Lombardi's plays up for auction
A friendly conversation between Vince Lombardi and famed photographer Robert Riger has produced an unusual but valuable piece of memorabilia being auctioned more than 50 years later.
It's a Trans World Airlines ticket folder belonging to Riger that features three offensive play diagrams written in ballpoint and felt tip pen by Lombardi after the Packers' famous mud game against the San Francisco 49ers at Kezar Stadium on Dec. 10, 1960.
The plays were designed for his star duo of running backs, Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung. They feature several circles, squares and arrowed lines anointed with notes that include “Weak Side Sweep with Taylor” and “Hornung D/P.”
Taylor rushed for 161 yards in the 13-0 win. Hornung had 86 yards, including a 28-yard touchdown run, and accounted for every point that day after also booting two field goals.
The Lombardi diagrams are being made available by Heritage Auctions, a Texas company, in its Platinum Night Auction that takes place Saturday and Sunday.
They are estimated to go for $2,000 or more, but early bidding already has reached the low end of that figure.
“There are literally hundreds or thousands of Vince Lombardi autographs in our hobby, and they always do very well because they are in such high demand,” Heritage consignment director Chris Nerat said. “But this is what I would call a special or magical piece of Vince Lombardi. It is one of a kind and it also represents two legends in each of their professions.”
Most everyone has heard of Lombardi, and while Riger might not be a household name, his photographs were seen by millions for more than 40 years in publications like Sports Illustrated.
Riger also worked in television and film. He won nine Emmy Awards and was the 1994 Sports Artist of the Year.
The story of how the Lombardi item came to be, and was found, is an interesting one.
Part of it is documented in author David Maraniss' book, “When Pride Still Mattered: The Life of Vince Lombardi.”
Maraniss detailed the meeting between Lombardi and Riger that took place on the team bus after the win against the 49ers.
One of the most iconic shots of Riger's career came that day, when he snapped a photo of Packers offensive lineman Forrest Gregg covered in mud.
“Riger took a seat next to the coach and found him in an unusually chatty mood,” Maraniss wrote. “Lombardi talked with the photographer for nearly forty minutes, diagramming plays on the back of Riger's airline ticket, and praising his tandem of Thunder and Lightning.”
Riger's second wife, Dawn Aberg, was his hospice caregiver when he died in 1995 and now serves as the trustee of the trust that handles his vast photograph and art collection.
She has spent the past year working to get the collection together, which has been made more difficult because of the COVID-19 pandemic. She lives in Alabama and estimates much of his work still is in storage in Los Angeles.
But not all of it.
Aberg recently was reading Maraniss' book while taking a break from inventory work. She had received a request from a fan of Riger seeking an image from the book, so she bought it for reference.
She read the passage about her husband, Lombardi and the airplane ticket, and then went back to doing inventory and rummaging through boxes.
A short time later, Aberg saw an item with a TWA logo and notes and thought it was a boarding pass envelope of some kind.
Then it hit her: The same item she just read about was staring her in the face.
“It was within the same hour,” Aberg said. “It was so bizarre. … It was just this little, scrappy piece of paper inside sort of a plastic sleeve. Which meant somebody thought it should be preserved. But had I not just read the Maraniss thing, I wouldn't have any sense of what it was. The thing in and of itself isn't that impressive.
“It's clearly like they are sitting there talking about Hornung and Taylor, and you can just see Lombardi wanting to scribble down exactly what he was doing with them.”