Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
The December 21, 1962 issue of Time featuring Vince Lombardi on the cover is one of the most historically significant sports covers the magazine produced in the early 1960s, and it arrives at a precise and well-documented moment of triumph. The Green Bay Packers had just completed the 1962 NFL regular season with a 13-1 record, their best in the Lombardi era, and were preparing for the NFL Championship Game against the New York Giants — a rematch of the 1961 championship, which the Packers had also won. A Time cover on Lombardi in the week before that championship game is the mainstream American press making a formal declaration: this coach, this team, and this moment in professional football were significant enough to warrant the most prominent editorial platform in American weekly journalism.
Lombardi in December 1962 was at the peak of his powers and his public recognition. He had arrived in Green Bay in 1959 to take over a franchise that had won one game the previous season, and within three years had built what was already being recognized as one of the great teams in NFL history. His coaching philosophy — built on simplicity, execution, conditioning, and an almost spiritual insistence on excellence — was becoming a subject of fascination beyond the football world, his aphorisms already circulating as leadership wisdom applicable far beyond the sideline. A Time cover in December 1962 was the moment that transformation from football coach to American cultural figure was formally ratified by the establishment press. For collectors focused on Time's sports coverage from this era, this is one of the most historically resonant NFL-related covers in the magazine's run.
The 1962 Packers would go on to defeat the Giants 16-7 in brutal conditions at Yankee Stadium on December 30, winning their second consecutive NFL championship. The Time cover therefore captures Lombardi and his team in the week of anticipation before that second title — a document of the moment before the achievement rather than after it, with all the narrative tension that entails. The 1962 championship would prove to be the midpoint of a dynasty: the Packers would win five NFL championships in seven years under Lombardi, including the first two Super Bowls. Collectors building archives of American sports and cultural history in 1962 will find this issue a primary document of professional football's most celebrated coaching career at its defining moment.
About the Publication
Time was founded in 1923 and by the early 1960s had been the dominant American weekly news magazine for four decades, with a global circulation and an editorial format built around departmental news coverage anchored each week by a cover portrait chosen to identify the most significant figure or issue of the moment. Its sports coverage was selective and pointed — athletes and coaches appeared on its cover when their significance extended beyond their sport into broader cultural territory. A Vince Lombardi cover in December 1962 reflects Time's recognition that the Green Bay coach had crossed that threshold, his story resonating with American readers far beyond the football audience.
Key Highlights Inside
- Cover feature on Vince Lombardi — published the week before the 1962 NFL Championship Game, documenting the Green Bay Packers' head coach at the height of his first dynasty and on the eve of his team's second consecutive championship victory.
- Reporting on Lombardi's coaching philosophy and leadership methods — the simplicity, the discipline, and the insistence on execution that were already being recognized as applicable wisdom beyond professional football.
- Coverage of the 1962 Green Bay Packers — the 13-1 team widely regarded as one of the greatest in NFL history, featuring players including Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, Jim Taylor, and Ray Nitschke.
- Broader national and international news reporting across Time's full departmental range, capturing the American moment of late December 1962 — a year that had included the Cuban Missile Crisis and a period of significant Cold War tension.
Note: Specific interior articles beyond the cover story are unconfirmed for this issue. The above reflects what is verifiable from the cover subject matter, publication format, and the well-documented historical context of December 1962.
Condition & Rarity
Graded Good overall, with a label on the front cover and minor wear throughout — a condition profile consistent with a subscriber copy of a weekly news magazine now more than sixty years old. The label identifies this as a mailed subscriber edition rather than a newsstand copy; label-free newsstand copies are the collector preference for display and command a premium for covers of this historical significance. The bagged and boarded storage format — borrowed from comic book preservation practice — provides structural support beyond a sleeve alone, helping to prevent spine stress and corner damage over time. This is a meaningful positive attribute for a publication of this size and paper stock. Time covers featuring major NFL figures from the pre-Super Bowl era are among the more actively sought in vintage sports magazine collecting, and Lombardi covers in particular attract collectors across football history, leadership and management book culture, and general American sports memorabilia communities.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
Vince Lombardi Time covers from the peak of the Green Bay dynasty are among the most historically resonant items in vintage NFL print collecting, and the December 1962 pre-championship issue is the most precisely timed of those appearances. The full Time magazine collection at OriginalMagazines.com is the best place to explore available issues across the magazine's long run of American sports and cultural history. For collectors building a broader documentary archive of this pivotal year, the complete 1962 magazine archive offers a wide range of titles from one of the most consequential years of the early 1960s.