Fans line up to see the NFL's most prestigious award.

 

 

Traditionally, the NFL Commissioner presents the Trophy to the owner of the winning team on Super Bowl Sunday at a field ceremony in their honor.  The NFL has awarded a championship trophy since the first AFC-NFC World Championship, but it was not named for Vince Lombardi until after his death in 1970.

 

The trophy was originally called the "World Championship Game Trophy" in 1967, when the Super Bowl was originally named the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. The NFL renamed the trophy on January 17, 1971—the day of Super Bowl V.  Later that day, Lombardi’s widow presented the first official Vince Lombardi Trophy to Carroll Rosenbloom, owner of the victorious Baltimore Colts.

 

Every year the famous jewelry store Tiffany and Co. creates a new Lombardi Trophy in a workshop in Parsippany, New Jersey. The trophy stands 52.7 cm (20.75 in) high and is fashioned from 3 kg (6.7 lbs) of sterling silver.

The trophy weighs seven pounds and takes 72 man-hours (a total of 4 months) to create.  The design consists of a regulation-size sterling silver football depicted in a kicking position, mounted on a pyramid.  It was carried here this morning from Tiffany & Co. at International Plaza by Hall of Famer Mike Haynes.   

 

Engraved on the base are the words "Vince Lombardi Trophy", the official NFL emblem affixed separately,  the Super Bowl number, and "AFC vs. NFC."  After the trophy is awarded, it is sent back to Tiffany's to be engraved with the winning team's name, the date and final score of the Super Bowl, and then is sent back to the winning team for them to keep.* 

For the first four games, both the NFL and the AFL logos were in the center of the trophy. Starting from Super Bowl V through XLII, the NFL shield with more than 20 stars has been on the forefront. As of Super Bowl XLIII a newer, modernized NFL shield (with eight stars and a rotated football designed akin to that atop the trophy) replaced the older logo.

The trophy’s value, in material and craftwork, is recently valued at $25,000.

*The trophy that the then-Baltimore Colts won in Super Bowl V was retained by the city of Baltimore as part of the legal settlement between the team and the city after the Colts' infamous "Midnight Mayflower" move to Indianapolis on March 29, 1984. Since then, both the Indianapolis Colts and the Baltimore Ravens have won the Super Bowl and earned their own trophies outright.

Click the seven thumbnail images below to see them larger in the viewer.

 

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