Run to Daylight!

(Prentice Hall, 1963)

"Tightly written and sharply focused, the book gives splendid insights into the complexity of the pro game, the lightning improvisations coaches must make and the selflessness of the Green Bay players." - The New York Times

"A great writing achievement - warm, human, and as emotional as its subject." - Chicago Tribune

"The 'as-told-to' book is natural among athletes as it is among movie stars, but in this particular model by Vince Lombardi, the coach of the Green Bay Packers, as told to W.C. Heinz, a matchless reporter and brilliant author, the narrator and ghost make an eerily perfect pair." -Newsweek

"Even the technical talk in Vince Lombardi's Run to Daylight! cannot detract from the poetry in W.C. Heinz's prose." - The Boston Herald

Run to Daylight! is Lombardi's own diary of a week at the helm of that magnificent club. Together with legendary sports journalist W.C. Heinz, Lombardi takes us from the first review of game films on Monday right through the final gun on Sunday afternoon. We see the planning, the plotting, the practice, and the pain as forty-plus men come together to form that precision unit that makes for winning football. Lombardi gives us his views on life, the game, coaching, success, family, and the famed "Lombardi Sweep."

In the new 50th anniversary edition, with a special foreword by David Maraniss, we are once again reminded of the passion and power behind America's greatest game. Written in W.C. Heinz's inimitable style, Run to Daylight! is part diary, part philosophy text, and part coaches' manual. Here is professional football at its best.

Run to Daylight! captures the action, the pace and drama of professional football as few other books have done before. The book describes seven days in the life of Vince Lombardi -- the fiery, dynamic coach of the Green Bay Packers - as he shapes up his team from Monday to Saturday for a crucial game on Sunday. It's a rare glimpse into the behind the scenes workings of a professional football team that builds in tensions and excitement as the day of the big game nears. You'll shadow Lombardi's every move on and off the field, as he comes into contact with his family, players, coaches and the other people who inhabit his world. You'll attend pre-game strategy meetings, practice sessions and listen in on the colorful yet deadly serious conversations between Lombardi and his players. The book is a tribute to Lombardi's intense dedication to the game, his boundless enthusiasm, energy and drive to instill confidence and perfection in his men and his sixth sense for mapping out the key tactics that win ball games for the Packers. You'll be with Coach Lombardi on the fateful Sunday as his players take to the field for a key national Football League game. With the kickoff you can feel the tension in the air as the two teams charge at each other. You follow the action closely as all the pre-game strategies you've heard Lombardi talk about earlier in the week, come into play. And, through the interplay of text and illustration, you see what Lombardi sees and read what he says. You are almost in the coach's mind as the game unfolds. Run to Daylight! is an exciting, inside view of America's most exciting sport.

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Look for the newest printing (2014) by Simon & Schuster, a 50th Anniversary edition with a foreword by David Maraniss.

Here's what they said about it in 1963:

"It's exciting, technical sports writing of the highest order." - Life Magazine

"Vince Lombardi and W.C. Heinz have qualified for a Pulitzer price - if there is a sports award this year." - Bob Oates, Los Angeles Herald Examiner

"The book that defines it (pro-football) best, and with the most literary distinction." - Al Silverman, Book Week

"It's just about the best football book I've ever read." - Jimmy Cannon, N.Y. Journal-American

"The book is a gold mine of inside football information as the coach goes over the plays, strategy, and assignments for the team as a whole and for each player." - Publishers' Weekly

"It's at once a handbook for coaches, a primer for fans, and a work of art." - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"It happens to be the best book ever written on professional football." - Jerry Izenberg, Newark Star Ledger

"This is a great writing achievement -warm, human, as emotional as its subject. As a textbook it will be undoubtedly be required reading in football training camps." - Cooper Rollow, Chicago Tribune

"Stands out like West Point's lonesome end. It's an entirely new approach to a sports book that pro football fans will probably hasten to devour." - Dan Parker, N.Y. Mirror

"A remarkable new book." - William Wallace, N.Y. Times

"You get 300 pages of shoulder-rubbing intimacy with Lombardi and his Green Bay Packers. A whale of an adventure story." -Bob Smith, Chicago Daily News

"One of the best football books ever written -if not the very best." -Oliver Kuechle, Milwaukee Journal