High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Vincent Thomas Lombardi (June 11, 1913 ? September 3, 1970) was an American football coach. Lombardi played football at St. Francis Preparatory School, and later Fordham University. He began his coaching career as an assistant coach at St. Cecilia, a Catholic high school in Englewood, New Jersey. In 1942, he became the head coach at St. Cecilia. He left for Fordham in 1947 to coach freshman football and freshman basketball, and later became an assistant coach for the varsity football team.