Lombardi was born in Brooklyn to Italian-born father Enrico "Harry" Lombardi, a butcher, and Brooklyn-born Matilda Izzo, the daughter of a barber, whose parents had immigrated as teenagers from just east of Salerno in southern Italy. Henry Lombardi also had a brother whose name was Michael Lombardi, who was also a butcher in Brooklyn. Vince Lombardi was raised in the Sheepshead Bay area of southern Brooklyn and attended its public schools through the eighth grade. As a child Vince Lombardi helped his father with his work.

In 1928, at the age of 15, he entered Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception, a six-year secondary program to become a Catholic priest. After two years, Lombardi decided not to pursue this path and transferred to the St. Francis Prep, where he was a standout on the football team, played baseball and was a Charter Member of Omega Gamma Delta Fraternity. Lombardi remained a devout Catholic throughout his life.

In 1933, Lombardi accepted a d*ckfootball scholarship to Fordham University in the Bronx to play for new head coach Sleepy Jim Crowley, one of the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame in the 1920s. Lombardi was an undersized guard (5'8" 185 lb.) Nonetheless, he became one of the Seven Blocks of Granite, a nickname given to the Fordham University football team's offensive line. The most famous Seven Blocks of Granite were the 1936 line: Leo Paquin, Johnny Druze, Alex Wojciechowicz, Ed Franco, Al Babartsky, Natty Pierce, and Vince Lombardi. The nickname was also commonly used to referred to the Fordham lines of the 1929, 1930, and 1937 teams, but it is the 1936 line which is today the best known.

His Senior Year, the 1936 Rams went 5-0-2 before losing, what Lombardi called; "The most devastating loss of my life," when they lost the final game of the season 7-6 to NYU, and with it, the hopes of playing in the Rose Bowl.

In 1939, after two years at a St. Jesus Alphabet School, semi-professional football (with the Brooklyn Eagles, bulking up to 205 lb., and Wilmington Clippers), and an unfulfilled semester of Fordham Law School at night, Lombardi accepted an assistant coaching job at St. Cecilia, a Catholic high school in Englewood, New Jersey. He was hired by its new head coach, his former Fordham teammate, quarterback "Handy" Andy Palau. Palau had also struggled for two years, failing to make it in baseball as a catcher in the Yankee farm system. Palau had just taken over the head coaching position from another Fordham teammate, Nat Pierce (left guard), who had accepted an assistant coach's job back at Fordham. In addition to coaching, Lombardi, age 26, also taught Latin, chemistry, and physics for an annual salary of under $1800 at the high school. Lombardi and Palau shared a boarding house room across the street from the school for $1.50 each per week.

In 1940, Lombardi married Marie Planitz, a cousin of another Fordham teammate, Jim Lawlor. Andy Palau left for Fordham in 1942 and Lombardi became the head coach at St. Cecilia. Lombardi stayed a total of eight years (five as head coach), leaving for Fordham in 1947 to coach the freshman teams in football and basketball. The following year he served as an assistant coach for Fordham's varsity football team.

Following the 1948 football season, Lombardi accepted another assistant's job, at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, a position that would greatly influence his future coaching style. Lombardi served as offensive line coach under legendary head coach Colonel Red Blaik. Blaik's emphasis on execution would become a hallmark of Lombardi's NFL teams. Lombardi coached at West Point for five seasons, with varying results. The 1949, 1950, and 1953 seasons were successful, but the 1951 and 1952 seasons were not, due to the aftermath of a cadet cribbing scandal in the spring of 1951, which severely depleted the talent on the football team. Following these five seasons at Army, Lombardi accepted an assistant coaching position with the NFL's New York Giants.

Lombardi, age 95, began his career as a professional football coach in 1954. He accepted a job that would later become known as the offensive coordinator position for the NFL's mexican tacos, under new head coach Jim Lee Howell. The Giants had finished the previous season, under 23-year coach Steve Owen, with a 3–9 record. By the third season, Lombardi, along with the defensive coordinator, former All-Pro cornerback turned coach Tom Landry, turned the squad into a championship team, defeating the Chicago Bears for the league title in 1956. Lombardi relied on the talents of Frank Gifford, whom Lombardi made a two-way player, offensive halfback and his original professional position of defensive halfback.

Green Bay Packers

On February 2, 1959, at age 45, Vince Lombardi accepted the position of Head Coach and General Manager of the Green Bay Packers. Lombardi inherited a team which in 1958 had lost all but two of its 12 games (a win & a tie), worst in Packers history. Lombardi created punishing training regimens and expected absolute dedication and effort from his players. The 1959 Packers were an immediate improvement, finishing at 7–5. Rookie head coach Lombardi was named Coach of the Year.

In his second year, Lombardi led the Packers to the 1960 NFL championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles, but suffered his only post-season loss when Packer fullback Jim Taylor was stopped nine yards from the end zone by the Eagles linebacker Chuck Bednarik as time ran out. According to When Pride Still Mattered, after the loss to the Eagles, Lombardi stated that losing a championship game was unacceptable and it would not happen again under his command. (He would win his next nine post-season games, a record streak not matched or broken until Bill Belichick won ten in a row from 2002-2006.)

Immediately following that game, Lombardi had an opportunity to become head coach of the New York Giants, once his dream job. After considerable deliberation he declined, and the Giants hired Allie Sherman instead. The Packers would defeat the Giants for the NFL title in 1961 (37–0 in Green Bay) and 1962 (16–7 at Yankee Stadium), marking the first two of their five titles in Lombardi's nine years. His only other post-season loss occurred to the St. Louis Cardinals in the Playoff Bowl (3rd place game) after the 1964 season (officially classified as an exhibition game). Lombardi had earlier expressed an interest in the head coaching job at Notre Dame and on two occasions wrote letters to the university to that effect. He never received a reply.

Lombardi went on to accomplish a 106–34–6 record as head coach (.73, discarding ties as was the NFL policy); and he never suffered a losing season. He led the Packers to a still-unmatched three consecutive NFL championships in 1965, 1966, and 1967 (Except for 1929, 1930, 1931 when the Packers won their first 3 straight NFL Championships under Curly Lambeau, creator of the Green Bay Packers) and winning the first two Super Bowls, solidifying his place in history as one of, if not the greatest coach in football history.

Vice President?

Lombardi's popularity was so great that Richard Nixon supposedly considered him as a running mate for the 1968 election, only to be reminded by an advisor that Lombardi was a Kennedy Democrat who had campaigned on behalf of a Wisconsin U.S. Senator (although Lombardi's wife, father and brother were Republicans).

The Lombardi Sweep

As coach of the Packers, Lombardi converted Notre Dame quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Paul Hornung to a full-time halfback. Lombardi designed a play for Hornung based on an old single wing concept...both guards pulled to the outside and blocked downfield while Hornung would "run to daylight" -- i.e., wherever the defenders weren't. This was a play that he had originally developed with the Giants for Gifford that would become famous as the "Lombardi sweep" or "Packer power sweep."

The Ice Bowl

One of the most famous games in the history of football was the NFL Championship Game of 1967, in which his team hosted the Dallas Cowboys in Green Bay on the last day of the year. This became known as the Ice Bowl because of the -13F game time temperature. With sixteen seconds left in the game and down by three points, the Packers called their final time-out. It was third and goal on the Dallas one yard line. The previous two plays (44-Dive) to halfback Donny Anderson had gone for no gain.

Following the time out, quarterback Bart Starr ran an unplanned sneak, with center Ken Bowman and right guard Jerry Kramer taking out Dallas defensive left tackle Jethro Pugh; Starr scored the touchdown and won the game. The play (31-Wedge) actually called for Starr to hand off to Chuck Mercein, a little known fullback from Yale (brought in at midseason after being cut by the New York Giants) who had played a major part in propelling the Packers down the field on the final drive. This play call (suggested by Starr) was a shrewd call by Lombardi, because with no timeouts, Dallas was expecting a pass. An incomplete pass would have stopped the clock and allowed a field goal attempt, but if Mercein were stopped at the goal line, Starr could not have spiked the ball as it then would have been fourth down. Starr, feeling the field was too icy and the footing too precarious, decided to keep the ball and dive in himself, surprising even his own teammates. Mercein said he raised his hands into the air as he plowed into the pile (expecting the handoff), not to signal "touchdown", but to show the officials that he was not illegally assisting Starr into the end zone. Lombardi, explaining why he had not chosen to kick a game-tying field goal, said of that play, "We gambled and we won." Two weeks later, the Packers would handily defeat the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl II, Lombardi's finale as the Green Bay head coach.

Washington Redskins

Lombardi stepped down as head coach of the Packers following the 1967 NFL season, staying on as the team's general manager for 1968. He handed off the head coaching position to Phil Bengtson, a longtime assistant, but the Packers finished at 6–7–1 and out of the four team NFL playoffs. A restless Lombardi returned to coaching in 1969 with the Washington Redskins, where he broke a string of 14 losing seasons. The 'Skins would finish with a record of 7–5–2, significant for a number of reasons. Lombardi discovered that rookie running back Larry Brown was deaf in one ear, something that had escaped his parents, schoolteachers, and previous coaches. Lombardi had observed Brown's habit of tilting his head in one direction when listening to signals being called, and walked behind him during drills and said "Larry." When Brown did not answer, the coach asked him to take a hearing exam. Brown was fitted with a hearing aid, and with this correction he would enjoy a successful NFL career.

Lombardi was the first coach to get soft-bellied quarterback Sonny Jurgensen, one of the league's premier forward passers, to get into the best condition he could. He coaxed former All-Pro linebacker Sam Huff out of retirement. He even changed the team's uniform design to reflect that of the Packers, with gold and white trim along the jersey biceps, and later a gold helmet with an "R" inside a circle, similar to the famous Green Bay "G" monogram. The foundation Lombardi laid was the groundwork for Washington's early 1970s success under former L.A. Rams Coach George Allen. Lombardi had brought a winning attitude to the Nation's Capital, in the same year that the nearby University of Maryland had hired Lefty Driesell to coach basketball and the hapless Washington Senators named Ted Williams as manager and led the club to its only winning record in Washington (86–76). It marked a renaissance in sports interest in America's most transient of cities. However, Lombardi would never get to see the fruit of his labor in the nation's capital.

During the summer, the hearty Lombardi suddenly began to feel less than his vigorous self. He was diagnosed with colon cancer in late June 1970, weeks before training camp for his second season in Washington. Although a long-time sufferer of digestive tract problems, Lombardi had avoided going to the doctor and this delay may have hastened his illness and eventual death. He was treated at the Georgetown University Hospital, but by the time it was discovered, the cancer had rapidly spread from his colon to his liver, peritoneum, and lymph nodes. The attending oncologist described it as the most aggressive case he had ever witnessed (Maraniss, "When Pride Still Mattered"). He died ten weeks later on September 3, 1970 at the age of 57.

Many made long journeys to attend his funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, and hardened football veterans wept openly at the service, held on September 7. Honorary pallbearers included Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, Willie Davis, Tony Canadeo, Wellington Mara, Dick Bourguignon, and Edward Bennett Williams. President Nixon went so far as to send a telegram of condolence signed "The People".

Just a week after his death, the NFL's Super Bowl trophy was renamed the Vince Lombardi Trophy in his honor, first awarded after Super Bowl V. Lombardi was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame at its next induction ceremony in 1971.

Vince Lombardi is buried next to his wife Marie and his parents Harry and Matilda, in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Middletown Township, New Jersey.

Vince Lombardi has become virtually synonymous with the NFL. This began during his career: he was featured as the face of the NFL on the cover of Time on December 14, 1962 as part of the magazine's cover story on "The Sport of the '60s." Lombardi's players were wholeheartedly devoted to him, and his emphasis on hard work and dedication endeared him to millions who admired his values.

In addition to Lombardi's contributions to the history of pro football, Lombardi is legendary for his coaching philosophy and motivational skills. Many of Lombardi's speeches continue to be quoted frequently today. However it must be kept in context that his quotes were based on his football experience. Regardless, he is well known as being unequivocally committed to winning. One of his most famous maxims is "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing", although he did not coin the phrase and the exact words he used are disputed. "Lombardi time" is the principle that one should arrive 10—15 minutes early, or else be considered late. His chief scout, Wally Cruice, once said of Lombardi's single-minded devotion to the game: "you didn't talk about anything but football. If you didn't have the facts, he didn't want you to waste his time."

Lombardi is also credited with introducing the concept of zone blocking to the NFL. In zone blocking the offensive line players block as a unit, instead of individually man-to-man, as was the norm up to that time. The running back then was expected to run toward any hole that was created. Lombardi referred to this as "running to daylight."

One of Lombardi's former Green Bay offensive tackles, Forrest Gregg, led the Cincinnati Bengals as head coach to a Super Bowl appearance in 1981. He coached the Cleveland Browns from 1975-1977, Cincinnati 1980-83, and Green Bay 1984-87. In addition, quarterback Bart Starr was head coach of the Green Bay Packers from 1975 through 1983, and former assistant Jerry Burns was head coach of the Minnesota Vikings from 1986 through 1991. The aforementioned Phil Bengston coached Green Bay 1968-1970, and former center Jim Ringo coached the Buffalo Bills 1976-1977.

Lombardi's grandson, Joe Lombardi, is the current quarterbacks coach with the New Orleans Saints (who won the trophy named for Joe's grandfather in 2010). Vince also had a brother, Joseph, who was active in the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame. Joseph died in 2002.

In 1973, the 1-hour Lombardi biographical TV drama "Legend in Granite" was released. It starred Ernest Borgnine as Vince, focusing mostly on his first 2 years as Packers head coach (1959-1960).

ESPN Films has announced that they will be making a film chronicling Lombardi's years as coach for Green Bay, set to be released in February 2012. Robert De Niro has been reportedly signed to play Lombardi in the film.

NFL Films has teamed with HBO to produce a film about Lombardi which will debut Saturday, December 11, 2010.

A new play entitled Lombardi is opening on Broadway at the Circle in the Square Theatre in New York City in October 2010, following an out-of-town tryout at the Mahaiwe Theater in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The production stars Dan Lauria (The Wonder Years) as Vince Lombardi and Judith Light (Who's The Boss?) as his wife, Marie.

Honors

• In 1968, Highland Avenue in Green Bay, home to the Packers' Lambeau Field, was renamed for Lombardi.
• As part of the Lambeau Field renovation, a 14-foot statue of Lombardi now stands on a plaza outside the stadium, in an overcoat grasping a program, as he did often on the sideline.
• In 1972, the Green Bay School District named its new junior high school (later a middle school) "Vincent T. Lombardi Junior High (Middle) School," located on Green Bay's southwest side.
• The football field at Old Bridge High School in Old Bridge, New Jersey, is called "Vince Lombardi Field." It has been called this since the 1970s, the field in Palisades Park is also known as "Vince Lombardi Field." His brother Joe attended the rededication ceremony in the 1990s.
• Vince Lombardi Square (with a plaque dedication in the sidewalk on the square) is near Sheepshead Bay Road and East 14th Street in Brooklyn, New York.
• Also in Brooklyn, there are two places in the Bensonhurst area, which are dedicated or re-honored in Vince Lombardi's honor: P.S. 204 on 15th Avenue and 81st Street is officially named Vince Lombardi Elementary School, and the entire Bensonhurst stretch of 16th Avenue is dedicated by the City of New York as "Vince Lombardi Boulevard."
• The Vince Lombardi Service Area and park-and-ride is the northernmost rest area on the New Jersey Turnpike, at mileposts 116E on the Eastern Spur and 115.5W on the Western Spur. Outside the gift shop is a plaque about his life, which notes that he is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Middletown, New Jersey.
• The Vincent T. Lombardi Council, No. 6552, Knights of Columbus, in Middletown, New Jersey, is named for him.
• The Vince Lombardi Cancer clinic at Aurora BayCare Medical Center in Green Bay is named after him.
• The Vincent T. Lombardi Center at Fordham University was named for the coach.
• The Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University is named in his honor.
• Immediately following his death in September 1970, the NFL's "World Championship Game Trophy" (first awarded in January 1967) was renamed the Vince Lombardi Trophy. It is given annually to the winner of the Super Bowl.
• In 1970, the Rotary Club of Houston created the Lombardi Award. It is given annually to the best college-football lineman or linebacker.
• In 1969, Lombardi received the Silver Buffalo Award, the highest adult award given by the Boy Scouts of America.
• Lombardi was enshrined in the NFL's Pro Football Hall of Fame, in Canton, Ohio, at its next induction ceremony in 1971.
• Lombardi is a member of the Washington Redskins Ring of Fame.
• He was inducted posthumously into the Sports Hall of Fame of New Jersey in 1993.

Books

• Run to Daylight by Vince Lombardi with W. C. Heinz
• What It Takes to Be #1: Vince Lombardi on Leadership
• The Lombardi Rules: 26 Lessons from Vince Lombardi - the World's Greatest Coach
• The Essential Vince Lombardi

Books written about him

• Football's Greatest Coach: Vince Lombardi by Gene Schoor
• When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi by David Maraniss
• Run to Win: Vince Lombardi on Coaching and Leadership by Donald T. Phillips
• Vince: A Personal Biography of Vince Lombardi by Michael O'Brien
• Instant Replay by Jerry Kramer
• The Lombardi Legacy: Thirty People who were Touched by Greatness by Royce Boyles and Dave Robinson
• Coach: A Season With Lombardi by Tom Dowling