America's Coach...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
The Paz Files

AUSTIN, Texas - It's taken me awhile to put the death of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno in perspective. Paterno was a good coach, but a better man. His death this past Sunday again brought up the messy imbroglio concerning one of his assistant, the alleged child abuser Joe Sandusky. In the end, Paterno's record as the winningest coach in major college football will live alongside the stain of Sandusky's actions, one involving alleged sex with a young boy in the shower of the school's athletic complex. No coach can possibly overcome such an incident. But Joe Paterno was a big man on campus, elevating the school's football program to the elite and donating millions for the library and student scholarships.

His tireless work for Penn State will be part of his legacy. And then there's that other fabled coach - Vincent Thomas Lombardi, the true epitomy of football coaching in America.

Lombardi coached during the country's tough, 1960s civil rights era, an epoch when most college and pro players were white. Still, he is credited with holding hard to idea that all players, good ones, especially, were welcome in Green Bay, where he coached the Packers, a team he inherited as losers and, within three years, made them world champions. Lombardi's era included the first Super Bowl, a game in which his Packers drubbed the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 behind QB Bart Starr and stalwarts such as Paul Hornung, Max McGee, Jimmy Taylor and Willie Wood. He would go on to compile a spectacular 105–35–6 record as head coach, and never suffer a losing season. The Packers won three consecutive NFL championships — in 1965, 1966, and 1967 - an accomplishment seen only once before in the history of the National Football League. In all, he coached the Packers to championships in five of his seven seasons as head coach.

Lombardi's popularity, like Paterno's during the good days, soared beyond the game. President John F. Kennedy sought him out to coach Army, but Lombardi respectfully declined stayed true to the Pack. When lineman Lionel Aldrige, a Black man, brought his white girlfriend to Green Bay, Lombardi told the team he would not stand for any prejudice, and then he delivered the same message to Green Bay businesses, a position that brought heat from the league, but didn't sway Lombardi to change his mind.

In 1968, Richard M. Nixon considered Lombardi as a vice-presidential running mate. Lombardi declined, noting that he was a "Kennedy Democrat."

His death in 1970 of cancer was mourned in the same manner as the passing of a head of state, his native New York turning out to line streets when his hearse arrived and departed St. Patrick's Cathedral. Roads leading the procession into New Jersey, where he was buried, were lined by onlookers the entire route, many of them waving the American flag.

Vince Lombardi didn't have it sweet all his life. He experienced rejection as a young coach. When he applied for the head coaching job at Wake Forest, he was told no Italian would ever get the job. He worked his way up from a high school coach to assistantships with Army, under the legendary Red Blaik, and with the NY Giants. When he lost out on the head coaching job with New York, he accepted an offer with upstart - and perennial loser - Green Bay. It would take only three years for Lombardi to turn things around in northern Wisconsin.

Green Bay quickly became Titletown, U.S.A. and pastoral Lambeau Field became the feared Frozen Tundra that killed the dreams of visiting teams, including the Dallas Cowboys, who lost one championship there in what came to be known as the Ice Bowl.

Vince Lombardi had his share of laurels, but the biggest one came later, when the NFL named its Super Bowl trophy after him. The Lombardi Trophy symbolizes football supremacy, but Vince Lombardi was much more than simply a football man...

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