In the annals of NFL history, legendary coaches have left an indelible mark on the game of football.
John Madden, Tom Landry, George Halas, Mike Ditka, Chuck Noll, Don Shula and Bill Parcells are just a handful of names that have achieved gridiron glory.
But when debating which coach is the best ever, the argument often begins and ends with one man: Vince Lombardi.
We’re privileged here in the diocese that the Hall of Fame coach’s roots trace to Brooklyn and Queens. And now, Lombardi’s legend will continue at his high school alma mater.
St. Francis Prep, Fresh Meadows, hosted an assembly – sponsored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Allstate Insurance Company – Oct. 2 to recognize the former L’il Terrier football standout. The ceremony was part of the Hometown Hall of Famers program, which honors the hometown roots of the sport’s greatest coaches, players and contributors.
A plaque honoring Lombardi was presented to the school and will serve as an inspiration to the Prep’s students and athletes.
John Lombardi, one of Vince’s seven grandchildren, was on hand to accept the plaque on behalf of the family.
“One of the things that made my grandfather so successful was that he has an amazing drive,” John said. “He had an uncanny ability to push those around him. He wanted to succeed; he wanted to excel; he wanted to be successful. But I think he would be humbled that he was honored in this way.”
Kyle Flood, head football coach at Rutgers University, Piscataway, N.J., and a 1989 graduate of St. Francis Prep, served as master of ceremonies.
“I don’t know if there is a coach anywhere that doesn’t strive to achieve what Vince Lombardi achieved,” Flood said. “We are so proud to call him one of our own.”
While he has implemented some of Lombardi’s football schemes into his Rutgers program, Flood said he was more so inspired by the legendary coach’s character.
Habit of Excellence
“He (Lombardi) believed in the idea of excellence as passed down from Aristotle,” Flood said. “‘We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.’ That was something that he said to his players, and I say it to my players to this day.”
St. Francis Prep varsity football head coach Vince O’Connor, who entered his 61st season leading the L’il Terriers this fall, said he “absolutely” looks to the example set by Lombardi.
“He (Lombardi) was the essence of football,” O’Connor said. “He was phenomenal for that kind of intensity. That’s what separated him from the people. Despite the hard time that he gave to his men, they loved him.”
Lombardi grew up as an altar boy in St. Mark’s parish, Sheepshead Bay, and enrolled in the six-year priesthood track at Cathedral Prep, Brooklyn. However, that school did not have a football team, and once he changed his mind about becoming a priest, he finished his high school career at St. Francis Prep – graduating in 1933.
He earned All-City honors his senior year as an offensive lineman for a Prep football team that went 5-1. He was then awarded a football scholarship to Fordham University, the Bronx.
Lombardi will always be remembered as the head coach of the five-time NFL champion Green Bay Packers, who also won the first two Super Bowls in 1966 and 1967. But his first steps toward being enshrined in Canton, Ohio, in 1971 took place right here in the diocese.
“I think what this plaque does for the students, both the current students and the ones that will be coming here in the future, is it gives them an opportunity to really see what you can do with a St. Francis Prep education,” Flood said. “They’re at the beginning phases of figuring out what they want to do with their lives, but there’s really nothing that they can’t accomplish.”
As Lombardi himself once said: “The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.”
Wherever the lives of the current and future St. Francis Prep students lead them, they’ll always have the example of Lombardi – and now also the plaque – guiding them along the right path.