I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious.

Lombardi frames “success” not as comfort, fame, or even the scoreboard alone, but as the moral and physical culmination of total commitment to a worthy purpose. The battlefield metaphor translates athletic competition into an arena of character: the “finest hour” arrives when a person has expended everything—skill, discipline, courage—in service of a “good cause.” The emphasis on exhaustion underscores process over ease; fulfillment comes from having held nothing back. The final word, “victorious,” suggests that the deepest satisfaction is earned victory—achievement that follows sacrifice—rather than effortless triumph. In Lombardi’s ethos, excellence is inseparable from wholehearted effort and a cause that justifies it.