Sacraments, seminary and Sheepshead Bay: A firm foundation of faith was built early in the legendary coach’s life
By Jay Sorgi | For On Mission
BROOKLYN, NY — A small, 500-square-foot triangle of grass called Bill Brown Square grows near a gelato stand at the corner of East 17th Street and Jerome Avenue, a short walk from the Sheepshead Bay commuter train line stop in south Brooklyn, New York.
Anyone not looking carefully at the concrete amid the grass might easily step over a series of small stone markers set into the ground of the triangle. One of them, surrounded by markers honoring members of Sheepshead Bay’s Izzo family, was installed in 1974 by the Sheepshead Bay Chamber of Commerce.
It reads, “In memory of Vince Lombardi, 1913-1970.”
That neighborhood was where legendary Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi — the man who led Green Bay to five NFL championships in seven years and an unsurpassed three straight league titles during a decade of values-centered dominance — learned the most important aspect of the triangle of life he preached to his Packers players.
“God, family and the Green Bay Packers: he had those priorities in order, and you could tell that in his life,” said Chuck Mercein, a Milwaukee native, devout Catholic and 1967 Packers fullback. “I was raised by my mother’s family, which is Italian, Sicilian, and very Catholic. I wasn’t surprised that his faith meant a lot to him.”
The house at 2542 E. 14th St. — the birthplace of Lombardi — doubled as the domestic church where he began his faith journey.
It stands about four blocks from Bill Brown Square, west on Jerome Avenue, then north on E. 14th Street, halfway between Y and Z streets. The neighborhood now attracts immigrants from Eastern Europe, much as it once drew some of the 4 million Italians who came to America between 1890 and 1920.
Among them were Vincenzo Lombardi, Vince’s grandfather from Naples, Italy, and the Izzos on Vince’s maternal side who came from Vietri di Potenza, Italy, a small town in the Apennine Mountains, two hours east of Naples.
“This has always been a welcoming place to immigrants,” said Fr. Robert Mucci, pastor of St. Mark-St. Margaret Mary Parish in Brooklyn and Manhattan Beach, New York. “Just looking at a lot of the names associated with the parish and the church and the style of the church, there’s certainly a heavy Italian influence in that.”
A small marker in the front of the home lets people know it once housed the man who turned the corner of now-Lombardi Avenue and Oneida Street in Green Bay into the center point of his mission: to make football a profession rooted in values such as striving for excellence and the dignity of every human person.
That dignity stemmed from the bedrock of Italian immigrant life: the Catholic faith. A block and a half south of Lombardi’s bungalow-like boyhood home once stood the previous St. Mark Parish, whose tall steeple rose above 16th Street as the neighborhood’s most visible sight.
The church where Lombardi worshipped no longer stands. The property now houses restaurants, coffee shops and other businesses owned by Russian and Ukrainian immigrants.
But the altar from that church still exists, serving as the cornerstone of the full altar at the current St. Mark Parish, built a few blocks away on E. 19th Street.
Lombardi and his family worshipped before the sand- and brick-colored marble altar. He often stood beside it in his days as an altar server during the 1920s, when altar servers were much more plentiful.
“Back then, it would have been typical to probably have four altar servers at every Mass,” Fr. Mucci said. “There were certain practices. When the priest would elevate the Eucharist, one of the altar servers would have his chasuble, the vestment, to hold that up. There was a lot more use of incense and things like that for the Masses back then.”
Lombardi most likely received his sacraments of initiation in front of that altar. Now, it plays a part in three weekend Masses and a daily Mass.
Attending Mass everyday became more than a routine for Lombardi’s faith life.
“He was very strict in his observance of being a daily communicant,” said Bill Curry, a center with the Packers during the 1965 and 1966 championship seasons. “He was very serious about it.”
His seriousness about the Catholic faith led Lombardi to discern the priesthood at age 15, attending Cathedral Prep — then at the corner of Atlantic and Washington avenues — a 45-minute subway and bus commute from Sheepshead Bay, always wearing a suit and tie.
Lombardi’s serious demeanor is highly evident in every photo of him remaining in the archives of Cathedral Prep, now located in Queens. It reflected the sense of leadership he displayed as the oldest of five siblings and as class president of the school’s B section.
His faith and devotion to Christ never seemed to waver during those years, but something called him beyond seminary life — a sport Cathedral Prep didn’t offer students who attended the five-year high school: football.
The son of a dedicated butcher never lacked diligence on the basketball court. The 1930 school yearbook lauded his work ethic, which earned him a spot on the varsity team in his second year. He was never a top scorer, putting up just nine points in the 1931 season.
But Lombardi, a future member of Fordham University’s nationally renowned “Seven Blocks of Granite” offensive and defensive line, lacked the athletic outlet that kept calling his name.
Before what would have been his fifth year of seminary high school, Lombardi entered what college football today would call the “transfer portal,” heading to St. Francis Preparatory School, then located at 300 Baltic St. in Brooklyn, six blocks from the shipyards along the East River and one step closer to his football dream.
That dream eventually became the means through which he showcased the values of his Catholic faith with the sports world — a world he and his Green Bay Packers came to conquer.