Vincent Thomas Lombardi Football Coach and Motivational Teacher Born 11th June, 1913 USA / Died - 3rd September, 1970 He never played pro football and wasn’t named a head coach in college or pro football until he was 45 years old. But the name “Lombardi” became synonymous with winning. A former chemistry teacher and two-sport high school coach, Lombardi believed in classroom fundamentals and followed them up with drill and repetition on the practice field. After finishing 1-10-1 in 1958, the Packers decided to make a change. Early in 1959, they hired Lombardi, a relatively unknown New York Giant assistant coach. From 1961-’67, the Packers played in five championship games and won all five. After the 1966 and ‘67 seasons, they played the American Football League champions and won Super Bowls I and II. Lombardi relinquished his coaching duties in 1968 to devote his energies to his other role, general manager. But he chafed through a disappointing 6-7-1 season and, early in 1969, took the job as head coach and executive vice president of the Washington Redskins. He led them to their first winning season since 1955 with a 7-5-2 record. Lombardi succumbed to the ravages of colon cancer in 1970. The Super Bowl Trophy was named in his honor posthumously. Lombardi’s Packer teams won 75 percent of their games with an 89-29-4 record. The Vince Lombardi Trophy is the trophy awarded each year to the winning team of the National Football League's annual championship game, the Super Bowl. The trophy was originally called the "World Championship Game Trophy" in 1967, when the Super Bowl was originally named the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. It was renamed in 1970 in memory of legendary Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi after his sudden death from cancer to commemorate his victories in the first two Super Bowls. As a motivational speaker and a football coach Vincent’s quotes were well known. Here are some of his quotes. “Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all time thing. You don't win once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing..” “Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.” “If it doesn't matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?” “We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.” “The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.” “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” “Leadership rests not only upon ability, not only upon capacity; having the capacity to lead is not enough. The leader must be willing to use it. His leadership is then based on truth and character. There must be truth in the purpose and will power in the character.” “It's easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you're a winner, when you're number one. What you've got to have is faith and discipline when you're not yet a winner.” Happy father’s Day to all the dads worldwide. Thank you for looking . Thank you for all comments on my previous post, they mean so much to me, I love them all. Friends always, Cheri