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That First Season: How Vince Lombardi Took the Worst Team in the NFL and Set It on the Path to Glory |  | Author: John Eisenberg
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $14.46
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Seller: books24seven
Rating:  43 reviews
Sales Rank: 106167
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1
ISBN: 0618904999
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.332092
EAN: 9780618904990
ASIN: 0618904999
Publication Date: October 15, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780618904990 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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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.
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 |
Product Description
When Vince Lombardi took the job of coaching the Green Bay Packers in 1959, he inherited a team that had gone from legendary to laughing stock. They hadn’t fielded a winning team in over a decade and had gone 1-10-1 in the 1958 season despite having seven future Hall of Famers on the team. They were a team accustomed to losing and in desperate need of a turnaround. That First Season chronicles that turnaround at the hands of Lombardi, himself serving as a head coach for the first time. The Packers were a team of talented underachievers more used to lax coaching and late nights than grueling practices and curfews. Lombardi’s no-bull coaching style helped hammer them into winners who operated with machine-like precision. Every football fan knows that the Packers under Lombardi were champions, but That First Season shows how he did it, bringing readers the inside story of a sports dynasty.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 43
 Sets the tone for Dominance in Green Bay January 17, 2010
Alax Martin
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The setting of this book is 1959. The Green Bay Packers have struggled under several coaches, the latest being Scooter McLean. Lombardi is hired to turn around the losing culture in Green Bay. As most football historians know, the 1959 season set the tone for the dominance in the 1960s. Also discussed early Packer history, which should be a plus to Packer fans and does a good job with Lombardi, Hourning's , and Starr's backgrounds in particular. Not the first Lombardi book I would read but recommended.
Recommended for Lombardi and 60s Packer fans-
When Pride Still Mattered- David Maraniss
Instant Replay- Jerry Kramer
Vince- Michael O Brien
Ice Bowl- Ed Gruver
Good for sports history fans January 10, 2010
ephemeral
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Per the title, That First Season tells the story of Vince Lombardi's first season with the Green Bay Packers in the late 1950s. Lombardi took a team that was a complete laughingstock and turned it into a winning team that in future seasons would dominate the league. The author does a good job of compiling facts and opinions from a variety of sources, including interviews, to form a cohesive story about Lombardi's transformation of the Packers. I particularly enjoyed the fact that the author chronicled both the on the field and off the field changes that Lombardi produced; each game gets about 4 pages of play-by-play coverage, and topics like expectations of players behavior while in public are also discussed at length (Packers players could drink at bars in Green Bay, but only if they were sitting down-- standing and drinking could give the team a bad reputation). While the book might not be groundbreaking, I think most fans of the Packers or people with an interest in sports history will find it worthwhile.
 A Blast from the Past in Football December 26, 2009
Daniel A. Patz (Minnesota)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
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.
How the Packer dynasty began December 23, 2009
Paper Pen (Long Beach, CA USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This well-told tale of the Green Bay Packers' first season under Coach Vince Lombardi will be an enjoyable read for any football fan.
Author John Eisenberg paces the story well, including well-chosen details while keeping the story moving forward. While there are a lot of characters in the book, I liked how Eisenberg introduces them gradually at appropriate points.
Lombardi is clearly the main character and "That First Season" shows him as a vastly more complex person than his image as a strict disciplinarian would suggest. Yes, he pushed the players hard and demanded hard work and commitment. But he also knew when to when to praise rather than punish, and how to negotiate with players to get their best effort.
"After Lombardi tore you down, he always came around later, flashed that grin, hit you on the shoulder, complimented you, and asked about your kids, and suddenly, instead of being angry, you just wanted to play better," Eisenberg writes.
There was no free agency in those days, so it's striking to see that Lombardi built a winning NFL team with largely the same players who had been on the one-win team a year earlier.
After Lombardi, quarterback Bart Starr is the book's next most prominent character, and it's amazing to see how he evolved from a quiet, unassuming bench warmer to a commanding leader on the field.
I do wish the book had more pictures, especially of players off the field.
RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "HOW LOMBARDI RESHAPED A TEAM OF QUITTING LOSERS INTO WINNERS THAT WOULDN'T QUIT IN GREEN BAY." November 23, 2009
Rick Shaq Goldstein (Danville, Ca, USA)
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
In June of 1959 at the first Green Bay Packer pre-season quarterback camp new coach Vince Lombardi addressed six quarterbacks of which only three would make the team. One of the players at that meeting was future Hall Of Famer Bart Starr. Starr was not only "not" on the way to a Hall Of Fame career at that point... but his first two years with the Packers had resulted in won/loss records of 3 & 9 and 1 & 10. In fact their most recent season 1958 had been the worst season in the forty-year history of the Green Bay Packers. Coach Lombardi who had never been a head coach in the professional or college ranks... though he was an assistant coach on New York Giant NFL championship's... knew what he wanted to accomplish in Green Bay... and how he would accomplish it. Lombardi did not mince words... and the entire future legacy of a franchise was set when Lombardi delivered the following *OPENING* salvo:
"GENTLEMEN... WE'RE GOING TO RELENTLESSLY CHASE PERFECTION, KNOWING FULL WELL WE WILL NOT CATCH IT, BECAUSE PERFECTION IS NOT ATTAINABLE. BUT WE ARE GOING TO RELENTLESSLY CHASE IT BECAUSE, IN THE PROCESS, WE WILL CATCH EXCELLENCE."
"HE PAUSED AND STARED, HIS EYES MOVING FROM PLAYER TO PLAYER. THE ROOM WAS SILENT."
I'M NOT REMOTELY INTERESTED IN BEING JUST GOOD," HE SAID WITH AN INTENSITY THAT STARTLED THEM ALL."
When there was a break in the meeting an hour later... Starr ran to a phone and called his wife at home in Alabama and said: "HONEY, WE'RE GOING TO START TO WIN," HE SAID BREATHLESSLY. THE GUY TALKED ABOUT PERFECTION!"
From that place in time forward the author details the fury and passion that defined the Italian-Brooklyn-born Lombardi who became a savior... in of all places... frigid Green Bay. He worked the ballplayers harder than they'd ever been worked. Former college All-Americans were throwing up on the practice field. Coach Lombardi threatened the team that if they didn't do things his way he'd get rid of them... and get rid of some of them he did. The players hated him... but in the end they loved him... for what he forced them to become.
What the Green Bay Packers were before Lombardi's arrival was not only a losing team... but a team known throughout the league as quitters. When Lombardi reviewed the prior season's game tapes... especially the November 2, 1958 game against the Baltimore Colts in which they lost 56-0... it wasn't just the score... it was the fact the players quit trying. This added even more fuel to his fire and passion... if that's humanely possible... and every practice became a personal quest to transform Lombardi's desire for a team that would always leave every ounce of sweat... blood... and tears... on every field... whether in practice or in a game... all towards the goal of excellence... victory... and being able to look each other in the eye... knowing they never quit.
Interestingly portrayed along with the Packer's coach and players are the opposing NFL stars of that generation... and the entire town of Green Bay whose lives are built around the fortunes of their hometown team. The reader will be made well aware of how Lombardi built the foundation of a team that in 1959 had its first winning season since 1947... that would play for the NFL championship in 1960 and win the NFL championship in 1961,1962,1965... and win the first two Super Bowl's in history in 1966 and 1967. And as all fans know today... the Super Bowl Trophy is called the *LOMBARDI-TROPHY*. All this reinvigoration of a once proud Packer franchise had to start somewhere... and where it all started was in... "THAT FIRST SEASON".
Showing reviews 1-5 of 43
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