A successful football player in his youth, but is best known for his successes as an NFL football coach. Over the course of his life he led teams to two Super Bowl wins and five NFL Championships with a total career record of 105 wins and 35 losses. Born on June 11, 1913, Vince Lombardi spent the first years of his life in Brooklyn New York in the area known as Sheepshead Bay in south Brooklyn. He attended public schools in his youth and grew up as the oldest of five children in a Catholic household. Lombardi studied to become a priest for a brief period at the age of 15, attending Cathedral Prep for four years, two short of the six year program. He transferred to St. Francis Preparatory High School where he began his career in football. Although the rest of his life revolved around the sport, Lombardi always remained a devout Catholic throughout his career. At the young age of 26, Lombardi was helping to coach high school football while simultaneously teaching chemistry, physics, and Latin at the same school. In 1940, one year after taking the job at St. Cecilia, Lombardi married Marie Planitz (cousin of another former Fordham teammate) and two years later Vince Lombardi became head coach for St. Cecilia. In 1947 Fordham asked him to return to the University to coach the freshman football team. A year later he became assistant coach for the varisty team. After the 1953 football season, Vince Lombardi took a job as an assistant coach with the NFL New York Giants. He was 41 years old. Vince Lombardi became head coach and general manager of the Wisconsin-based Green Bay Packers in 1959 at the age of 45. At the time the Packers were suffering from massive losses and won only two of the twelve games the season prior to Lombardi's arrival. Within two years Lombardi, using some of the cutthroat techniques he learned with the US Military, led the Packers to the 1960 NFL Championships.His coaching techniques won him an outstanding career record of 105-35-6. As head coach of the Green Bay Packers, he led the team to five NFL Championships and developed the "Lombardi Sweep", a play designed for the right offensive lineman to sweep to the outside to block the pulling guards. He also was responsible for leading the team to two winning Super Bowls. He retired from the Packers in 1967.
