19. The Vince Lombardi Trophy was designed on a cocktail napkin
In 1966, Oscar Riedner, the president of Tiffany and Company, had a lunch meeting with Pete Rozelle. During the meeting, Riedner sketched a trophy on a cocktail napkin, the design of which Rozelle instantly approved. The original trophy, awarded to Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi after his team won the first Super Bowl, was manufactured by Tiffany’s in Newark. The trophy has been manufactured by Tiffany and Company ever since, though at different facilities over the years. The early trophies included the words “World Professional Football Championship”. Lombardi won the first two. After his death in 1970, the NFL named the trophy in his honor. The first team to receive the newly named Lombardi Trophy was the Baltimore Colts, on January 17, 1971.
Since the late 1990s, the trophy has been awarded in a presentation following the game, with it being delivered to the owner of the winning team, usually accompanied by the head coach, the game’s Most Valuable Player, and other luminaries. That didn’t happen in 1971. The MVP for the game, in which the Colts beat the Dallas Cowboys, was Chuck Howley. Howley represents the only time a member of the losing team won the MVP award in Super Bowl history. Howley refused to accept the award, though it was not redesignated for another player. It was the first time the Super Bowl MVP went to a defensive player as well.
