1960-1969 | Lombardi Reigns

[Music] yes bringing home five nfl titles in seven years unheard of hasn't happened before since he was a tough football coach he demanded excellence at every position to sacrifice to be prepared to be committed to run with discipline he was just an emotional guy he was a great speaker i didn't know that much about lombardi but i did know a lot about the green bay packers and they were the world champions and that's what i wanted to be part of if you do it my way we will win and if you don't want to do it my way we'll get somebody here that does gentlemen this is the most important play we have the way we must make those things [Music] [Music] when vince lombardi came to town there wasn't great excitement about it there was a heck of a resurrection job that he had to do to get the franchise back up on top following an exhaustive six-week search the green bay packers announced the hiring of vincent thomas lombardi head coach and general manager his only head coaching experience was at saint cecilia high school in englewood new jersey who is this lombardi we didn't know him and nobody knew who he who he was so he i think he he convinced us by being himself he was 45 years old when he got the job back in those days that was also getting to the point where oh maybe he's not going to have the opportunity to get a head job lombardi was waiting for a head coaching job and somewhat impatiently you know almost gave up coaching and went into banking because he thought he'd never get his shot our status quo as far as the giants were concerned i wasn't going to be satisfied as an assistant coach and i wanted to be a head coach of a professional football team and green bay gave me the chance to be one vince jr will tell you a lot of it had to do he thought with his dad's italian heritage and the fact that he was subjected to prejudice both growing up and then he believed that was one of the reasons he never really got a shot at becoming a head coach if you know anything about vince's history he didn't have an easy gig wherever he was he grew up in a family that was faith-oriented and catholic family at one point he thought he was going to be a priest he was educated by the jesuits he went to fordham he was he was very very religious my father and vince lombardi went way back they were classmates together at fordham university he'd been an assistant coach at west point assistant coach with the giants he was our offensive coordinator in the late 1950s and tom landry was the defensive coordinator probably the best pair of coordinators that anybody has ever had he loved new york i mean this was a new yorker and there was a large italian community of course and vince was part of that community jack vanesse knew who he was vanessa whose name eds and i like lombardi they were fellow italians jack fennisi played an influential role because he was well connected around the league lombardi trusted jack he saw a sincere person jack got lombardi to throw his hat in the ring dominical and i check called my father to ask if he would give permission to hire vince lombardi dominic olanitchik was president of the team they really didn't know they were going to hire somebody who would become such a coaching legend there's only 12 teams in the nfl at the time library became the coach here that's a pretty high profile job no question vince going to green bay ended up in terms of the national football league it was it was a huge huge thing lombardi set a new tone from the beginning when introduced to the press and the packers board he delivers two memorable pronouncements i want it understood that i'm in complete command and i've never been associated with a loser and i don't expect to be now what i love about when lobarti comes on the scene is he makes no bones about it he's in control he just commanded respect i'd like to welcome you all of course and tell you how proud we are to have you a part of the packers just as you should be proud to be to be here to be a part of this team he knows it's his shot that's he's waited for a long time and he's not going to blow it by doing it someone else's way one thing about the packers it's a team with a great tradition that glory that is the package has been developed to one thing only and that's pride everybody has ability but pride and performance is what makes the difference how do you develop pride pride is developed by a winning tradition he could come into a room and he was the one that everybody looked up to vince would get up make his point in that big voice and then he would sit down this is a tough and it's a cruel business and when we lose we're gone therefore we have to win therefore you have to win and we only want winners when the coach spoke and gave his opinion uh it changed it changed the other people's minds he looked straight at people when he talked to them this is not a timid guy winning uh i think it's only natural that anyone would think that to win is important that's the reason you're in this business if you have any kind of pride or any kind of dedication or any kind of backbone or spunk tree should try to be the best and the best again is signified by winning by spring the packers complete its reorganization shift authority for the team's operations from the executive committee to general manager vince lombardi the organization finally realized that we can't have so many people thinking that they're going to have input and run the organization he was not going to have to answer to these people that had interfered with the previous coaches there's one person in charge and it's vince lombardi vince who is general manager coach and everything else in green bay the whole point is is he was in control of everything everything there were football coaches at the time that sold insurance and had real estate investments and other kinds of distractions he was 100 football he made changes right away he made changes administratively in his staff and in a building at a first ever kickoff dinner in august lombardi introduces each player all of whom wear suits and ties lombardi tells those on hand this is your team it belongs to the city of green bay without you we can do nothing he wanted him to be like the new york yankees that's why he had them wear uh white shirts and sport coats he had us believe that in order to play well you had to look well and act well and talk well and that was all part of the game being a professional in every phase of your life his character was highest and he expected his players to have great character too we played in county stadium and i picked it i ran it back and i scored i slammed the ball to the ground hit the ball bouncing and bounced into the stairs i ran to the sideline i'm just happy as hell and vince stopped me on the sideline i said don't jerry do that again that's what i realized that was not his way he had certain standards both physical and moral they had teen bars when you were 18 years old and i i went there because i wasn't 21. and so lombardi says he's having roll call you know george here sorry here let me oh by the way fleming stay out of the teen bars the babysitters are seeing you i said well um i'm not old enough to go to the big places so he says stay home then we began to realize that the values we were accumulating that were not only good for our play on the field but good for our lives anyone embarrassed the green bay packers they want to embarrass the town of green bay or vince lombardi by striving for absolute perfection you raise yourself notches above what you may have been content to be and i think this is the the law that he governs himself with [Music] boys at the start of his first training camp lombardi orders team president dominick olynyk to leave the room don't ever come into any meetings i'm having with my players the first meeting we had with coach lombardi uh was a kind of a sharp tone from him i didn't come in and have a meeting with the players and say myself i wonder what the moral is going to be i wonder how they're going to accept me that wasn't what i said to myself they're going to have to accept me i'm not worried about them or i'm worried about vince lombardi's morale he starts out by saying i've never been a loser and i'm not about to start now we knew from the outset that he was in command a take charge guy and a guy that you couldn't fool around with every time a lot of the men thought he's going to do the x's and the o's and and tell us his strategy he really talked about more about the kind of men he wanted on his team what he wanted to instill in them what was important you have three things in your life that are critical your god your family and the green bay packers [Music] this was not somebody that you were to take lightly if you didn't accept his philosophies then you you didn't play for the green bay pack because you didn't play for vince lombardi he said look you guys have floundered around you've played the last couple of years you're better than what you played i'm going to make you play better they did say there are planes and trains and buses leaving here every day and some of you may be on them if you're not willing to make the sacrifice to pay the price to put the team first and get the hell out he said gentlemen we're going to relentlessly chase perfection knowing full well we won't catch it because nothing is perfect but we're going to relentlessly and that's how he blurted it chase it because in the process we will catch excellence he said i'm not remotely interested in being just good holy mackerel man i was just up like this i didn't even need a seat after that meeting he called me over and kind of laughingly said he says you know i didn't know if anybody's going to leave there or not i said we could have no football players but i said coach don't worry you just grabbed them you've got everyone where you want them after the first time that he spent an hour with bart starr bart went to the pay phone and called his wife cherry and said we're going to win you know this guy knows how to do it practices were different than what they had been [Music] the next day on the field we worked to the point of exhaustion there's no horsing around no goofing around and and it's all for the one goal and that was to be a successful football organization he would push you and you have to learn to accept that i don't think there's any difference whether you teach on the football field or whether you're teaching the classroom they're both exactly the same if they understand they'll do it and do it the right way there were certain players that he would just descend upon i mean he would just jump all over jerry cramer jimmy taylor me he was just trying to motivate each and every player to their maximum performance to be the best player they can be he's very fiery in everything that he does and i have been one player who especially have tried to stay out of that realm of where usually it irritates him most being tough i think is the easy way of saying that he's been a disciplinarian an organizer and a perfectionist there were some players that could handle it some players that were too sensitive to criticism and couldn't handle it and so he treated him differently it was a joy to be in meetings with him not only on the field watching him demonstrate or illustrate a point but in meetings the way he talked with bart starr he didn't admonish him in front of the team i told him i said look coach i said i can take all of the chewing you want to dish out and i said i understand your personality and that's all well and good and i said that doesn't bother me but what does bother me is the fact that you're telling the team one thing that you're expecting certain things of your leaders of your quarterbacks and you expect me to go out there and lead them i said i can't do that if you're going to chew me out in front of them i said now i've got a chewing out coming fine but do it in the privacy of this office where you apologize to me when you know you're wrong otherwise don't ever expect me to go out there and be your leader and he never ever raised his voice to me again the summer training was an experience you you can't describe it i i think i quit i quit the packers every summer that i went to camp and i think there were a lot of people with me [Applause] this is the true test of any man is when he faces adversity when you get knocked down what do you do when you get up you have to get up and you have to respond fatigue makes cowards of us all you can't play fatigue therefore it's up to you to be in prime physical condition he was putting your your uh mindset in the fourth quarter of the game he wanted you to be able to perform in the fourth quarter of the game henry jordan years ago said you know somebody asked them well how does lombardi treat you guys because he treats us all the same like dogs are you chaining out are you running almost the dragon is all you got to do is turn out one day we're having a scrimmage august hot 98 degrees he was a tough football coach he demanded excellence at every position if you didn't give him your absolute best your ass was out of there i miss a block and about four plays later i jump offsides he comes running across the field gets about 10 inches from my nose he says mister the concentration period of a college student five minutes high school is three minutes kindergarten is 30 seconds and you don't have that so where's that put you i went to the locker room sat there looking at the floor wondering what i was going to do with the rest of my life some people are born with a tremendous amount of leadership ability you cannot do it by the book you cannot coach an nfl football team by the book he walks down and passed me on the back of the neck and messes up my hair a little bit and he said son one of these days you're going to be the best guard in football [Music] you sat there and you'd cuss under your breath at him and say you know we take quite a bit but uh being grown men uh we realize that's the only way he can get the best out of us and as long as he does the same with paul horning and bart starr he sure is welcome to do it with me you knew what your body can do and you knew what your mind would do and it wouldn't give up in this critical instance he starts preaching he starts saying there'll be a game this year in the fourth quarter when you will be because of your superior conditioning you will be the champions the packers first season opener under lombardi green bay hosts the rival chicago bears they hadn't beaten the bears very often during the 50s we were behind throughout much of the game six to nothing the bears had kicked a couple field goals but late in the game fourth quarter we punted and richie pettibone and the bears fumbled right around the bear 20 yard line they come back in the fourth quarter probably because they're conditioning after a really tough training camp we drove in and jim taylor scored the touchdown we're up seven to six we kicked the bears had them backed up to their end zone for a safety they went at nine to six right there these chicago bears one of the more successful teams are basically shut down and held in check the players picked lombardi up and carried them off the field after all the berating after all he had done to drive them to no ends during training camp players celebrated by lifting them up on their shoulders and carrying them to the locker room uh defeat the devil here i'm just a very very very happy man today did you uh did you feel that uh the club did a real good job for you today nine to six win outstanding i thought if you can beat the bears you could probably beat any other team in the league we went out and won our first three games and here's the team that only won one game that you rooted for there was a lot of hope and optimism it was marie lombardi who told father to poll that their stay here would depend on one thing she said father depot it all depends on one little word win win win but then we lost five in a row we played some good football in there turn it around at the end we won the last four we beat the 49ers and we beat the rams you have results like that it doesn't take that long to have the public on your side that made us a seven and five football team packers hadn't had a winning year in years it is a dramatic turnaround from their previous one win season vince lombardi is named nfl coach of the year by the associated press he can make you better and he made the team play better he took a team that nobody thought could ever come close to winning again and turn it around in one year green bay gave vince lombardi an opportunity he stepped into a perfect situation here because of the talent that was on hand lombardi taught them how to win and the sacrifices they would need to make to win big at the start of the 1960 season there are just over 60 000 people living in green bay after a promising first season under lombardi continued success depends on trusting this very different kind of leader volatile intolerant of mistakes strict disciplinarian all business well they're act too slow getting in there man how does man is being way to hell back here you never get to the hole he was obsessed with winning but it was not the only thing striving for perfection was the only thing his message was simple clear you don't do things right and now and again you do it right all the time we won a game but we won it in the last seconds in a field goal and he just ripped us up one side down the other and he got so angry he kicked the garbage can he just hauled up and kicked it and hurt his toe so he's hopping around hopping around the locker room and we're about ready to die laughing and he's very angry he never lied to us he never played mind games he could convince you that you could be good but he had to believe it you had to show him that you had what he wanted to play on his football team he said i know i won't have always the best players in everything but i want to take them and bring out their talents bring out their strengths and hone them develop them to the utmost he always knew how to let the players feel that his motivations were not for his own self-aggrandizement but for the betterment of the team he never demanded more of anyone than he demanded of himself that's what great leaders do vince lombardi was everything that anybody ever said about him and then some and this great pride that we do have in being part of a a winning team and i think all stems down from lombardi he hates to lose a strong and promising team emerges the big word in professional football is execution all players succeed on the blackboard but men make them work or a team of characters god knows they were but they also were team of high character outstanding offensive line he had big receivers and horning and tailor us running backs lombardi always talked about arne whose best player you ever saw inside the 10 yard line he could smell the goal line one of my few book reports i ever did in my life and i really mean few was one was on paul horning i didn't know exactly where green bay was but i knew it was up north and i knew it was cold but i knew that there was tremendous history and greatness he won the heisman trophy in 1956 on a team that went two and eight that's never happened before and won't happen again he'd been a college quarterback that's how he won the heisman trophy with but they couldn't find a position for him he was tried at full back half back quarterback they didn't quite know where he should play where he would be best served lobarti came in he said you're my halfback he really adored this boy he said he was as close to him as any ballplayer he ever coached he was on he was he was nearest the heart you've got the coach on your side rooting for you to be the best you can be that goes a long way to helping you maximize your skills fuzzy thurston who played left guard i mean he wasn't a hall of famer but he did a hell of a job seeing fuzzy thurston and jerry cramer pull out and lead paul horning or jimmy taylor around the right or left end paul horning in the way he played the game and jim taylor's toughness and tenacity an outstanding defensive tackle henry jordan provides consistent and relentless pressure as an inside pass rusher he is named all pro for five straight seasons [Applause] well there was a very fine defensive event they called me dr phil good it was because of my attitude personality and many times the the the fun loving part of even in practice i would run around a lot of times laughing absolutely a fabulous athlete and an even better human being walking out of the dorm one night and this voice comes out of the darkness bill i thought it was god i'm terrified it was willie davis he said i'd like to speak with you and i said oh no this is it he's going to tell me to go home he said i've been watching you at practice i think you've got a chance to make our team and i'm going to help you when nietzsche's snapping your face mask and breaking your nose and lombardi's screaming in your face you don't think you can take another step you look at me and i'll get you through it it was an unexpected undeserved unrewarded act of kindness by a great leader and a great man if you got willie davis nobody can beat you ray nitschke in the linebacking corps he kind of tied everything together you know very nisky you think he did just walked up do you think he's an accountant or businessman or something it was this meek and mild as could be but when he stepped on a football field there was a metamorphosis he's changed like a dr jekyll and hyde he became something else he became ray nisky number 66 of the green bay packers and he would hit their first year was tough around me and just getting acclimated to the small town of green bay and coming from chicago you know and chicago you to know our neighbors you know in green bay you play for the packers everybody knew you his forearm broke my nose and my face mask and my chin strap the question became would i drive my face into that forearm again and that's where i faced the reality of the national football league to me in my mind he was the best football player we had on that team when you went to blognitsky you know you had to scrimmage otherwise you might get one of those big forearms in your teeth and come off with your your ears ringing forest greg for heaven's sakes probably the best offensive lineman not only in our day but in the whole league her rally was an outstanding athlete combination of strength speed leadership he had it all he was a full package billy wood he had to write letters to get a try out wrote to all the teams jack venisi was one that said yes come on in probably the best tackler that we had in the 60s smaller guy but tenacious and a guy that just gave us heart jim ringo was a great center ringgold was tough and ringo plate hurts lombardi liked that you could play hurt then you really went up in the estimation of coach lombardi art star this sort of cerebral leader of the team he's perfect for lombardy well that's great because it wouldn't have any force out there he would take the game plan as lombardi would lay it out there's no communication with the quarterback from the sidelines there's no signals anything else bart called his own game based on the preparation that lombardi gave him the coaches in the booth they never sent a play in we got in the huddle 11 guys many of them the same for 11 years and he never made a bad call i'm bart smart and he always was smart and lombardi took advantage of that the team continues to improve under the strict discipline of lombardi lombardi gave that group of packers that difference that that little push that little uh fire branding that made them champions he brought them to the next level that's the definition of a great coach is can you get the most out of his personnel the most out of his players the most out of his coaches just as the packers start to gain success the organization suffers a terrible loss jack venisi 23 years old when he got the job [Music] jack would be working so hard he was working late early he developed dramatic fever when he was in the service before he came to the packers died of a heart attack at the age of 33. [Music] it was taken pretty hard by everybody because it's such a young guy and had such a talent and such a future the great tragedy of jack's life is that the packers in 1960 were moving toward what would become their first great season he really was just starting to see the fruits of his labor he had put this team together [Music] there are people that are written out of history and i often say that it's my responsibility to write them back into history and that's what i tried to do with jack venice it was a pretty somber time players were pretty close to jack it was a beautiful funeral and everybody was there i mean [Music] [Music] unbelievable the packers finish out the regular season ending on a high note we had to go out to the west coast to play san francisco and we won that game 13 to nothing in the mud if we win the game the next week against the rams we would have the championship december 17 1960 the packers prevail in one of the tightest races in nfl history winning the western conference championship with a pitch to max magee max has to stretch to pull in the ball but he keeps his balance long enough to slide in for the score beating the los angeles rams 35-21 at la's historic memorial coliseum the packers win their first title in 16 years and their first under second year head coach vince lombardi [Music] more than 11 000 fans greet the team upon its arrival at the airport this becomes a tradition following big road victories people get caught up in the enthusiasm of the game and the team's coming back and then report on the radio television team will be back home at 9 10 tonight so let's see out at the airport welcome the team home i know that you've talked about the team being extremely fatigued uh how do they feel now that it's all over for the regular part of the season well i don't know yet uh uh actually i think we're all right so we're much more relaxed than we were uh how are we physically fine good shape very good and again congratulations on the job well done now we're playing for the championship for the first time [Applause] we get down to about the 30-yard line if we score we win the game only seconds ago no timeouts left and bart threw a little flare pass to jim taylor who ran it to about to the nine yard line was tackled by chuck bed and eric of the eagles back derrick wouldn't let him get up just kind of sat on him let the clock tick down victory goes to the eagles a team that has overcome insurmountable odds all season the philadelphia eagles are truly a team of desire this is our first championship for a lot of guys so it was a really difficult game to lose we all came in the locker room and we we all were disappointed coach has been out doing uh interviews with the press and he comes into the locker room about 10 minutes late and he gets up on a trunk full of capes and stuff bring it up everybody up bring it up we get up in front of the room in the locker room he said we got beat today but he said i can tell you right now it won't ever happen again he says this to us right after the ball game it won't ever happen again no one will ever beat us in a championship game again at that moment i became a lombardi fan internally it killed him every defeat was like a death for vince lombardi and he'd just play over and over and over again in his mind every play that could have led to that defeat that was part of his obsession despite losing the championship the packers and a successful second season under lombardi with an 8-4 record the best is yet to come what coach lombardi did was bring everybody together as a team where everybody was playing as one he told us very early you are good enough to win but we have to be disciplined you have to do it our way before the start of the 61 season coach lombardi makes the announcement the packers have sold out their home games on a season ticket basis for the first time since offering them this came the same year 6591 seats were added in the first expansion of city stadium raising the capacity to over 38 thousand in an early october game paul horning scores a packers record 33 points with four touchdowns one field goal and six extra points a 45-7 victory over the baltimore colts when lombardi was hired horning was ready to quit because his first two seasons had been so frustrated [Music] his 33 points in one game still stands as a team record horny becomes the mvp of the league he becomes the mvp of the 1961 championship game and lombardi calls him one of the greatest clutch players to ever play the game the greatest player he ever coached the packers clinch the western conference and secure the 1961 nfl championship game cold weather got the big city giants coming here to play us so a big build up to that game the 61 championship to this day was the most eagerly anticipated game in the history of the green bay packers it was the first time they played host to the nfl championship game and there's nothing bigger in the eyes of fans than a first the path to the championship had been anything but clear-cut nfl players are called into service as the berlin crisis rages on the whole team was having a good year we got called up in the middle of the season people that were in the national guard the army reserve had to serve paul horning ray nichky and myself i was in fort riley kansas and they were letting all the football players in the nfl every one of us got weekend passes certain games we could go back and play didn't always get passes to come home and play for games here comes the championship game guy says paul you can't go this weekend general said all leaves are out everybody stays home like a coach yes paul i won't be able to make it for the championship game what what tale are you talking about he said i got kennedy's number in my pocket i'm going to call him when we hang up he said america's deserves to have the best game that they can have in the championship game the packers need paul horny to play to be a part of their team i get the pass december 31st 1961 green bay packers versus the new york giants former packers head coach curly lambo visits the press box at halftime the packers overwhelmed the new york giants 37 to nothing to win the franchise's seventh nfl championship its first in 17 seasons he had the dominant defense under lombardi with willie davis and wood and then you had some zany unconventional characters but who were also great players ray nitschke and max and horning so it was a combination of factors all underneath vince i've already brought back not only the pride in the state of wisconsin but the pride around the country green bay being such a small town and being able to have a championship team there has captivated the nation the 1962 packers run to daylight and lead the league in scoring for a second straight season all right gentlemen i would say that the number one play in our offensive category is the is the power sweep this is what we call running to daylight daylight wherever it shows inside the defensive tackle inside the defensive end inside the defensive linebacker that play could break any one of those three places besides of course the ideal place which is outside the defensive linebacker this is the most important play we have it's the play we must make go it's the play that we will make oh it's the play that we will run again and again and again 49 28. the fullback was a lead blocker to the right the left halfback was on the left side the weak side of the offense and horny was the guy who ran it i ran the football behind ron cramer who's lined up on the right side and we're running the sweep to the right our ron was in the tight end position on the left side of the line we'd run the sweep back to the left side that was our best play if i get up and i feel a little grouchy and everything i want to go out there and hit people it's not a friendly game and it never will be a friendly game you can't go out there and have parties you know it's a it's a real hard rough tough football game people think that lombardi had a simplistic offense but in fact every player on that team knew the different ways to respond depending on what the defense was doing on that one play he was extremely intelligent with his game offensively he worked with the offense a great deal the time and his explanation of the key plays were so convincing that when he finished him i don't think there was ever anybody in the room who thought that we could make that thing go against any situation he also had what was called a weak side sweep that is probably famous as the one with the the guards coming to the strong side with the tight end but it was still a change up it would be me blocking the defensive end on the left side you still had horning and taylor and they just would run to depending where the tight ends lined up they would run it to the other side let's say we're going to line up right taylor's behind the right tackle i'm behind the left tackle i go block the defensive left in jimmy comes back to the weak side now we got to two guards pulling back to the weak side the packers were so well trained in that sweep that they were a few seconds ahead of the defense in the response time which is everything in athletics nobody was unprotected going against the suite you were going to get blocked by somebody and when you get to a level where everybody does it the right way you got success [Applause] november the packers faced the eagles in philadelphia that was a game that uh packers wanted revenge for losing the 60 championship game we hadn't played them since then and they went out there and really took it to philadelphia tommy mcdonald who was a wide receiver for the eagles and made a comment to the press after the game he says i couldn't even make their rinky dink team and he was he was pretty good player but he was just an off the packer power that day the packers finish the season with a nearly flawless 13-1 record many consider the 1962 packers the greatest team in franchise history team played 21 games that you're including the preseason 120 of them the season culminates in a bitterly fought defensive battle in a justice bitterly cold yankee stadium wind chill was pretty low it was um bitter cold and uh just hard-nosed football of course jim taylor was a guy that the giants were laying for robert sterling cat cabbage and other different players had tried to tear my head off you're trying in return to bring the contact to them the conditions of that day dictated a ground game new york was more of a passing team so i'm sure the conditions hurt them the associated press announces packers jim taylor as the nfl's mvp i got the ball and i'm dropping down and that sideline is right there i'm not stepping out i'm not stepping out i'm taking on that new york giant player the packers prevail 16-7 over the new york giants a title rematch to win their second straight nfl championship under vince lombardi he was a difficult man in a difficult position and had a difficult job and there were moments where he was tried and tested so he went to church every day for the strength that he got from the religion and the belief in the church faith was extremely important to him no question about that no matter what he did he did it 100 percent full throttle he was a very religiously committed individual he certainly found a way to use his faith his religious teachings and infuse them into football in essentially a non-religious way he put these almost like commandments in the locker room it was like the two tablets that moses had you get to believe the gospel of lombardy when you when you hear it time after time after time we had a great faith in ourselves a great belief in ourselves and he was responsible for that lombardi from the time he was a great schooler in seventh grade he always went to seven o'clock mass wherever or close to it through high school through college his faith was private he went to mass every morning at st willebrord church because the offices then were on washington street just a couple of blocks down his desire to be a priest was part of his life and so if he couldn't be a priest he could live like a priest and believe like a priest he based his whole pregame speech on run to win i believe it was saint paul's epistle i'm not the habit of quoting the scripture or gospel but i was groping i think at the time for something in order to give my club a little bit of a lift there is a quote from saint paul don't you know that while all the runners in the stadium are in a race only one wins the prize so run to win and he went on to expound on that and say that we play not just to be playing we're here not just to be here that's not enough in itself we play to win the 1963 draft the packers put their faith in all-american dave robinson their number one draft choice i didn't go to school to play football i went to school to get my degree i mean we played football because that was the only way to get good scholarship he was bright kid an engineering student he got a great memory active mind dave was one of the best defensive football players we've ever had herb and i played next to each other and roy davis played next to me and we caught that the strongest left side in his international football league inside support man was ray nisky and when they went the wrong way we had willie wood as our safety guy i've heard about ray nichky not wanting to miss a tackle because then willie was gonna have to make the tackle and he'd have to answer to willie and he didn't want willie on his case you could get the ear of the ball and look to your right and lombardi's left side and there would be five count five future hall of famers on the field at one time and people just didn't attack our side we had a very strong side a lot of hurdles and a lot of good times isn't it will it people you meet man that's right the people you play with people you're involved with really have made it a wonderful experience the packers finished second in the western conference in 1963 an 11-2 in one record despite some noteworthy obstacles in 1963 i was with the los angeles rams i didn't know what had happened packers played st louis cardinals then and bart broke his hand the system that i had at los angeles was identical to the packers on october 30th the packers acquire quarterback zeke brakkowski in what is recorded as a waiver deal but there are suspicions that the deal was really a trade made after the deadline for a player to be named later coach lombardi knew that i had the same system so it was an easy transition for me vince always wanted to take care of everybody he knew he comes to me and he said you got any warm coats i said well not really coach so he came in he had this black raincoat that had the lining and the fuzzy lining in it and he put that he said that pit's good you know then he said get a hat 1963 was notable in other ways nfl has a rule about gambling they do not want the game connected with gambling you know i've always been a spender i mean everybody knows i was even in those days you know paul grew up going to the track when he was about six seven years old and so he grew up on an early age betting on horses paul horning and alex cares were betting horny said he did not bet against the packers he was betting on the packers i was making a lot of money and i was making money betting that's the worst thing that can happen to you pete roselle suspended paul horning for gambling and at that time you can imagine what a big story that was in the nfl naturally regretted it i it was a it was a very traumatic thing to be suspended without pay and then you never know if you're going to get back into the league barty was very disappointed that this happened because morning was sort of lombardi's guy to lombardi's credit he didn't turn his back on paul horning and say you're never coming back here he said we're gonna get you through this year and you'll be back with the packers it's gonna take a long year and i'll be just very very happy if i'm on my feet at the end of the season because i'm just thrilled to death that i'll be able to play football again in 1964 the packers finish in second place for the second year in a row they are again resigned to play in the playoff bowl lombardi at the end of that season said it's the last time we're going to have a second place team it's a toilet bowl you're either first or your last everything else means nothing you wonder is the dynasty over june 1st 1965 curly lambo dies of a heart attack he is 67. he was up at his girlfriend's house mary jane van dice up in sturgeon bay they were going out and he stopped by to pick her up i was a little late getting home and then so i said i'm going upstairs to get my outfit on then he said that he was going to be talking with fritz my dad sometimes he'd talk with my dad for hours about football and and it was just uh he was one in a million her dad was cutting the grass up there and curly kind of saw him cutting the grass and said how about giving me a turn so he grabbed the lawnmower and started cutting the grass and pretty soon he just dropped over into my dad's arms dropped out of a heart attack there wouldn't have been a lot of media coverage of lambo's funeral curly had been removed from the green bay scene for 10 15 years cal hubbard said that they're going to have a hard time finding six men to bury him and hubbard was one of lambeau's great players [Music] everybody knew that there was no love between vince lombardi and carly lambo two extreme opposites in terms of personalities curly was a bs lombardi was a straightforward no holds barred honest person he was on the cover of the packer yearbook in 65 shaking hands with curly our daily from preschool who put out the yearbook was told by lombardi that's the worst yearbook you ever put out vince didn't want to do it and he didn't like it when it was on the yearbook and he actually banned dad from practice for for several days several days in august the city council votes unanimously to rename green bay city stadium lambeau field initially stadium commission was opposed to the idea the packers were opposed to the idea after a lot of argument and debate they do eventually rename it lambeau field in honor vince lombardi is furious he didn't want to maybe acknowledge that he would have i'm sure like the stadium named after him so he probably wasn't going to give it a lot of recognition why is it named lambeau field it's named after the creator curly lambo the only reason this stadium is named lambeau field today is because of the support fans threw behind the idea september 11 1965 the dedication takes place during a pre-season pregame ceremony don lambo curly sun and don hudson lambeau star end addressed the crowd probably didn't last five minutes no big deal um many things were no big deal back then but that was particularly so for something you'd expect a lot of pomp and pageantry the 1965 season marks the first of three consecutive championship seasons 1965 packers certainly weren't dominating we went through a period during the mid-season where they really struggled offensively paul horny was hurt for much of the year their offense wasn't what it was their defense was a little bit in transition it was the veteran players with their experience that helped win that championship in 65. a lot of folks that can play the game a bit they're big they're fast they're smart they got a lot of tools but the fire it's a burn it's a hunger it's a drive it's a want it's a spark that makes a difference this may be lombardi's best coaching job in the sixth game of the 1965 season the packers challenged the colts in foggy baltimore we were only ahead by one point they were going in for a touchdown and would have taken the lead quasi tried to lob the ball in my head well you know as a basketball player i could jump 10 feet easy lobster get it so i jumped up and picked the ball and came down he picked off a pass ran 87 yards i would have gone all the way but quasi was back there and i slowed down waiting for nishki to come up and make the block and nisky just he drug his feet swung that game around and then we ended up winning fairly comfortably 42-27 they beat the colts tie the 49ers packers stand 10-3-1 tied for first place the team to face the colts again in a playoff game this time at lambeau field in the first half the packers gotten stopped on the one-yard line and lombardi was not happy and i wasn't far from where he was on this island he's yelling those players what are you doing out there vincent's down over there and yell if you were a good football player and you were not showing it that's when he was perturbed he would really go after you don chandler ties the game with a 22-yard field goal with 158 left in regulation the colts furious over the call insists the kick floats wide right and outside the uprights you know the so-called field goal that everybody said that we didn't make the ball was so high above the uprights plus it was curving it was difficult and the goal pulse was short the ball came kind of did a little films that were taken from this south end is difficult to tell is that fall inside or outside the uprights obviously chandler did something that people thought he missed he thought he missed it but he did the referee makes the signal that's good what are you going to do it's good 13 minutes 39 seconds into sudden death overtime don chandler kicks a 25-yard field goal to lift the packers over the colts 13-10. [Applause] are the champions of the western conference due to the end-of-game controversy the nfl extends the uprights to 20 feet above the crossbar the packers played a wonderful game of football and are the champions of the western conference and will meet the cleveland browns for the world's championship on january the second 1965 nfl championship game green bay sees five inches of wet heavy snow this snarls pregame traffic and the cleveland browns they got delayed because of the weather and they never got here until a little bit hour before the game so already they didn't get off on the right foot they must scramble to make kickoff cleveland had the great runner jimmy brown when we would play the browns they would always gear themselves to stop jim brown the sleet in the snow and the muck here at lambeau field and that was to the advantage of horning and taylor we were certainly not speed mergents and to the disadvantage of jim brown who was much faster with their distinctive sure-footed styles packers 30-year-old running backs paul horning and jim taylor sloshed through a quagmire for a combined 201 yards rushing that was lombardi football he just pounded the ball against the browns that day the packers defeat the browns 23-12 and win the 1965 nfl championship horning and taylor nicknamed thunder and lightning had done it again it was just a couple of names that couple of reporters thought up taylor and horning were a good tandem i never paid any attention to it and i know jimmy didn't either he didn't care one way or the other the world champs secure half back donny anderson in the 65 draft and fullback jim grabowski in 66. and grabo and i both we've talked about a zillion times we wanted to be a green bay packer we wanted to be the champions liberty was more adaptable than people think he could interchange players he lost horning and taylor and he came up with grabowski and anderson leroy caffey made one of the funniest comments he said we used to have thunder and lightning and now we have cloudy and drizzle [Music] the packers organization ushers in a new era of player compensation together we signed a contract which was pretty lucrative for the time probably higher than anybody had done previous to that point they gave us the name gold dust twins and and reputedly it was a million dollars between us he got more than i did but that's okay so that's where the million dollar backfield came from at the time it was considerable amount of money seconds remain in the championship game the dallas cowboys face a fourth and goal at the green bay two-yard line dallas had the momentum was not looking good for us and we had to stop him if i go and play it the way that lombardi drew this play up i'm going to stop the play he's going to pull up he's going to throw the pass again dave robinson charges cowboy quarterback don meredith you can see the guard he sees me and wheels around and tries to come back to get me but it's too late meredith takes the ball rolls out to the right he's going to be nervous [Applause] in the end zone on that last play dave robinson was able to get in and get a hold of meredith's arm and i grabbed him and he had his own arm out like this i hit him from the left side and i couldn't get his right arm i'm trying to pull it down meredith's just flipped the ball because he's no he's going down and of course tom brown standing there they will intercept and save the day for us the play preserves a 34-27 victory and the 1966 nfl championship this time the packers have another game to play the national football league was the league and they worked hard to establish their league the the newfangled afl was a challenge to them afl had signed a number of players off the nfl rosters and as it put the pinch on a lot of the nfl owners competition between the afl teams and the nfl teams had gotten to the point where we weren't sure that all the teams would survive following six years of hostile relations the upstart american football league and the nearly 50-year-old national football league agreed to a merger they wanted recognition they want parody with the nfl they win this game boy that's a big feather in their hat a lot of recognition we're just as good as you are coach zomborti was tense talk about tight as the nuts and a new bridge he was really not himself people were asking him questions about the kansas city chiefs and their credentialing and their personnel lombardi had the edge because he had honed his team with mental toughness we have to beat this team to solidify what the nfl stands for the coliseum at the time filled it was a hundred thousand there were only 65 000 people there even the pre-event stuff was was fairly quiet i don't know what the heck it was they're trying to promote their their television station they wanted these gals to come out on a trampoline with coach lombardi and they said would you mind i said yes i would mind i will not do that known then as the afl nfl world championship game it marks the first time teams from the two rival leagues play one another it is now known as super bowl one the game is played in la's historic memorial coliseum i did attend the very first super bowl in los angeles with my dad i think they take us for eight dollars and we were up pretty high in the coliseum when the game started and every quarter we moved down a little lower i grew up watching the highlights of the super bowl it was one of my favorite vhs tape so i wore that thing out and it starts with super bowl one which is us green bay packers and the stories of bart star 34 year old receiver max mcgee becomes the unlikely hero of the day max mcgee drinking the night before the game and then going out there and catching the first touchdown in super bowl history the story goes that he was out all night max mcgee decided it's time to go out and have some fun he uh told his roommate i got stu two stewardesses lined up uh i'm gonna go leave tonight uh you're coming come on i need you i got two of them i just had to go out and see the lights on sunset strip so out i went but paul wouldn't go paul had a little more value of the money than i did you know i said what the hell just days pay mcgee claims he played on little sleep sneaking out of the team hotel following bed check for a night of carousing the stuff of legends wasn't set to play wasn't ready to play all of a sudden got called on boy dollar gets hurt unlike the first series hurts his shoulder out for the game lombardi yells about max and max he hadn't played all year and he can't find his helmet and my god someone gave him the wrong helmet anyway put it on max mcgee had the game of his life [Music] i'm thinking oh my god this man's been out all night on the eve of the biggest game in our career he catches seven passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns from game mvp bart starr at halftime we were ahead 14 to 10. the first super bowl halftime show initiates today's tradition of spectacle it features two men flying above the field propelled by rocket belts while the show went smoothly the return to the game did not they sent pat sumrall down because patty played for vince in new york he said you need to go down and tell events that you need to kick off again because nbc was a commercial so he says you got to be crazy i'm not going to do that they said get somebody else he said well you played for him so he goes over and lombardi says you got to be kidding me i'll file suit against the nfl for this so he agreed not very happily about it but he did agree green bay dominates the second half safety willy woods 50-yard interception return triggers the team's 21-point surge the packers make history by winning super bowl one rolling to a 35-10 victory over the kansas city chiefs pressed to compare the chiefs with teams in the nfl at a post-game press conference coach lombardi blurts out the comment many of his nfl brethren want to hear kansas city has a real top team but i don't think it compares with the top teams in the nfl that's what you wanted me to say now i've said it we're going to win and we're going to win with pride and discipline and that's what makes the green bay packers after nine years four nfl titles and the first super bowl the golden boy paul horning ends his packers career lombardi announces horning's number five will be retired he made you understand that you were a better football player you were a better team so he pushed us to that level i've always said it nobody pushed a team like he did 1967 lombardi is driving to win a third straight nfl championship while juggling head coach and gm duties we played the los angeles rams in in the coliseum three or four weeks before the divisional championship game coach was adamant all that week about how important it was for us to win that game even though we already clinched the division what happened with vince lombardi and often is a characteristic of human impulse is that the more success he had the more he needed success it leads to great accomplishments but also to an ultimate sense of never feeling quite there we played a hard game against the rams he was furious that we lost this game furious the thrill of a victory was diminished and every defeat was enhanced greatly so it became harder and harder for him the packers win the central division with a nine four in one record however they are perceived as tired and aging being an old man inferred that you were not capable of doing the job that you had passed your prime that you were no longer a great football player you were a has been underdogs for the first time in a home playoff game under lombardi a rematch packers versus the los angeles rams in the nfl western conference championship game the playoff game at county stadium against the rams i remember travis williams having a huge game travis williams was our secret weapon in that game he had all kinds of yards they would try to close on him and he could run in between them he was just so fast the packers faced the same adversary on the last day of 1967 as they did on the first they beat the dallas cowboys on january 1st to earn their place in super bowl one they must now face them again barty was the guy that kept everything in check he would inspect the field then he had his uh anti-freeze situation there where he installed a whole bunch of wires under the stadium floor the turf to keep the field soft he loved gadgets he just absolutely loved things that he felt gave him a competitive advantage this system would keep the soil from freezing and therefore make it playable and so the night before the game they turned it on that night the weather changed the weatherman made a terrible forecast december 31st 1967. don meredith said that a wake-up call at the hotel holly duty packer backer he said what he said howdy duty it's seven o'clock in the morning at 16 below and meredith said 16 below what your breath and your breathing was just absolutely like a cake of ice yesterday saturday that for that sunday game was a beautiful day in green bay it was maybe 20 30 degrees but hot a bit sunny and beautiful we were running around a bunch of colts out in the field press box on the west side of lambeau didn't have much heat in it at all and i thought wouldn't this be lovely and the field was another story when they got to lambeau field some of the packers coaches were down there the grass was nice and soft and warm until they took the tarp off and then it hit 16 below weather and it quick froze just see the white creeping across the field the frozen tender and someone said you better go up and tell your boss the system's not working and none of the assistant coaches would do it they got chuck lane i'm next to the young brother you give him all the crappy jobs so i go into lombardi and said coach you guys said we got a problem what's that i said your field is frozen so you're kidding me it can't be i said oh yeah it is unfortunate i thought you needed to know well he just flew off the handle at that one people start filing into the locker room and there's a lot of grumbling going on yeah i think it's great you like it no coach heard that too he said we're playing this game so get out there get warmed up and let's go getting warmed up was impossible vince don't let guys wear gloves and dave robinson said i'm going to wear a brown glove and he won't know the difference and my god he did by the time the game started it was an ice rink all the uh mud to it coagulated on the field froze to the field it was almost as if you had a stucco wall and you laid it down and then you had to play on that the upper level was where the cameras were so there couldn't be glass in front of the cameras so for the entire game we were literally outside every time a guy opened that damn door is like the arctic circle coffee froze on the ledge [Music] guys wiping the windows with the heaps the breath through so you could see out the window it was terrible conditions the first play of the game was almost a disaster donnie anderson fumbled you know it was like trying to hold an ice cube the referee blew the whistle he tried to pull the whistle which is a metal whistle it stuck to his lip and he had to rip it out of his mouth it cracked his lip and the blood froze and from that moment on there was never another whistle in the ice bowl we played the entire ice bowl listening to the commands of the referees saying stop hackers scored early terrible riding conditions fielded it was getting worse and worse and worse and the weather was really the the number one thing that the packers were fighting at that time as were the cowboys the cowboys take a lead late in the game they're winning the stamp game at green bay of all places final drive in the ice bowl we're down three we get the ball on the 35 yard line four and a half minutes to go in the previous 31 plays we'd gained a minus nine yards 31 plays the whole second half maybe some more we gained minus nine yards we had made a first down in the whole second half watch the momentum change green bay just came back and started to dominate play [Music] in that huddle i looked at my eyes of my teammates i saw confidence i saw poise and professionalism i didn't see any fear anxiety i talked to bart later and i said what made you think you could take that team down the field what were you thinking about he said i came in the huddle and i was gonna say something and i looked into your eyes i looked and forced eyed i looked and skis eyes looked and gilly's eyes i said i don't need to say anything and then bart stepped and said let's get this done and everybody got an injection of power of energy the greatest drive i've ever seen in football was that drive 68 yards donnie caught a little pass to begin the drive i got a seven yard runoff right tackle for first down donnie anderson was sensational chuck mercine played his heart out i told bart starr that i was open in the left flat he hit me for a 19-yard catch and went out of bounds stop the clock all of a sudden i've got half the yardage in the drive we need to get this ball in the end zone i don't think that there was any doubt in anybody's mind that we had to or otherwise it was over for us bart says to ski in the huddle he says ski can you block andre on the give play and ski says run it on two and we gained 11 yards down to the one yard line they call a couple of dive plays to our half back to donny anderson number 44. both times donnie slipped so the final timeout was 16 seconds to go bart went to the sidelines i said coach i'm up underneath the center i can lunge my way into the end zone all he said was then run it and let's get the hell out of here it wasn't a snake he didn't call a snake he called a hand off the play was brown right 31 witch which chuck racine was supposed to get the ball i was excited because here i was going to get a chance to win the game an unbearable minus 13 degrees with a 36 below zero wind chill bart starr finishes a 12-play 68-yard drive with a one-yard touchdown quarterback sneak the winning touchdown with 13 seconds remaining he kept the ball he didn't tell me he didn't tell anybody he was going to keep the ball i turned around and i saw bart tumble into the end zone and he was across the line right and we got it we got it my next fear was don't push him into the end zone because i couldn't stop and if i pushed him or assisted him into the end zone it would have been a penalty so that's why i threw my arms up in the air trying to say to the referee i'm not assisting him as i bumped him [Music] the packers beat the cowboys 21-17 in what is now famously remembered as the ice bowl tom lantern didn't ever think that bart stark would ever run with the ball so he just turned and went right in the season had been kind of difficult for a bite it's been real frustrating at the early part of the season the climax like that of scoring the thing a great sense of relief for him i know bart was crying and very very happy bart starr has said many times about that last ice bowl drive they used every bit of their experience and their wisdom that they built up through the years to orchestrate that championship that's what lombardi excelled at because lombardi willed victory he tells you that if you give anything less than the best that you have within you at any time regardless of the the situation regardless of the consequences that you're cheating yourself you're cheating your teammates you're cheating professional football you're cheating the fans who have made the game what it is today for you let's be honest even though that was a legendary team in 67 that won the ice bowl that was not his best team and maybe not the best team in the nfl that season but they knew how to win after the ice bowl he came up to me and put his arm around me and said you became a man today that was the first real compliment that i received from him i carried that the rest of my career the next seven years herb atterly came up to me one time and said lombardi came up to him after a game and said you have just played the finest game i have ever seen a cornerback play ever take that with you whenever you step on the field so herbie said for the rest of my career tried to play the finest game a cornerback had ever played he'd come out right right past me and he would slap me on my back my my shoulder fleming and keep walking and i would say he touched me he touched me that was like the man touching you from the sky coach lombardi was meeting with the team and he really got after that team that day he he laid it out he was at a horrible anger you know a temper he could be charming he always had all these facets that were all combined into what the real man was and it was everything i was sitting in this room adjacent to that at a little table there having lunch he came in and he didn't see me he put his head down on the desk and cried he was pushing that team to do super bowl two he wanted it for them [Music] [Applause] the packers beat the oakland raiders 33-14 in super bowl two at the orange bowl in miami that game the second super bowl is almost a footnote compared to what the ice pole is in history i know i had this feeling right from the first series of plays that we were on the field that were out there ready to play the game coach had mentioned this might be our last time together that would be the appropriate way for him to leave the game on the shoulders of his men and he looks down he says let's head for the locker room boys it's a moment i'll cherish as long as i live after nine seasons and five nfl championships lombardi resigns as head coach but remains as general manager of all these things i covered lombardi and the packers were the best of the launch [Music] after that great 67 season he was completely burned out lombardi just had reached the point where he was exhausted what more would he owe this city than five nfl titles in seven years marie said to me you know that vince thought and realized that being head coach and general manager was too much lombardi chooses defensive assistant phil bankston as his replacement gentlemen let me introduce to you now the new head coach of the green bay packers mr phil bankster it was kind of like you let the air out of the balloon and that's the only way i can explain it that year stepping aside being the general manager was tough for him he missed the pursuit of excellence that's what he was all about he hated being away from the players they actually had to soundproof the box up in the stadium where he was sitting because they didn't want the press to hear him screaming at benston's team he'd come down in the practice field and he did that very seldom but he was sitting there looking out over the practice i think he could see that his dynasty had started to crumble and was eroded it was not what he hoped it would be one year after introducing his successor vince lombardi resigns from the green bay packers i was with marie and she said oh father depo vince made a terrible mistake i don't know whether he was tired out or whether it had enough i know he wanted part ownership of the packers you can't do that in green bay nobody owns the packers the packers board of directors vote to release general manager lombardi from his contract so he can become head coach executive vice president and part owner of the washington redskins packers executive committee could have made it very difficult for him and demanded certain things you know money or players in return for letting lombardi go and olani chick loved lombardi so much that he said he can't put a price tag on it and it would be beneath him to do that the day he walked out the door and went to the washington redskins it was never the same they put him on a pedestal in washington i mean i guarantee you he was as big as the president was in washington he was our beating heart and our heart just didn't beat as well as it did before once he was gone somebody said [Applause] he made football plays out of some men and he made men out of some football players i think he's much more proud of the fact that he made some men out of football players people don't know coach lombardi and they don't know who he is they don't know anything about him we know him we understand him and we love him this is one beautiful man [Music] [Applause] trophy [Music] one afternoon we were practicing lombardi he said fellas take your shoulder pads off and helmets off and put them aside and i put mine by this big old scaffolding and a big tower in the middle of our practice feeling and then went back to practice and it started to drizzle i said boy i gotta have my shoulder pads and helmet on before they get all wet i ran over by this tower and put the shoulder pads on and put my helmet on all of a sudden wind came through this practice field knocked this tower down boom knocked me down i was her boat went through my helmet i could feel it get my shoulder now i'm lying flat on my back [Applause] the guys that come running over and lombardi says who is it one of the guys said his coach is just risky nobody says let's get back to practice now either way i could take those big [Music] hits bye

Channel: Packer Nation United

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Length: 83min 25sec (5005 seconds)

Published: Fri May 01 2020