Vince Lombardi Trivia Quiz

Answer: Thomas

Vince was named Vincent Thomas Lombardi by his parents. His son, often referred to as "Vince Lombardi Jr.," is actually named "Vincent Henry Lombardi," the "Henry" being an Americanized version of Enrico, Vince's father's name.

Answer: WORK and PLAY

His father worked hard as a butcher, and was incredibly competitive playing games such as Scrabble.

Answer: 4

Vince was the oldest of five siblings. His brothers were Joe and Harold; his sisters were Claire and Madeline.

Answer: Guard

Vince was a guard on the legendary "Seven Blocks of Granite" line at Fordham, where he played from 1933-1936. He played fullback on his high school team.

Answer: One semester's worth

Maraniss found that Lombardi embellished his credentials in the biography that he provided to teams during his NFL coaching career. He claimed to have earned a law degree from Fordham, but had actually gone to night law school for two years, earning one semester of credits, before dropping out due to poor grades and his own disinterest. Similarly, Lombardi claimed to have graduated magna cum laude from Fordham as an undergraduate while being inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. Both of those claims were false.

Answer: all of these

Maraniss wrote that Lombardi taught Latin, physics, and chemistry, at St. Cecilia High School in Englewood, NJ. Several biographies on the web also mention algebra. And a 1943 "Silverian" yearbook from the school, which can be found on the web, also lists physical education as a class he taught.

Besides teaching at St. Cecilia, Lombardi coached basketball, baseball, and football, including a 25-game winning streak within a 32-game undefeated string.

Answer: Red Blaik of Army

During Lombardi's years as an assistant under Blaik at Army (1949-54), he greatly admired and learned from Blaik's methods, especially his rigorous time management and dedication to preparing for a game, so that actually playing the game would be the easy part.

The other coaches were no slouches either. Crowley, who coached Lombardi at Fordham, was one of Knute Rockne's "Four Horsemen." Of Halas, Lombardi reputedly said that he was the only man he would embrace when they met, and the only man he ever called "Coach." Kane coached future Yankee Hall-of-Famer Lou Gehrig in high school baseball.

Answer: Vince Lombardi

Lombardi coached the team's talented offense (Charlie Connerly, Frank Gifford, Kyle Rote). Landry, later coach of the Dallas Cowboys, was his defensive counterpart. Howell was the head coach. Sherman, who eventually became Giants head coach, was the offensive coach fired to make room for Lombardi.

Answer: 1

The Giants won the 1956 title, smashing the Bears 47-7. In Lombardi's last game with the team, they lost the 1958 NFL championship, 23-17 to the Colts, in the NFL's first ever overtime game.

Answer: He was gay

Harold was far more interested in opera than football. After moving to California, Harold told his family of his homosexuality. His father's response was "I don't care. You are my son." Vince, who had endured a lifetime of slights because he was Italian, was extremely sensitive about prejudice toward any group of people, except possibly the Chicago Bears.

Answer: It was the name of the Green Bay airport

Austin Straubel was, and remained in 2003, the name of the airport in Green Bay. It was named for Green Bay native Austin Straubel, a Lt. Colonel aviator killed in the South Pacific during WW II. Lombardi was never recruited to be chancellor of Fordham.

Answer: 0

In nine seasons in Green Bay and one in Washington, the most losses he ever had was five. Ironically, this happened in his first season with both teams. The 1959 Packers were 7-5, while the 1969 Redskins improved from 5-9 the season before to 7-5-2 under Lombardi, their first winning season in 14 years.

The following season, they slipped to 6-8 before hiring George Allen, who turned the team around in the early and mid 70s.

Answer: He quit in 1963

Lombardi had long considered smoking to be a sign of a weak will, but lacked the necessary willpower to quit. Then after experiencing a dizzy spell that he attributed to smoking, he quit cold turkey during the 1963 season and never smoked again - much to the consternation of his staff, all whom smoked.

Answer: 10-1

Generally overlooked in NFL history - just as Lombardi would have liked it - was the "Playoff Bowl," a fairly meaningless postseason game between the two 2nd place finishers, that was played from 1960-69. The Packers beat Cleveland 40-23 in the 1963 Playoff Bowl, and lost to St. Louis 24-17 in the 1964 game. Lombardi called the Playoff Bowl "a hinky-dink game played in a hinky-dink stadium, by two hinky-dink teams." In postseason games that Lombardi would have considered "real," he was undefeated: 2-0 in Super Bowls, 5-0 in NFL championships, plus they beat the Rams in the 1967 Western Conference championship, and beat the Colts in 1965 to settle their identical records during the regular season.

Answer: Jerry Kramer

Guard Jerry Kramer, who had assumed placekicking duties when Hornung's accuracy became unreliable, kicked three field goals and added an extra point to Jim Taylor's touchdown, accounting for 10 of the Packers' 16 points that day.

Answer: Vincent Henry Lombardi, Bart Starr, Paul Hornung

Maraniss called Vincent Henry "the conflicted son," Vince's real son, but seemingly never able to earn his father's full respect and approval. Starr was "the dependable son," willing and able to do everything Vince expected to make the Packers winners on and off the field. Hornung was "the prodigal son," talented but frequently flouting team rules or worse (his 1963 season suspension for gambling), for whom Vince always had a soft spot.

Answer: A one-hour session Lombardi would conduct with reporters

Vince had a tenuous relationship with the press. He liked being in control, something he had to at least partially relinquish during interviews. His solution to this was the "5:00 Club," in which he would host reporters for drinks and an off-the-record discussion, in an environment in which he clearly was running the show.

These sessions would run from 5:00 to 6:00, although Lombardi would usually be eyeing the door and getting edgy around 5:50.

Answer: Paper Lion

After his retirement, Vince played himself in this adaptation of George Plimpton's book about working out and taking a snap for the Detroit Lions. When Alan Alda, playing Plimpton, calls on Lombardi to ask for a tryout, Lombardi suggests he try the AFL.

Answer: Because it stole some of the limelight from Lombardi

Lombardi had little respect for the colorful and philandering ways of Lambeau. When Lambeau died in 1965, the Packers quickly renamed their stadium "Lambeau Field" and redid their team yearbook, inserting a new cover showing the two coaches shaking hands. "Let me tell you something," Lombardi later explained about his displeasure with the Lambeau photo, "I don't like to have the spotlight taken away from me and my team".

Answer: Weeb Ewbank

Weeb Ewbank was 4-4 with the Baltimore Colts against Lombardi's Packers (he was fired at the end of the 1962 season). Don Shula, his replacement, had some excellent teams, but compiled a 3-6 record against the Packers. Counting his Colts beating Lombardi's Redskins, he was 4-6 overall against Lombardi. George Allen's Rams were 1-2 against the Packers in the regular season and lost a 1967 playoff game to them as well. Counting the 1969 Rams victory over the Redskins, Allen was 2-2 overall against Lombardi in the regular season. Landry's Cowboys were 0-3 against the Packers in the regular season and 0-2 in the playoffs, although they did beat the Redskins twice in 1969 to give Landry a 2-3 regular season record. George Halas was the only coach with five wins over Lombardi, but his Bears lost 13 of the 18 games the two teams played.

Answer: By announcing that she and her boyfriend were expecting a baby

Lombardi's Packers beat Oakland to win the second Super Bowl on January 14, 1968. While he was still in Miami, site of the game, Susan told her parents that she was pregnant. Lombardi announced his retirement as Packers coach on February 1, 1968, but remained with the team as General Manager. Susan gave Vince his first granddaughter in August of that year.

Answer: All of these

Both Vince and Marie Lombardi were New Yorkers at heart, and Marie especially chafed at the dullness and isolation of living in Green Bay. He was bored in his role as GM and started spending more time at home, much to his wife's consternation. And Lombardi got along extremely well with the hypercompetitive, Jesuit-educated Williams.

Answer: Democrat

Lombardi was a lifelong Democrat and friend and supporter of John and Robert Kennedy. In fact, he capitalized on his friendship with President Kennedy, asking and getting Presidential help so that Paul Hornung could obtain military leave and play in the 1961 NFL championship game.

In the 1968 Presidential campaign, Richard Nixon had a preliminary background check done on Lombardi, considering him an outside possibility for the VP slot on his ticket, and was shocked to find that Lombardi was a Democrat.

Answer: Joe Namath

Less than a month before he died, Lombardi screamed out in the middle of the night "Joe Namath! You're not bigger than football! Remember that!" Although Lombardi respected Namath's ability - he had quietly agreed with Namath's prediction that the Jets would upset the Colts in Super Bowl III.

He was disturbed by the cult of personality surrounding Namath, and the sense that Namath's celebrity was overshadowing the importance of the sport that made them both famous.

Answer: Middletown, NJ

Vince is buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetary in Middletown, NJ in the Lombardi family's burial plot.