Winners of the European Championship in football receive the Henri Delaunay Cup, while the original World Cup trophy was called the Jules Rimet Trophy. In some sports and competitions, the specific name of the trophy awarded to the champions is well known and is synonymous with the event. The FA Cup, for example, is both the name of the competition and also the silverware the winners of the final get to lift. In golf, the Open Championship is contested for the Claret Jug, and anyone who knows much at all about golf is aware of that.
Other pieces of sporting silverware, including, for example, the aforementioned Henri Delaunay Cup, or perhaps the Venus Rosewater Dish (officially the Ladies’ Singles Challenge Plate) awarded to the women’s singles champion at Wimbledon, are less well known. The Vince Lombardi Trophy, often known as just the Lombardi Trophy, is awarded to the winners of the Super Bowl in the NFL.
It may also be referred to as the Super Bowl trophy, but whatever we call it, in the US, it very much falls into the category of sporting trophies that are well known to the general public. In the UK, that is certainly not the case. The average person on the street probably wouldn’t have a clue if you asked them what the Lombardi Trophy was. On the other hand, UK fans of American football would almost certainly know what it is. But would they know who Vince Lombardi was?
The Trophy
Many trophies are named after administrators, the people who conceptualised and helped realise the competition in the first place. In the case of golf’s Ryder Cup, it is named after the garden-seed-selling entrepreneur Samuel Ryder, who funded the cup itself and essentially sponsored it in its earliest years.
However, the background of the iconic trophy given to the Super Bowl champions is more sporting and is named after the game’s first great coach. Vince Lombardi led the Green Bay Packers to glory in the first two Super Bowls, in January 1967 and 1968, respectively. At that stage, of course, the famous trophy, a ball atop a plinth, ready to kick, was not known as the Lombardi Trophy – that came later.
Back then, the trophy, which was sketched over lunch by Oscar Riedner, who was then the vice president of the famous jewellers, Tiffany & Co., had the words “World Professional Football Championship” written on it. It was probably known as the “World Championship Game Trophy” at that stage.
The term Super Bowl was being used back then, but officially the match was known as the AFL–NFL World Championship Game for the two which coach Lombardi won. Super Bowl became the formal title for Super Bowl III (won by the New York Jets).
First of the Greats
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Over the years, the NFL has seen many great coaches. Names such as the Dallas Cowboys’ Tom Landry, Bill Walsh of the 49ers and the Steelers’ four-time champion Chuck Noll spring to mind. More recently, there has been the most successful coach of all time, Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots, and after him, Andy Reid, who has enjoyed success with the Eagles and most notably, the Kansas City Chiefs.
But Vince Lombardi was the first in this line of inspirational, revolutionary and hugely successful NFL head coaches. Born in Brooklyn in 1913 to Italian parents who had moved from Salerno, he was the oldest of five children. He might have followed his father into the meat-cutting business, or he may have become a priest. He played baseball and basketball too, but thankfully for the sport of American football, particularly fans of the Packers, his future would take him somewhere else entirely.
He would eventually earn a football scholarship to Fordham University in the Bronx, playing as a guard and tackle, despite his relatively small stature. He never quite made it as far in the game as he would have liked but from an early age his ability as a coach became apparent.
He worked his way up the coaching tree, taking on high school roles and at his old university, Fordham. In 1948, he became a coach to the team at the US Military Academy at West Point, spending five mixed seasons there.
Into the NFL
In 1953, despite losing some key players, his team had a strong record, losing just one of nine games and this helped get Lombardi a job as assistant coach with the New York Giants the following year at the age of 41. He worked on offense alongside defensive coach Tom Landry as the two of them learned from each other and forged a strong side.
He felt he was struggling to land a head coaching job due to his Italian heritage but at the start of 1959, he took over the Packers. They were in disarray, having lost 10 of 12 games in 1958. Lombardi came in and told his bosses that “I want it understood that I am in complete command here.”
They granted his wish for total control of the team and he repaid their faith quickly. The Packers’ record in his first year was 7-5, earning him the Coach of the Year award. From there, things just got better and better for Lombardi and his Packers. His motivational skills, tactical acumen and innovation shaped the future of the NFL and many coaches who would come after him.
The team went from stragglers to the dominant force in the NFL. Overall, nine seasons with the Packers brought the two Super Bowls, as well as a total of six conference titles. He would resign after his team’s second Super Bowl win. His stint as General Manager was underwhelming, but his status at Green Bay was assured, even after he moved to the Washington Redskins (as they were then known) in 1969.
Sadly, as things turned out, his time in Washington was cut short. However, despite only being there for a limited period, many argue that he was key to the improved fortunes of the team in the 1970s.
Legendary Coach Died Too Soon
Vince Lombardi is a coaching icon.
But before winning five NFL titles with the Green Bay Packers, he was an anxious 35-year-old headed to coach at West Point.
The soul-searching inspired him to create the “Lombardi Model of Leadership” — and we can apply its 6 elements: pic.twitter.com/3q0Y6HytFt
— The Daily Coach (@TheDaily_Coach) July 23, 2023
Lombardi was just 57 when he died in September 1970 following a diagnosis of terminal cancer in July of that year. He had had symptoms three years earlier but refused his doctor’s request for further investigation. Such was his standing that President Nixon phoned to wish him well, and just a week after his death, the trophy given to the winners of the Super Bowl was named in his honour.
It was a fitting tribute to a man who had been so pivotal in the early years of what became the Super Bowl. As well as the two “Super Bowls” he helped the Packers win, he also led them to five NFL Championships and is still a much-revered figure in both Green Bay and his home city of New York.
In Super Bowl V, the Baltimore Colts had the honour of becoming the first team to raise the Vince Lombardi Trophy. On the 17th of January 1971, they beat Landry’s Cowboys 16-13 in Miami, and Vince’s widow Marie presented the champions with the trophy named in the great man’s honour.