Vincent Thomas Lombardi was born on June 11, 1913, in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, New York. His father was a wholesale meat salesman who had emigrated from Italy. Vince played fullback at St. Francis Preparatory High School in Brooklyn. He then went to Fordham University in the Bronx, New York, where he was an excellent student. Vince played football even though he weighed only 172 pounds. He was one of the famous "Seven Blocks of Granite," who made up the Fordham line from 1934 through 1936. Fordham lost only two games in those three seasons. Lombardi played guard. He worked 60 minutes against a rough lineman in one Pittsburgh game. The big player kept slugging Vince in the mouth with his elbow on every play. It took 30 stitches to sew up the cuts in Lombardi's gums.

    But Vince did practice teaching and took some training for the Catholic priesthood. He came within a few months of achieving a law degree. But football called him more strongly than the practice of law. In 1939, he became assistant coach at St. Celia High School in Englewood, New Jersey. He also taught physics, chemistry, algebra, and Latin. In 1949, Colonel Red Blaik hired Vince Lombardi as an assistant coach at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. It was hard work, but it was great experience. Lombardi gives credit to Red Blaik for molding his coaching methods and his whole approach to football.