fault.  And while she struggled with substance abuse and alcohol abuse, I don't believe she was able to handle the changes in her life the way Vince always could.  Her death of lung cancer showed just how deep the addictions got to her.

Another element is one of the locations of the book.  When Vince Lombardi coached the Washington Redskins in 1969, their offseason mini-camp was held at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA.  I have recently moved to Carlisle in the last year, and have walked all the different streets and placed Lombardi once walked over 50+ years ago.  Just to imagine him grabbing breakfast at one of the dinners, or attending mass at the local churches.  

3 months after his passing, the NFL honored his legacy, by renaming the Super Bowl trophy the "Lombardi Trophy" which continues to this day.

I truly feel a lot of things that made Vince Lombardi a great man is lost on the modern world.  The generational shifts, the lessening or disregard of people with religious influences, a general disdain for those who are so devoted to their natural gifts, that they brutally instill in others a sense for how to achieve greatness in ways that would intimidate or even damage a more fragile mindset.  He believed in something so fiercely, that nobody could ever question his devotion.  He remains a legend of the NFL, and a historical figure in all of sports.

Here is what I learned:

—————

• The title for the book is take from a scene in Richard Ford’s novel “Independence Day”.

• His character Frank Bascombe makes a pit stop at the Vince Lombardi Service Area on the New Jersey Turnpike.

• Lombardi chain-smoked cigarettes.

• Vince’s father was Harry Lombardi.

• Harry’s nickname was “Moon”.

• Harry was covered in tattoos.

• He was a meat-cutter in New York City.

• Harry was born Enrico Lombardi in Italy in 1890.

• His name was changed when he immigrated.

• Vince grew up at 2542 East Fourteenth Street in a Brooklyn neighborhood called Sheepshead Bay.

• The Lombardis lived in a very diverse neighborhood.

• Vince Lombardi was born June 11th, 1913.

• He was part of a large Italian family.

• The trinity of Vince’s early years was religion, family, and sports.

• He showed an affinity for Catholicism from an early age.

• Vince’s church sponsor was Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons.

• “Contact, controlled violence, a game where the mission was to hit someone harder, punish him, knees up, elbows out, challenge your body, mind and spirit, exhaust yourself and seek redemption through fatigue, such were the rewards an altar boy found in his favorite game.”

• His father was physically abusive citing that “Hurt is in your mind”.

• Harry had a trick wine flask that had a button which needed to be pushed to release the contents.

• Thursday night was spaghetti night.

• Vince’s mother Matty was nicknamed “The Duchess”.

• She would “hit first, ask questions later”.

• St. Anthony of Padua was the patron saint of the poor.

• Vince and his brother Joe never lifted weights because they helped lift 220+ pound steer carcasses from delivery trucks to the outside of their father’s meat shop.

• Bull meat was the Lombardi specialty.

• Harry was fiscally conservative.

• His motto was “If you can’t pay for it, don’t buy it.”

• Harry lamented that many business ran on credit.

• When the Great Depression hit, many restaurants he sold to went out of business.  

• When FDR changed regulation to ease debtors, Harry blamed him as he lost a lot of money.

• Vince completed 8th Grade at P.S. 206 in Sheepshead Bay.

• He prepared for a life in a religious field.

• Vince practiced daily mass all his life.

• He was taught Latin by Father James Smith.

• He was voted class president at Cathedral unanimously.

• He left Cathedral in 1932 with a new goal in life.

• The St. Francisco boys would train at Camp Alverno in Centerport, NY.

• Harry Kane was a strict football coach.

• Once’s after a sloppy practice, he stopped the bus and forced the players to walk back to Butler Street from Todd’s Shipyard on the edge of the East River waterfront.

• Lombardi recalled this when players accused him of being too hard on them.

• New York City was once the major place to play college football.

• Lombardi received a scholarship to Fordham.

• Wellington Mara, whose father owned the New York Giants (football), attended Fordham with Lombardi.

• Jack Coffey, the athletic director, prided himself on knowing everyone’s birthday.

• He greeted Lombardi as “June 11th”.

• James Crowley was Lombardi’s coach at Fordham.

• He started his career in Green Bay under Earl “Curly” Lambeau.

• He later attended Notre Dame, where he played under Knute Rockne.

• He acquired the nickname “Sleepy Jim”.

• At a practice, he was once kicked so hard in the gut, he suffered from internal bleeding.

• Lombardi met his wife Marie at Fordham.

• Mortimor Planitz had been involved in an illicit intrafamily romance that haunted his wife and daughter for the rest of their lives.

• Lombardi was a “voracious” reader of Richard Halliburton’s books.

• Yale’s Walter Camp conceived modern scrimmage rules.

• 1936 was Lombardi’s last season as a player.

• Frank Leahy said of Lombardi: “There never was a more aggressive man who played for me than Vincent.  There were times when I genuinely worried that he might be too aggressive."

• The 1936 Fordham Rams featured “The Seven Blocks of Granite”.

• Football has 4 dimensions.  “The first three dimensions are material, coaching, and schedule. The fourth is selfless teamwork and collective pride which accumulate until they have made positive thinking and victory habitual.”

• According to Ignatius Wiley Cox, SJ., “Excessive freedom was not man’s liberation but his ruination.”

• There is a direct line in thinking from the Jesuits to football to what would become the philosophy of Vince Lombardi.

• Vince’s first coaching job was at St Cecilia’s Catholic high school.

• Lombardi stood out as a football coach and it became his passion despite being seen as a lesser career or “just a game” to others.

• His visionary motivation was described as “…an intolerable disparity between the hugeness of their desire and the smallness of reality."

• His salary was $1,700 per year.  Rent was $1.50 per week.

• He also coached high school basketball despite minimal experience.

• Lombardi was said to have known human behavior better than anyone else by player Mickey Corcoran.

• He was married August 31st, 1940 in the Bronx.

• They honeymooned in Maine.

• Marie Lombardi miscarried after 7 months.

• She drank heavily and it had a bad effect on her.

• 1942 was Lombardi’s first as a head coach for a football team.

• Lombardi smoked Chesterfield cigarettes.

• Vince was talked into returning for his final 2 years at St Cecilia by his senior players.

• Lombardi had digestive issues while coaching basketball.

• “There was a direct line from one to the next, from religion to the military to football, from the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius to the football regimen of Colonel Blaik. Both emphasized discipline, order, organization, planning, attention to detail, repetition, the ability to adjust to different situations and remain flexible in pursuit of a goal while sustaining an obsession with one big idea.”

• “There never was a champion who, to himself, was a good loser. There is a vast difference between a good sport and a good loser." - Red Blaik

• Bull Pond was a fishing camp with 2 cabins on the West Point property about 8 miles southwest of campus.

• Bull Pond was the quintessential male-bonding experience of that time and culture.

• The 1949 Army vs Fordham game was considered more brawl than football.  Army blew the Rams out 35-0.

• 17 teeth came out of 9 different mouths.

• He once was trapped in Green Bay on a recruiting trip and mentioned to Doug Kenna “Can you imagine living in this godforsaken place?”

• He traveled to Tokyo in Spring 1951 to run football clinics and see the sights.

• He was a 1950’s Democrat supporting MacArthur.

• He survived an attack under enemy fire when a bomb went off while in Korea in 1951.

• "A man who makes a mistake should have a reasonable chance to rehabilitate himself." - Joseph P. Kennedy

• "When the morals of man are considered we are halted by the astonishing retreat of the 20th century with its excess of divorces, its broken homes, its emphasis on homosexuality, its acceptance of materialistic Marxism in wide areas that were so recently Christian, its avoidance of faith, honor, dignity, sacrifice. We need to know why our people are not outraged at the shameless corruption of our century. Something has gone terribly wrong with us and we need to know what it is and why it happened." - George E. Sokolsky.

• In the prison of coaching, you experience 2 major challenges: building a team from scratch, and sustaining excellence after a club has reached the top.

• “You can be as good as you want to be, better than you are, all you need is the desire and will to do it.”

• Lombardi and his son went on a camping trip to Canada.  The trip was one of the few vacations Lombardi ever took with his son, and the memory stayed with young Vincent through the years as their relationship became more difficult.

• According to legend, when a lion serenades, it is said to be the cry of a lost soul.

• Lombardi was a city man who felt more comfortable in landscaped tamed by man.

• People develop an ability t not to heat what they do not want to hear.

• “Competitive sports keeps alive in us a spirit and vitality. It teaches the strong to know when they are weak and the brave to face themselves when they are afraid. To be proud and unbowed in defeat and yet humble and gentle in victory. And to master ourselves before we attempt to master others. And to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep. And to give the predominance of courage over timidity.”

• Lombardi cried in the locker room after losing a close game to Northwestern in 1953 over self-inflicted mistakes.

• Packers legend Max McGee was a star player at Tulane.

• “Far off I hear the rolling, roaring cheers.  They come to me from many yesterdays, From record deeds that cross the fading years, And light the landscape with their brilliant plays, Great stars that knew their days in fame's bright sun.  I hear them tramping to oblivion.”

• July 13th, 1954 was a scorching hot day.

• “The best doesn’t belong to the past.”

• Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World Building was the  lay original structure downtown along “Newspaper Row”.

• 1954 was a revolution in the television industry.

• By the summer of 1955, household television sets grew from 1-in-5 to 2-in-3.

• TV Profits rose 25% that year.

• More than 350 broadcasting stations had started up in cities around the country.

• The New York Football Giants won the 1934 NFL Championship wearing basketball shoes.  (The game went into NFL Lore as the “Sneakers” game).

• He joined the New York Football Giants coaching staff during Christmas 1954.

• He watched every Giants game of the past 2 seasons in his home.

• He charted the movement of every player on yellow notepads.

• It became the basis for Lombardi’s “Bible”.

• The Giants held training camp at Williamette College in Salem, Oregon.

• Lombardi coached with fellow Hall of Famer Tom Landry.

• Landry felt Lombardi was manic depressive.

• They were considered complete opposites.  Lombardi was loud.  Landry was quiet.

• Lombardi scouted the 1956 Rose Bowl.

• Vince’s definitive play was the “Power Sweep”.

• “It is not uncommon for fathers to misunderstand their sons, and for sons, their lives shaped by that difficult relationship, to wonder retrospectively whether they had misunderstood their fathers.”

• Lombardi intended to be a good father, however his family became victims of his obsessions and misdirected love.

• A newspaper delivery strike hit New York in 1956.

• Holiday sales were down.

• Funeral attendances were down due to no obituaries being available.

• The Giants lost the 1958 NFL Championship to the Baltimore Colts.

• Frank Gifford blamed himself for the loss due to 2 fumbles and a missed first down, but Lombardi consoled him.

• The Packers were the laughingstock of the NFL in the 1950’s with their location referred to as “The salt mines of Siberia”.

• The Packers are a publicly owned nonprofit corporation.  

• You could own the Packers with $25 for a single share in 1949 when the team faced financial ruin.

• Richard Nixon attended the opening of City Stadium (more famously known as Lambeau Field) in 1957.

• Lombardi nearly gave up football for banking.

• In the late 1950’s, there were only 12 NFL head coaching spots.

• Paul Hornung nearly quit before Lombardi arrived in Green Bay.

• West Point time became know as “Lombardi Time”.  Arrived 10 minutes early otherwise be considered late.

• “With every fiber of my body lue got to make you the best football player that I can make you. And I'll try. And I'll try. And if I don't succeed the first day. I'll try again. And I'll try again.  And you've got to give everything that is in you. You've got to keep yourself in prime physical condition, because fatigue makes cowards of us all. Wherever you go, you represent the team. You will talk like, you will look like and you will act like the most dignified professional in your hometown.  There are trains, planes and buses leaving here every day, and if you don't produce for me you're gonna find yourself on one of them.”

• The “Packer Sweep” was Lombardi’s #1 play.

• Red Blaik believed perfection came with simplicity.

• "Everyone was important in the sweep.  It's really all of life. We all have to do things together to make this thing we call America great. If we don't, we're fucked." - Ron Kramer

• “You defeat defeatism with confidence, and confidence comes from the man who leads.  You just have it.  It is not something you get.  You have to have it right here in your belly.”

• Marie on what she had learned after 20 years by Vince’s side: If Lombardi was on your case that meant he saw something in you. There was more reason to be concerned if he didn't yell at you; that usually meant you were a goner.

• During his first year in Green Bay, Lombardi called his team together on the practice field and delivered a rare lecture on racism. "If I ever hear n*gger or d*go or k*ke or anything like that around here, regardless of who you are, you're through with me. You can't play for me if you have any kind of prejudice."

• Lombardi was once mistaken for a black man at a restaurant in Winston-Salem, and was denied seating.  He punished businesses for racial discrimination.

• With the press out of the room, Lombardi gathered his players around him and said there was a revelation in this loss.

• After losing the 1960 NFL Championship to the Philadelphia Eagles, Lombardi addressed his players after the press had left.  His iconic words were: “Perhaps you didn't realize that you could have won this game, but I think there's no doubt in your minds now. And that's why you will win it all next year. This will never happen again. You will never lose another championship."

• Paul Hornung got laid every night.

• 3 of Lombardi’s best players were called up for military service in 1961.  They were granted special permission to fly in for games and right back to base following the conclusion.

• President John F. Kennedy personally appealed to Army Generals to get the players relieved for the Championship Game.

• JFK also personally called Lombardi to ask him to take the head coaching spot at Army.

• “When God has reserved real greatness for somebody, God makes sure he is ready for it.”

• W.C. Heinz was tapped to write a book on Lombardi.

• No computer of later generations could be more efficient than W.C. Heinz and his sixty cents’ worth of indexed cards.

• “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

• Lombardi always brought his family to away games.

• Lombardi considered himself a “city man”.

• He would sometimes take a room at the Waldorf and sit surrounded by the city.

• Hornung was suspended for betting in 1962.

• Harry Lombardi was a homosexual.

• Vince cared for and supported his brother.  He went against Catholic teachings on the subject.

• “[Success] is like a habit-forming drug that in victory saps your elation and in defeat deepens your despair. Once you have sampled it, you are hooked.”

• “When you are successful, everyone else is jealous and every game becomes a grudge match.”

• After hearing the news of JFK’s assassination, he was numbed by the report.

• He had a laminated prayer card for JFK that he carried in his Bible for the rest of his life.

• Lombardi used golf as a stress reliever and frequented the Oneida club.

• Bob Milward was the club pro.

• Lombardi’s single toughest battle in his life was his golf game.  He considered it so because his toughest opponent was himself.  And he always sought to get better against himself.

• Jerry Kramer played the season opener in 1964 despite having severe stomach pains.  Doctors believed it was life-threatening cancer until they discovered a splinter that had been infected and festering in his gut for 7 and a half years.

• Lombardi had offers to coach the 49ers and Jets after the 1964 season.

• To encourage his team for the 1966 season, Lombardi put up signs in the locker room such as “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”

• “There’s an old fable that a guard is a fullback with his brains knocked out — but it’s only a fable.”

• Lombardi once pounded on a huge linemen with his fists to get him to “hate [me] enough to take it out on the opposition.”

• “Anybody can love something that is beautiful or smart or agile. You will never know love until you can love something that isn't beautiful, isn't bright, isn't glamorous. It takes a special person to love something unattractive, someone unknown. That is the test of love. Everybody can love someone's strengths and somebody's good looks. But can you accept someone for his inabilities. You might have a guy playing next to you who maybe isn't perfect, but you've got to love him, and maybe that love would enable you to help him.  And maybe you will do something more to overcome a difficult situation in football because of that love.“

• In 1965, Joe Namath signed with the New York Jets for a salary of $427,000.

• The most expensive ticket to the first Super Bowl was $12.00.

• The game was attended by 61,946 fans.

• The game was broadcast to more than 65 million people.

• At the first Super Bowl, Lombardi tied the Windsor knot of his tie so tight, he could not undo it and had to cut his tie off with a pair of scissors. 

• Lombardi was disturbed by the nature of protests going on.

• "I am sure you are disturbed like I am by what seems to be a complete breakdown of law and order and the moral code which is almost beyond belief. Unhappily, our youth, the most gifted segment of our population, the heirs to scientific advances and freedom's breath, the beneficiaries of their elders' sacrifices and achievements, seem, in too large numbers, to have disregard for the law's authority, for its meaning, for its indispensability to their enjoyment of the fullness of life, and have conjoined with certain of their elders, who should know better, to seek a development of a new right, the right to violate the law with impunity. The prevailing sentiment seems to be if you don't like the rule, break it."

• “Leaders are made, not born.  They are made by hard effort which is the price all of us must pay to achieve any goal that worthwhile.”

• Lombardi had to put Paul Hornung on a draft list for the expansion New Orleans Saints, and they took him.  Vince was quite visibly emotional and upset over this.

• Marie Lombardi considers the finest moment of her life to be when Arnold Palmer kissed her on the cheek.

• Bart Starr secretly ran a QB sneak on the final play of the 1967 NFL Championship Game (The “Ice Bowl”) to win.

• An afterparty for the 1967 team was held in the Lombardi’s basement a few months later.  Ed & Steve Sabol showcased a film that highlighted the Packer’s 1967 season.  After the film ended and the lights came back on, Lombardi was crying.

• Lombardi’s daughter became pregnant shortly before the Ice Bowl.  She was terrified to tell her parents, but he had her and her boyfriend go to Michigan to elope to keep from the headlines.

• Lombardi’s favorite TV show was McHale’s Navy.

• Lombardi invested $6,000 into Public Facilities stock.  In less than 2 years, he made $1 million.

• Lombardi felt the culture of the 1960’s was coming undone due to excesses of freedom.

• ‘His message in one sense was political, a reaction against a culture that he feared was coming undone because of the excesses of freedom. But it was also in essence personal. He acknowledged that he knew little about the antiwar movement, the black power movement, hippies, sex, drugs and rock and roll, but he tended to think of them all as a single entity that challenged what he believed in and what he had accom-plished. His life could be defined by three simple notions: he had led, he had built a team, and he had won. To him, the movements of the sixties seemed to prefer rebellion over authority, separatism and factionalism over team-work, and losing, or sympathy for losers, over winning and admiration for winners. He could not see the hypocrisy or the inequities (with the exception of racism) that these movements were rebelling against, but focused only on their tone, which he considered negative or defeatist. As a football coach, when he encountered a negative ballplayer, he sent him packing on one of the planes, trains and buses that left Green Bay every day.’

• Lombardi was considered for president in the summer of 1968.

• In 1968, Vince’s favorite restaurant was Alex’s Crown.  They stopped going when they hosted a party and their favorite piano player was not there that night.

• The community of Green Bay was distraught by him leaving, and felt betrayed.

• It is believed that Lombardi’s true reason for leaving Green Bay for Washington DC is concern for Marie’s health after the overdose.

• When arriving in Washington, Lombardi met Ray McDonald and learned that he was gay.  He issued a statement to the team declaring “If I hear one of you people make reference to his manhood you’ll be out of here before your ass hits the ground.”

• Lombardi’s system was completely different than anything quarterback Sonny Jurgensen had ever experienced.

• The Washington Redskins held training camp at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA.

• Penn State coach Joe Paterno came to visit Lombardi and observe the camp in Carlisle.

• Some people were taken aback by his coaching demeanor in Carlisle, and considered asking him to remain calm, but people who knew him actually felt he was too mellow.

• Lombardi questioned his decision ti return to coaching during a ride with his son Vincent.

• Vincent moved to DC from Minnesota to be close to family but he and his wife made the decision to return to St Paul a few weeks later.

• Ethel Kennedy, RFK’s widow, struggled to get back to a social life after her husband died.  She found comfort in the Lombardi’s and they helped her to recover from her husband’s assassination the year prior.

• The usually liberal Lombardi felt more inclined towards conservative leadership later in life as he found the Democratic way spoiled by excesses of counterculture.

• Lombardi once lamented late in life, “I made so many mistakes with my kids.  I was too hard.  You can’t be too hard on them.  You have to be more understanding.”

• Lombardi had growing disdain for actions of Vietnam War protestors.

• “I think the students have a great deal to say, but I don’t think violence, disruptions, and burning are the right way to do it.”

• ‘Carley's last memory of Lombardi was of the two men standing on the sidewalk arguing about Bobby Kennedy and Spiro Agnew.  Lombardi said he liked them both, a notion that infuriated Carley. "That's impossible! You cannot like both of those men except on a purely personal basis, because they stand for things that are completely different," Carley said. But Lombardi meant it: he liked the way Agnew stood up for his country, but he also loved Bobby Kennedy's energy and his urgency to solve problems.’

• He was accused of being “pro-Nixon” and used by the administration when selected as honorary vice chairman of an Honor America Day program.

• ‘When skeptical journalists asked if he was being used by the Nixon administration, he noted that former presidents Johnson and Truman were also on the committee as well as AFL-CIO chief George Meany. "This is not pro-administration, not pro-Nixon, not pro-anything, except one thing— America," he said. "We'd like to show the world and maybe a lot of our own people that we are Americans and we are proud of what we have here."’

• “You know being a part of a football team is no different than being a part of any other organization-being a part of any army, being a part of a political party. The objective is to win—the objective is to beat the other guy. Some may think this is a little bit hard and a little bit cruel. I don't think so. I do think that is the reality of life.I do think that men are competitive, and the more competitive the business the more competitive the men. They know the rules when they get into the game, they know the objective when they get into the game and the objective is to win: fairly, squarely, de-cently, win by the rules, but still win. In truth, gentlemen, I've never really known a successful man who deep in his heart did not appreciate the discipline it takes to win.”

• Lombardi was unable to deficate for 3 days during a trip to Dayton, OH for a speech.  He was admitted to Georgetown Hospital the next day.

• The doctors found a cancerous mass on his colon.

• Doctors removed a 2 foot section of his colon.

• Lombardi was determined to best the cancer, but came to terms with dying following a question he asked the doctors.  He pressed them on how soon he could resume coaching, and the doctor grimly told him “I don’t think you’ll be coaching again.”

• Lombardi grew more exhausted by the day, and began experiencing other health related issues that plagued him greatly.

• A month after his surgery, his cancer spread rapidly and doctors diagnosed it as terminal.

• Despite the news of his terminal illness spreading, the news outlets respected the family wishes and self-censored themselves from reporting it.

• Paul Hornung struggled to find words to say to Lombardi on his deathbed.

• ‘Hornung found the words once before and put them in a letter he wrote on February 23, 1967, as he was leaving Green Bay for New Orleans. "I want you to know that I have always felt closer to you than any coach I have ever had or ever hope to have. I believe the greatest thing I have learned from your 'Football' has not only been the idea of winning but WHY you want to win! Each and every ballplayer who has had the opportunity of playing under your guidance in some ways will always try to mirror some part of your personality."’

• President Richard Nixon called to express well-wishes to Lombardi.  Vince called him “very kind”.  

• Both houses of Congress took time to praise him, calling him “the coach of our generation.”

• Marie came to believe that he was meant to die then because the world was changing in ways he could not accept.

• Lombardi favored teamwork, and felt the players association made it far more about the individual.

• Death was a way for Lombardi to leave the scene as opposed to staying alive and becoming an increasingly frustrated coach fighting for relevance in the fickle modern American culture.

• “I’m not afraid to die, but there’s so much yet to be done in the world.”

• Vince Lombardi passed away on September 3rd, 1970.

• Several players recall jolting awake around 6:30-7:00 than morning and just sensing something happened to Lombardi.

• Dave Robinson had tears rolling down his cheeks, and stated that it was the only time he ever cried at the funeral of a white man.

• Lombardi’s favorite quote from scripture was: “Brethren: Don’t you know that while all the runners in the stadium take part in the race, only one wins the prize.  Run to win.”

• Marie Lombardi died of lung cancer in 1982.

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Overall, this book was excellent.  It was a difficult read for me, but looking back, it was well worth the effort.  If you're looking for inspirational leadership, I highly recommend you check this book out.

Highly Recommended.

On to Book #64: "Dancing From Darkness" by Eleanor Isaacson & Jeanette Windle.