Gianfranco Lombardi

Place: Bourges

Born: 1941

Death: 2021

Biography:

Franco Lombardi, also known as Gianfranco Lombardi, was born in Bourges, France in 1941 and passed away in 2021. He was a well-respected Italian basketball player in the 1960s and a respected coach in the Italian League. He led the Italian League in scoring in 1964 and 1967. He was a part of the senior Italian national basketball teams that won a gold medal at the 1963 Mediterranean Games and finished in the fourth, fifth and eighth places at the 1960 Summer Olympics, the 1964 Summer Olympics, and the 1968 Summer Olympics, respectively. He was inducted into the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. In 1987, he conducted the Italian entry at the Eurovision Song Contest in Brussels, Belgium. He never had a losing season as head coach in the NFL, compiling a regular-season winning percentage of 73.8% (96–34–6) and 90% (9–1) in the postseason for an overall record of 105 wins, 35 losses and 6 ties in the NFL. He was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and the NFL Super Bowl trophy was named in his honor.