Coach Ends Career, but Legacy Endures

One of pro football’s great coaching sagas ended 31 years ago today.

Vince Lombardi, wearying as coach and general manager of the Green Bay Packers, resigned the coaching post, turning it over to Phil Bengston. Thirty-three months later, Lombardi was dead.

In announcing his coaching retirement in 1968, Lombardi, 54, said he had just spent two vacation weeks in Florida, “taking a good, hard look at Vince Lombardi,” before making his decision. He said his decision was reached after “a great deal of emotion.”

The Packers were 1-10-1 in 1958 before hiring Lombardi from the New York Giants’ staff. Green Bay’s turnaround began instantly. The Packers were 7-5 in Lombardi’s first season. By the end, he had taken them to five NFL championships in nine seasons, including wins in the first two Super Bowls.

His coaching style was best summed up once by Packer tackle Henry Jordan, who, speaking of Lombardi’s leadership and discipline, said:

“Coach Lombardi is fair. He treats us all alike--like dogs.”

In 1969, Lombardi, restless in Green Bay as general manager, moved on to Washington where he coached the Redskins to their first winning season (7-5-2) in 13 years.

Shortly afterward, doctors discovered he had cancer. Lombardi died in 1970.

Also on this date: In 1929, a promising German heavyweight, Max Schmeling, in his first major U.S. test, knocked out Johnny Risko in the ninth round before 20,000 at Madison Square Garden. . . . In 1967, at the Sports Arena, Elgin Baylor had 44 points, Wilt Chamberlain 39 and Jerry West added 23 assists as the Lakers beat Philadelphia, 143-133. . . . In 1949, Enrique Bolanos, one of the most popular Los Angeles boxers, knocked out Bolton Ford in the eighth round at the Olympic Auditorium.