Vince Lombardi - The Early Years

Vince Lombardi was born on June 11, 1913, to second-generation Italian immigrant parents. His father, Harry, was known as a big-hearted man, who wanted to give his children everything that he had had to do without in his childhood. They lived in comfortable homes and enjoyed all the necessities of life. Harry and his wife Matilda encouraged their children to seek the education that had alluded them, resulting in all three of their sons eventually receiving a college educations. One of the lessons that Harry passed onto his sons was the virtue of hard work. Thus Lombardi, from a young age, helped his father in the family butcher shop. He quickly learned how to heave enormously heavy sides of meat around the store and how to cut up the carcasses, a job he was not fond of. However, the weightlifting helped to shape his body, an asset that would later come to his aid in his athletic endeavors.

As a teenager, Lombardi fell in love with sports and would drag his friends to Yankee and Dodger baseball games and to the football stadium to watch the Giants.

Vince Lombardi

He also often played sandlot football games, most of which he organized and then dictated the rules, insisting that they be followed correctly. His father encouraged his son's football interests, although his mother did not. She feared that he would be hurt.

When it was time to enter high school, Lombardi decided upon Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception Preparatory Seminary, a school not unlike other local Catholic high schools—except for the fact that the main focus of the school was to turn its scholars into priests, a role that at one time Lombardi thought he wanted to pursue. Lombardi became the center on the school's basketball team, a position in which he flourished. On the baseball team, he played outfielder and catcher. As a baseball player, he was not as adept, but his coach admired his courage. After three years at Cathedral, Lombardi decided against a religious profession and came up with a new plan. He decided to transfer to another high school and play football his senior year with the intention of winning a college scholarship. The plan worked better than he expected.

Lombardi first won a scholarship to St. Francis Prep High School in Brooklyn where he played guard on defense and halfback on offense and was described as aggressive and powerful. He also reportedly played every minute of every game. He was well liked by his teammates and his classmates and earned the respect of his teachers and coaches, who eventually helped him win a football scholarship to Fordham University. On the college level, Lombardi continued to play both offense and defense positions. In his senior year, after a particularly hard fought battle against Pittsburgh, the New York Post ran a feature story about him, referring to him as a New York hero.