NEWARK — It was a sparkling homecoming—47 years in the making.
The first-ever Vince Lombardi trophy, which was made in Newark, arrived this week at the Newark Museum.
The trophy, on loan from the Green Bay Packers, is part of an exhibit until the end of March.
“It’s the first trophy of its kind,”said chief museum curator Ulysses Dietz, as he stood in front of the wall-length glass display housing the trophy.
The trophy was made in 1967 for the winner of the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Legend has it that in 1966, Pete Rozelle, then the commissioner of the NFL, was tossing around ideas for the trophy with Tiffany and Co. designer Oscar Reidner, according to the museum.
Reidner scribbled a design of the trophy on a cocktail napkin, favoring to showcase the essence of football as opposed to a more traditional cup or urn.
The result was a silver football in kicking position on top of a column with the symbols of the NFL and AFL.
The trophy was made at Tiffany and Co.’s factory in the Forest Hill section of Newark's North end.
The Packers won the game, which would eventually become an annual event known as the Super Bowl. The team took home the trophy, and it has resided with the them ever since, most recently in the team’s Hall of Fame.
The trophy was later named after famed Packers football coach and New Jersey native Vince Lombardi, after he died in 1970.
Sometime after the NFL announced that the 2014 Super Bowl would be played at MetLife Stadium, museum leaders began to brainstorm about how to incorporate the Feb. 2 game into its programming.
Exhibit preparer Seth Goodwin puts the original Vince Lombardi trophy in a display case at Newark museum.
“We thought what can we do to make the link between art and football?” said Mark Albin, the museum's deputy director for marketing and public relations.
Knowing the original Vince Lombardi trophy was made in Newark, the museum asked the Green Bay Packers to borrow it to display during the Super Bowl.
The trophy has not left the team since 1967, but the Packers agreed to loan it to the museum because its Hall of Fame is being renovated, Albin said.
Since 2014 is New Jersey’s 350th anniversary, Dietz decided to put on an exhibit celebrating Newark’s rich history as a a prominent center of silver and gold production during the 19th century.
"I thought 'let's do a show about the silver and gold,'" he said. "It will be double duty."
The exhibit entitled "City of Silver and Gold from Tiffany to Cartier," includes more than 100 pieces.
But Dietz said he expects the trophy will be the main attraction.
It’s an “original piece of history,” he said.
For more information about the exhibit click here.