When Vince Lombardi was hired as head coach of the Green Bay Packers in 1958, the team was in dismal shape. A single win in season play the year before had socked the club solidly into the basement of the NFL, and sportscasters everywhere used it as the butt of loser jokes. But Lombardi picked and pulled and prodded and trained and disciplined the players into becoming a winning team. They were NFL cham­pions in three consecutive seasons, and took the game honors for the first two Super Bowls.

Lombardi was a drill sergeant and a strategist, finding and developing the best in each of his players in­dividually and then crafting a team community that could visualize the prize. “Winning isn’t everything,” he was often quoted as saying, “It’s the only thing!” And his Packers proved him true, t…