When Pride Still Mattered: a Life of Vince Lombardi Free

FREE WHEN PRIDE STILL MATTERED: A LIFE OF VINCE LOMBARDI PDF

In this groundbreaking biography, David Maraniss captures all of football great Vince Lombardi: the myth, the man, his game, and his God. 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. David Maraniss is an associate editor at The Washington Post and a distinguished visiting professor at Vanderbilt University. He has won two Pulitzer Prizes for journalism and was a finalist three other times. A Good American Family is his twelfth book. May be the best sports biography ever published. A finely crafted, multifaceted portrait of a life driven by obsession. It is a wonderful work. By clicking 'Sign me up' I acknowledge When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi I have read and agree to the privacy policy and terms of use. Must redeem within 90 days. See full terms and conditions and this month's choices. Tell us what you like and we'll recommend books you'll love. Sign up and get a free eBook! Table of Contents Rave and Reviews. About The Book. About The Author. Linda Maraniss. David Maraniss. Product Details. Raves and When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi. A triumph, a classic American biography. Awards and Honors. Frankfurt eBook Award. Resources and Downloads. Get a FREE e-book by joining our mailing list today! More books from this author: David Maraniss. You may also like: Fiction Staff Picks. Thank you for signing up, fellow book lover! See More Categories. Your First Name. Zip Code. Thank you! When Pride Still Mattered: A Life Of Vince Lombardi by David Maraniss

Sign in with Facebook Sign in options. Join Goodreads. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Everything he knew about organizing a team and preparing it to play its best, Lombardi said later, he learned at West Point. It takes a special person to love something unattractive, someone unknown. That is the test of love. But can you accept someone When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi his inabilities? And maybe you will do something more to overcome a difficult situation in football because of that love. There is a vast difference between a good sport and a good loser. To dilute the will to win is to destroy the purpose of the game. The nuptial mass was performed by the Reverend Jeremiah F. She believed, as he did, in the sacredness and lifelong commitment of marriage. She told herself that she would have to adjust. Football coach was not what Harry and Matty had expected of their son, nor what his old classmates had predicted. In some ways it was a job below his own self- image. All of which worked in his favor. During his years in Englewood, Lombardi was driven by a contradiction, consumed by a sport and somewhat embarrassed that it was considered merely a game. Football as religion. The T a catechism from which he preached. And God was in the details. There was a direct line from one to the next, from religion to the military to football, from the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius to the football regimen of Colonel Blaik. Both emphasized discipline, order, organization, planning, attention to detail, repetition, the ability to adjust to different situations and remain flexible in pursuit of a goal while sustaining an obsession with one big idea. He alone among the men of the four great Fordham front walls emerged as a large enough figure later in life to carry the legend. But this was also the work of the storytellers. Grantland Rice and Damon Runyon and their brethren glorified the line above all others, and their fraternal heir, Tim Cohane, continued the tradition. The problem with the storytellers was not their exaltation of myth, but their pursuit of the ideal to the exclusion of reality, allowing for the perpetuation of the fallacy of the innocent past. It teaches the strong to know when they are weak and the brave to face themselves when they are afraid. To be proud and unbending in defeat, yet humble and gentle in victory. To master ourselves before we attempt to master others. To learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep, and it gives a predominance of courage over timidity. Each week there is a new encounter, each year there is a new challenge. But all of the display, all of the noise, all of the glamour, and all of the color and excitement, they exist only in the memory. But the spirit, the will to excel, the will to win, they endure, they last forever. These are the qualities, I think, that are larger and more important than any of the events that occasion them. It is only the truth which can make us free and the truth is that liberty When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi by When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi, the Natural Law of God and human law in accordance with the law of God, leads to license and thence to servitude. He was the one person to whom Sister Bap acceded. They were not afraid of Vince, but they respected him When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi the way he presented his values to the students. Welcome back. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. When Pride Still Mattered by David Maraniss: Summary and reviews

Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date. For a better shopping experience, please upgrade now. Javascript is not enabled in your browser. Enabling JavaScript in your browser will allow you to experience all the features of our site. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. Essential Sports Books. NOOK Book. Chapter Ice Ed Sabol could not sleep the night before a title game. He and his son Steve had been working pro football championships for NFL Films sinceand every year he was nervous, as if he had never done this before. Were his cameras in the right locations? Would there be a dramatic story line? Would the weather create problems again? By seven on the morning of December 31,he already had been awake for two hours, and now he was standing at the window of his hotel room, staring out into the northern darkness. Friday seemed unforgiving in Green Bay, with heavy snow and a fierce wind, but on Saturday there was a brilliant winter sun and the temperature had soared toward thirty. Local forecasters had predicted more of the same for today's one o'clock game. The telephone rang. Steve, who had been asleep in the other bed, fumbled for the receiver. Now have a nice day. The phone at Paul's Standard station on South Broadway had started ringing at five that morning, and the overnight man couldn't handle it, so Paul Mazzoleni went in himself and took to the streets with his tow truck and jumper cables. One of his first stops was at Willie Wood's. The free safety was standing next to his dead car, shivering, convinced that even when Mazzoleni brought his frozen battery back to life he was not going anywhere. They're not going to play in this. Had he really just heard someone say it was thirteen below? He must have misunderstood. Wasn't it near thirty when he went to bed? He called the airport weather station to see if he had been dreaming. It's thirteen below and it may get colder. His colleague called at seven with the question, "Lee, do you know what the temperature is? Go look at the thermometer. As soon as he stepped out of his downtown apartment on Washington Street, he knew this was serious. I could tell by the first stride that this was damn cold. The sound has got a different crunch to it. As he and his editor, Bob Gutwillig, When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi their wives were driving downtown for breakfast, Schaap noticed the temperature reading on the side of a bank. It was He had never before seen a negative temperature and assumed that the bank got it wrong. Dave Robinson was in his kitchen, eating his traditional pregame meal: scrambled eggs, the filet of a twenty-ounce T-bone steak, toast, tea with honey. His little twin When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi hovered in the next room, waiting for their dad to leave so they could eat the rest of the steak. His wife came in and gave him a kiss. Susan lived at home again after a short and unhappy stint at a Dominican-run secretarial school in Boca Raton. Vincent and Jill came down from St. Paul, and now they had two boys, Vincent II and John. Vincent was working days and When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi to law school at night. The father-son relationship had developed another odd twist. Vince rarely had time to watch Vincent play in college, but now he insisted that Vincent attend as many Packers games as possible. Lombardi When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi family man? Partly, no doubt, but there was also a measure of superstition involved. The Packers had won a key game the year before when Vincent was there, and ever since the Old Man thought of him as a talisman. Vincent loved football, he had grown up standing on the sidelines, but sometimes this good-luck business seemed more for his dad's benefit than his own. At his father's request, he had once boarded a flight in St. Paul during a heavy storm to attend a game in Green Bay. The plane was diverted to Milwaukee and he ended up studying his law books and watching the Packers on television at the airport. Another time he brought Jill along for a preseason game in Milwaukee. They had left the boys with a babysitter and were excited about having a night alone at the Pfister Hotel. At dinner after When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi game, Vincent and Jill were startled to hear the Old Man suddenly announce "We're going home! Vincent and Jill packed up, and soon they were in the car with Vince and Marie, heading north to Green Bay. Five miles up the highway, Lombardi pulled over. The Packers had finished in first place again. They had finished first in the newfangled Central Division of the Western Conference with a record, and then whipped the Los Angeles Rams in the playoff game for the western title. Critics were saying that the Packers were too old and slow aside from their one breathtaking rookie, Travis Williams, known as The Roadrunner, a return specialist who had run four kickoffs back for touchdowns, including two against the Browns in one game. Yet here they were, back in the championship, playing for their record third straight NFL title against the Dallas Cowboys. If standing on the sideline in subzero weather this afternoon could help them win one more time, Vincent was game. Not much was said about the temperature in the Lombardi house. There was little talking about the game at all that morning. Vincent II had been up all night with a fever, distracting everyone, including the coach, who patted his grandson on the head before leaving for church. The cars were in the heated garage; Vince's Pontiac started right up. Silence on the way to mass. The priest prayed for the Packers. All quiet on When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi way back. Then Vince and Vincent left, driving clockwise south to the bridge crossing the Fox in downtown De Pere, then west to Highway 41, north to the Highland Avenue exit and east to Lambeau Field. The Sabols were already there, positioning eleven cameramen around the stadium. They sent a technician up to the scoreboard to place a microphone near a camera that peeked through one of the number holes. When it came time for a pregame group meeting, one member of the crew was missing. What happened? He had passed out cold and might have frozen to death behind the scoreboard had they not gone looking for him. The parking lots were starting to fill up by 11 a. Not as many tailgaters as usual, but they were still out there. Folding chairs, card tables, brats and beer. One concession to the weather: more of them than usual were huddled around fires. Jim Irwin, a local TV sports director, arrived at the press box two hours before kickoff, and looked out and saw hundreds of people already stationed at their seats. They chose to be out there when it was thirteen below. They had a message for the coach, an unwelcome one, the sort of news they would rather have Lane tell him. Tell Lombardi that his field was frozen? When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi, Lane thought, would be like "telling him that his wife had been unfaithful or that his dog couldn't hunt. Lombardi seemed crestfallen, then angry and disbelieving. The field could not be frozen. He had bought it from George S. Halas, Papa Bear's nephew, who was the central district sales representative for GE's wiring services department. The fact that the Bears did not have an electric blanket themselves, even though young Halas was also a Bears scout, did not make Lombardi suspicious; it just showed that he was less tight with his team's money than old George. Lombardi loved modern inventions, and this electric blanket seemed to mean more to him than any play he had ever devised. Only the day before, he had taken a group of writers on a science field trip of sorts, first giving them a lecture on the underground magic, telling When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi how electric coils were laid in a grid the length of the turf, six inches below the surface and a foot apart, with another six inches of pea gravel below the coils and a drain below that. Then he led them back to a tiny control room off the tunnel below the stands. Bud Lea of the Milwaukee Sentinel was in the group. Puffs of steam came out like a low rolling fog. The ground was cool but not cold, the turf soft but not soggy. Lombardi had been so satisfied then that he yelled over to the project engineer and gave him the okay sign with his thumb and forefinger. Even Tom Landry, the skeptical Dallas coach, who hated to play in Green Bay, had deemed the field "excellent" though a little damp. No dampness now. Parts of the field were frozen "as hard as a rock," reported Jim Tunney, the alternate referee. It seemed that the coil system had malfunctioned.