‘There are 365 days in a year,’ Lombardi said, ‘and I get at least 500 invitations to speak. I don’t take many, but I think this will be all.’”
It was, but not because Lombardi — best known for his days in Green Bay as coach of the Packers and the guy whose name is on the trophy awarded to Super Bowl winners — didn’t want to accept any more engagements.
On June 24, after returning to Washington, where he was embarking on his second season as coach of the Redskins, he was admitted to Georgetown University Hospital, where he was found to have colon cancer.
He was operated on June 27 and again on July 27. He died on Sept. 3.
It is ironic that his public life closed with a Dayton reference, because his football life opened with one.
Lombardi’s first collegiate coaching job was at West Point, where he was hired by Colonel Red Blaik, the Army coach who grew up in Dayton.
Sinclair Community College athletics director Jack Giambrone knows all this because he has been collecting Lombardi memorabilia since he became a coach himself after graduating from UD in 1981.
Giambrone, who was at Wittenberg and Wilmington before taking on the AD duties at Sinclair. says Lombardi’s sayings are just as powerful today as it was 40 years ago. He has them on various plaques around his home.
“A man can be as great as he wants to be,” Lombardi said. “If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the prices for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done.”
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