That First Season: How Vince Lombardi Took the Worst Team in the NFL and Set It on the Path to Glory [Hardcover]

John Eisenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 2009

John Eisenberg's That First Season is the seldom-studied prequel to a phenomenal football career for Vince Lombardi and the Packers, drawing on exhaustive new research and interviews to tell an incredible ensemble tale of a team, a town, and their leader.

 

The once-vaunted Green Bay Packers were a laughing stock by the late 1950s. They hadn't fielded a winning team in more than a decade and were close to losing their franchise to another city. They were in desperate need of a savior, and he arrived in a wood-paneled station wagon in the dead of winter from New York City. In a single year, Vince Lombardi—the grizzled coach who took no bull—transformed a team of underachievers into winners and resurrected a city known for its passion for sport.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Product Description
In the late 1950s the once vaunted Green Bay Packers were a laughing stock. They hadn't fielded a winning team in more than a decade and were very nearly in jeopardy of losing their franchise to another city. The ultimate low came in 1958, when, with 7 future Hall of Famers on the team, they went a lousy 1-10-1 under a too-soft coach, Scooter McLean. They were desperately in need of a savior, and he arrived via wood-paneled station wagon in the dead of winter from New York City.

That First Season chronicles Vince Lombardi's remarkable first year as head coach with the franchise he would reinvent and etch forever in football history. In a single year, as the grizzled coach who took no bull, he would transform a team of underachievers into winners and reignite a city known for its passion for its sport. Based on exhaustive new research and interviews, That First Season is the seldom-studied prequel to a football career marked by greatness. Eisenberg pushes away the mist that surrounds the Lombardi legend to bring readers the real story of how the seeds of a football dynasty were sown. He also brings alive an incredible ensemble tale of a team, a town and their leader.

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Photographs from That First Season
(Click to Enlarge)

The Packer offense took off when Lombardi inserted Boyd Dowler	Paul Hornung, a key player in Lombardi's offense
Don McIlhenny runs the ball against the Colts	A fan congratulates Lombardi as he leaves the field

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From Publishers Weekly

When Vince Lombardi took over as head coach for the moribund Green Bay Packers in 1959, both parties had much to prove, as Eisenberg, a former Baltimore Sun sports columnist, makes clear in this bio. Lombardi, a longtime assistant in college and pro football, hadn't been a head coach in more than a decade, and that was for a New Jersey high school. The Packers were perennial losers, with players who had become accustomed to lazy coaching and good times. Lombardi's arrival was pivotal, as his attitude and discipline inspired the Packers, who became a football powerhouse during the 1960s, while allowing for the emergence of future Hall of Famers like offensive juggernaut Paul Hornung and quarterback Bart Starr. Eisenberg is at his best detailing the players' response to Lombardi's unforgiving approach, especially in training camp, which some veterans treated as vacation. Unfortunately, the author's account gradually loses steam, as too much space is reserved for detailed game recaps that detract from Lombardi's work in constructing a champion team. Still, the book is a brisk, sometimes revealing look at Lombardi's early days in Green Bay and is a nice complement to the existing works on the legendary coach. (Oct.)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Number Line 10987654321 edition (October 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618904999
• ISBN-13: 978-0618904990
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #578,471 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #18 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( L ) > Lombardi, Vince

More About the Author

John Eisenberg grew up with books in his hands - his first summer job was at his mother's bookstore in his hometown of Dallas, Texas. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, he wrote for newspapers for almost three decades, mostly as a sports columnist at The Baltimore Sun covering major events such as the Super Bowl, Final Four, World Series, Kentucky Derby, and soccer's World Cup while also paying attention to his hometown teams - the Baltimore Ravens, Baltimore Orioles, and Maryland Terrapins. Along the way he wrote 3,000 columns and won more than 20 awards, including several first-places in the prestigious Associated Press Sports Editors contest.

He also has written for Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian Magazine, and Details, and before working in Baltimore. spent five years with the Dallas Times Herald.

No matter if he is writing about a famous football coach, a heartbroken jockey, or a pitcher who wins 20 games, John is known for unearthing original stories and bringing them to life with his clear-eyed analysis and lively narrative style. His book topics have included the start of Vince Lombardi's dynasty in Green Bay, the history of the Baltimore Orioles, his experience as a young fan of the Dallas Cowboys in the 1960s, the tragic breakdown of the horse Barbaro, and an outrageous North-South horse race that captivated the nation in 1823.

John lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Blast from the Past in Football, December 26, 2009

By 

Daniel A. Patz (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: That First Season: How Vince Lombardi Took the Worst Team in the NFL and Set It on the Path to Glory (Hardcover)

In That First Season , sports biographer-John Eisenberg-tells the story of Vince Lombardi's coming to the small town of Green Bay to coach the Green Bay Packers. In 1958 the Packers finished one of their worst seasons and were looking hard to turn things around. Native New Yorker, Vince Lombardi, became the man. This book chronicles how a tough-nosed man who had never been a head coach led the undisciplined and "Detroit-Lion-Like" Packers to several championships - with basically the same team of players.

I enjoyed this book from the perspective of being a Packer fan, Wisconsin native and leader of a team - pastor of a church.

This is an inspiring book on the importance of a coach on a football team. The methods and tactics that Lombardi installed in Green Bay would be very difficult to the modern football star who makes so much more money than the head coach. Lombardi's leadership focused on fundamentals, preparation, discipline, training, hard work, loyalty, perseverance, and strategy.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A VERY GRATIFYING AND ENJOYABLE READ., June 4, 2010

By 

D. Blankenship (The Ozarks) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: That First Season: How Vince Lombardi Took the Worst Team in the NFL and Set It on the Path to Glory (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

You would almost have to live in a cave or under a rock on a remote island not to have at least heard of Vince Lombardi and the now famous football team he brought from the bottom of the pile to the top. I strongly suspect that most Americans, even if they are not football fans or have never seen a game in their life, are at least somewhat familiar with the Lombardi legend.

This book by John Eisenberg is the well written, and I must say thoroughly researched account of the first year of the Lombardi/Greenbay story. This work is remarkable, or at least interesting, on several levels. While it does not offer any surprises or reveal anything that was or is not already known, it does present a very macroscopic look at a period in time and the events that pretty much changed the world of not only professional football, but professional sports in this country. The author's writing style is quite readable and even though you know what is going to happen, the writer has the ability to keep you turning the pages.

The book begins with an account of just how low the Packers where in 1959 under the leadership of Scooter McLean. It goes into detail addressing all of the physical and mental hurdles that Lombardi would have to face when he took over the team the following season. Quite remarkable really, when you consider the wonderful past this team had. The one portion of the work presented here that I was unaware of at the time of the reading, was the fact that the entire team had been micromanaged by its governing board...i.e. they had been managed and indeed coached my committee; a rather large committee. This committee had pretty well mucked things up over the years. This all changed completely when Lombardi took over.

The author covers every preseason game, almost play by play of that first season under the new coach and the goes on to give an almost play by play account of every game played throughout the year. If you are a football nut, you will love this. If you dislike football, or could care less, then this aspect of the book will have your eyeballs rolling to the back of your head.

But that last comment being said, there is plenty of other information in the pages of this book to keep your interest alive. We not only get a wonderful glimpse into the working mind of who is beyond a doubt one of the greatest coaches, in any sport, of all times, but we also get a wonderful overview of the development of some of the most famous players ever played the game; Bart Starr, Don McIhenny, Paul Hornung, and Boyd Dowler just to name a few.

I found this to be an enjoyable read and was glad to add it to my collection of books on the life of Lombardi. It was a worthwhile read and kept me entertained throughout its reading.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Superb Depiction Of An Iconic Coach and Team, September 6, 2009

By 

TMStyles (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: That First Season: How Vince Lombardi Took the Worst Team in the NFL and Set It on the Path to Glory (Hardcover)

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Much has been chronicled and written about the highly successful Green Bay Packer football team of the 1950s-1960s that helped christen Green Bay as "Titletown USA" and its iconic coach, Vince Lombardi, who became a legend in his own time. But what would have happened to the Green Bay Packer legend if Vince Lombardi had never been hired following the disastrous 1-10-1 season in 1958? That is a burning enigmatic question I grappeled with as I read sportswriter John Eisenberg's excellent "That First Season".

"That First Season" is a well researched, highly readable portrait of how "the right man for the right job at the right time" ended up in Green Bay and transformed an unfocused, unmotivated group of losers suffering through a horrible one-win season to become a 7-5 winning team in one year and a team that would later send a truckload of its players to the hall of fame. Imagine Paul Hornung unwanted and sitting under-utilized on the bench. Or Bart Starr, considered too nice and too mistake prone to be a starting quarterback in the NFL. Or Jim Taylor, not considered big enough or strong enough to become a hall of fame fullback. Or Ray Nitchke, considered too undisciplined to ever become a true leader. These are poignant characterizations of what Lombardi inherited when he assumed the coaching and personnel reins of the Packers after that disastrous 1958 season.

"That First Season" examines in detail how Lombardi and his coaches took control of a losing team and guided it and its community back to respectability in the world of professional football. It chronicles Lombardi's decisions and personal beliefs that turned the tide of professional football history--such as deciding which players were improperly utilized, who could become stars, and who needed the proper encouragement to become leaders. Yes, this book is as much about a study in leadership as it is a memoir of that wonderful period when professional football grew from a part time profession to the billion dollar centerpiece of Amercian sports culture it is today.

As a young teen discovering the emerging power of the NFL, I lived through the era represented in this book and many of the games and players discussed I personally remember reading about and seeing. Although not a Packer fan, I found this book addictive reading as it became clear how one man totally transformed a sports franchise from non-committed losers to world champions. As hall-of-famer Fuzzy Thurston remarked, "We didn't like him as a person...But we loved him as a coach". I strongly recommend this fun, quick read to any football or sports fan who may have interest in these halcyon years of the NFL or in how a legend is born.