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When Pride Still Mattered : A Life Of Vince Lombardi | 
 enlarge | Author: David Maraniss
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $18.00
Buy Used: $1.41
You Save: $16.59 (92%)
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Rating:  144 reviews
Sales Rank: 26585
Media: Paperback
Pages: 544
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.4
ISBN: 0684870185
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.332092
EAN: 9780684870182
ASIN: 0684870185
Publication Date: September 3, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: With pride from Motor City. All books guaranteed. Best Service, best prices.
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Amazon.com Review
As coach of the Green Bay Packers from 1959 to 1967, Vince Lombardi turned perennial losers into a juggernaut, winning back-to-back NFL titles in 1961 and 1962, and Superbowls I and II in 1966 and 1967. Stern, severe, sentimental, and paternal, he stood revered, reviled, respected, and mocked--a touchstone for the '60s all in one person. Which adds up to the myth we've been left with. But who was the man? That's the question Pulitzer Prize-winner David Maraniss tackles. It begins with Lombardi's looming father, a man as colorful as his son would be conservative. Still, from his father Vince Lombardi learned a sense of presence and authority that could impress itself with just a look. If a moment can sum up and embrace a man's life--and capture the breadth of Maraniss's thoroughness--it is one that takes place off the field when the Packers organization decides to redecorate their offices in advance of the new head coach's arrival: "During an earlier visit," Maraniss reports, "he had examined the quarters--peeling walls, creaky floor, old leather chairs with holes in them, discarded newspapers and magazines piled on chairs and in the corners--and pronounced the setting unworthy of a National Football League club. 'This is a disgrace!' he had remarked." In one moment, one comment, Lombardi announced his intentions, made his vision and professionalism clear, and began to shake up a stale organization. It reveals far more about the man than wins and losses, and is the kind of moment Maraniss uses again and again in this superb resurrection of a figure who so symbolized a sporting era and sensibility. --Jeff Silverman
Product Description
More than any other sports figure, Vince Lombardi transformed football into a metaphor of the American experience. The son of an Italian immigrant butcher, Lombardi toiled for twenty frustrating years as a high school coach and then as an assistant at Fordham, West Point, and the New York Giants before his big break came at age forty-six with the chance to coach a struggling team in snowbound Wisconsin. His leadership of the Green Bay Packers to five world championships in nine seasons is the most storied period in NFL history. Lombardi became a living legend, a symbol to many of leadership, discipline, perseverance, and teamwork, and to others of an obsession with winning. In When Pride Still Mattered, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Maraniss captures the myth and the man, football, God, and country in a thrilling biography destined to become an American classic.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 139 more reviews...
RUN TO WIN!! December 6, 2008
Mauro V. Del Citto (Melbourne, Victoria Australia)
I avoid sports biographies like the plague, but the subject of Vince Lombardi always kept popping up in conversations about sport and coaching methods, even here in Australia. So I decided to buy this amazing book from Amazon and am so glad that I got so much out of the brilliance of David Maraniss' text. This is the classic story of a man whose influence is still felt today in sport and business. A flawed man from a working class background who worked hard and became a leader in every sense of the word. Maranniss' study of the man is impeccable, the words are beautifully put together. I defy anyone to read about the final minutes of the Ice Bowl in 1967 and not be inspired. A truly wonderful achievement in American literature.
 A Historical Legend Not To Be Forgotten October 27, 2008
L. Gagnon (New Hampshire)
Was Vince Lombardi the greatest NFL coach? Some might agree, while others might look at the wins and losses and championships to answer this question. This book is not solely focused on this question, but rather tells the story of the man behind the legend. This book is also a slice of history in America during the fifties and sixties The author, David Maraniss, does a very fine job to provide substantial detail to color Vince Lombardi's life during this time. Why did I read this book? I was born in the fifties and grew up, not seeing the legendary games played at Lambeau field but became a participant and fan of the sport. Anyone who calls themselves a football fan will want to know the history of Vince Lombardi through Maraniss' book.
A Compelling Read October 18, 2008
J. Nuccio
I read Maraniss' Clemente book a few months ago, which was unbelievable. Looking for more I picked up this book and have yet to be disappointed.
Great book, maybe a little long...... June 6, 2008
Peter (Melbourne Australia)
This is the complete Vince Lombardi book. The author has left no stone unturned it seems and goes into great depth in looking at what made Lombardi tick.
It is not a shrine to the greatness of Lombardi book, the author does write about the Coach's flaws (lack of attention to family) but it is so engrossing that I was upset when the final chapters on Lombardi's death were being read.
Maybe the book is a smidgen too long, there were times that it seemed to drag a little but all in all, a great book.
What It Takes To Be #1: You Have To Pay The Price January 9, 2008
Borowy26 (Chicago)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Presidential biographer David Maraniss ("First in His Class") turned his attentions away from Washington, D.C., and towards Lambeau Field in this remarkable book. His subject was Coach Vince Lombardi, who took over a losing program and turned Green Bay, Wisconsin, the smallest market in professional sports, into "Title Town, U.S.A."
Immediately prior to Lombardi's acceptance of the head coaching position, the Packers managed to win only a single game in an entire season. In short order, Lombardi made Green Bay synonymous with victory. The trophy given to the team that wins the Super Bowl is now named for Lombardi. The Packers won the inaugural Super Bowl and repeated the following year under their celebrated head coach.
Lombardi was a star player for Fordham when that university still had a football program. He developed and refined his coaching abilities at the high school level and he was promoted to assistant coaching positions at the United States Military Academy (West Point) and with the New York Giants of the NFL.
As Maraniss demonstrates, Lombardi enjoyed influence throughout the country during the Sixties: he became a much sought after business conference speaker and Richard M. Nixon even contemplated offering him a place on the political ticket of the Republican Party for a brief time.
This is a superior biography and a document of a time that now has gone.
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