Much as been written about Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers dynasty of the 1960's, but John Eisenberg's book is the first to provide details about Vince Lombardi's first season with the Green Bay Packers.

When Lombardi took over as head coach Green Bay was a losing team with a culture of losing, and even quitting, in games. He was starting at ground zero with a group of players who were used to and even accepted losing. Once a team establishes a culture of losing it is extremely difficult to break it out of that cycle. Losing becomes a habit and it becomes acceptable.

But it was not acceptable to Vince Lombardi. After taking over the head coaching duties prior to the 1959 season Lombardi wondered what he had gotten into after watching game film of this woeful team.

Through punishing practices and motivational tactics more akin to an Army drill sergeant than a professional football coach, Lombardi made it clear to his players that losing was not acceptable and he was gong to work them out of it, literally. His practices were brutal affairs and his drive for perfection a tangible force.

While that first season ended with a mediocre 7-5 record, Lombardi accomplished one amazing feat. The Green Bay Packers were no longer losers and quitters. Instead Lombardi established the mental and physical groundwork for the dynasty yet to come.

The most amazing thing about Lombardi's feat is he turned the team around with essentially the same players who were so woeful before. Normally a team breaking out of losing streak essentially has to clean house and build from scratch. Not Lombardi. He worked, cajoled, intimidated, and rebuilt this team from the inside out turning a can't do mentality into a can do winning one. And that is why Lombardi is praised as possibly being one of the greatest coaches of all time in any sport.

Lombardi also made some key decisions that propelled the team forward. He finally settled on future Hall of Fame quarterback Bart Starr as his starter for the future. He created an offensive attack that utilized the unique talents of Paul Hornung instead of trying to turn him into a power running back, letting Jim Taylor handle those duties. And he helped players like offensive linemen Jerry Kramer, Forrest Gregg, and Fuzzy Thurston advance from good to great. And by practicing the bread and butter plays, especially the sweep, until it was second nature, he made the game more simple for his offensive players, and difficult to stop for opponents.

This is a well written book where you get the inside story from many of the players of that era, like Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, and Jerry Kramer. Fans of professional football should enjoy this look back at how Vince Lombardi launched a dynasty. ( )

I started watching football in about 1963. I had the good fortune of growing up in Wisconsin. There was Vince Lombardi on our black and white TV pacing the sidelines cursing his players on to championship performance. What a time it was. This book filled in the lost time for me when I was too young to know where this iconic team came from. The book captures this lost time and takes this improbable New Yorker who took on a group of talented losers and molded them into what would become one of the greatest teams of all time. Each game is recapped in this 1959 season coming off one of the darkest in Packer history. Lombardi built the team on basics and no one escaped his drive to perfection. They may have not liked him much but these players grew to respect and marvel at what could be accomplished under him.

I am fortunate now to be a part owner of this historic and unique NFL franchise along with another 100,000 fans or so. There is nothing like it in professional sports, and this tiny town has made and continues to makes its mark on this megasport. ( )

I don't read too many sports history books... and when I do read one I always wonder why I don't read more. This easy read chronicles Vince Lombardi's first season as the Green Bay Packers head coach (1959) where he turns a team that went 1-10-1 in 1958 into a 7-5 team mainly through discipline and hard work. Eisenberg alternates a game-by-game account with player biographys and I was gratified to recognize many of the names of the great players of that era... I was born in 1959 and spent the first ten years of my life on the east coast where football came in a close second to baseball. Of course, to football fans, the Packer legend and the players that made it are very recognizable... Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, Ray Nitchzke, Forrest Gregg, Boyd Dowler, Max McGee, etc.

As I said, a pretty easy read, and recommended for anyone with an interest in that era of sports heroes. ( )

Vince Lombardi is the most famous of NFL coaches. His legendary tenure with the Green Bay Packers resurrected the once mighty franchise to the peak of its prowess in the early 1960s. Lombardi's tale is of the brilliant but difficult man who willed a team to victory including taking home the first two Super Bowls. That First Season is an addition to the legend in spelling out where it started for Lombardi in Green Bay. His first season took the team from the depths of the league and rumours of the franchise being moved to respectable upper mid-table. It would take until Lombardi's third season for the dynasty to really begin but Eisenberg runs through the year that started it and his work is a scene setter for those who know of or are interested in this most iconic of sporting successes.

Eisenberg starts off with the Packers at a real low. Unable to thrive under the previous head coach, the team and the franchise were in disarray. Eisenberg's analysis of the problem may be shallow and unchallenging but the depths to which the team had plummeted were remarkable. Wholesale change was clearly needed in the organisation's structure and a key to that was finding the right head coach. The Packers found their man in the form of New York Giants offensive coordinator Vince Lombardi. It is a little strange to read that coordinators were not known of at the time so Lombardi was a surprise pick. While some analysis of why coordinators remained in the shadow during those times might be useful given that Lombardi and Tom Landry were the men who staffed the Giants positions and went on to become legends, it is telling that the Packers did not take the easy or obvious option but went with the person they felt had the talent regardless of any marquee name.

That First Season takes the reader through the tribulations Lombardi struggled with as he turned around the team. It details the brutal fitness regime he put the players through but also touches briefly on the innovations that players such as Jim Taylor generated in using strength coaching. The Packers were loaded with talent, they just didn't realise it. One of the most interesting tales is that of Bart Starr. Hailed by some such as those who like their football facts cold and hard as the greatest quarterback of all time, Starr seemed at times close to being cut but Eisenberg details the work ethic and intelligence that put him in position to be the on-field leader the team needed.

Throughout NFL history players and coaches have been in the right or wrong place at the right time. Lombardi's approach worked and the team won. He brought in a refreshingly physical style reminiscent of earlier days in the NFL at a time when others were trending towards complex plays without the players to achieve them. The approach didn't work all the time and during That First Season there were some surprising setbacks. Indeed Lombardi's approach to leadership cost the team a highly talented player who was cut and went on to have a great career - nobody is perfect but the army general approach to being a coach has downsides.

Eisenberg does not delve into any downsides. His work is a paean to Lombardi's greatness. It seems that the reason the team were not sucessful prior to That First Season is because Lombardi was not there, the reason they struggled at times during That First Season is because the players were not achieving what Lombardi wanted, and I guess the reason Lombardi was eventually fired was probably someone else's fault. Eisenberg is a typically American sports-writer. His work is about the glory of the individual in a team game and euologising that greatness. Eisenberg challenges nothing and accepts every conventional wisdom going. His writing is also not inspiring and his game reports are pretty dull. The material is good and it is an angle on Lombardi that is less covered than most but NFL writing is clearly difficult because few can do it well. It also isn't clear why Eisenberg scatters some cliches and inanities in italics throughout the book. They aren't uuotes unless he has heard film of fans speaking during and after matches and they aren't insightful because they are without fail the most bland of sports-talk phrases.

That First Season is a book about the greatest phase in the greatest team in the greatest sport. It shows where it started and introduces the legendary Lombardi at the point where he stepped in to turn the team around. It is fascinating and an NFL fan will want to read it. A Packer fan will definitely need to read it. Like most NFL books, it follows one season and like most of them except You're Okay, it's Just a Bruise it is not a particularly passionate account. Eisenberg is not an inspiring writer and the material he had could have been treated better but it is a nice addition to the legend. ( )