Vince Lombardi is considered one of the best if not the greatest coach in the history of the NFL. But Lombardi's dynasty would not have been possible and Lombardi may never have coached the Green Bay Packers if not for Jack Vainisi.

Vainisi is an overlooked figure by many fans, but now, the veterans committee of the Pro Football Hall of Fame has made the former Packers scout one of 25 former players, coaches and builders who are still in the running for a spot in the hallowed halls of Canton, Ohio.

Not too many scouts get honored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Scouting is a thankless job that often goes unnoticed by fans and the media alike. It involves long trips around the country, endless stays in hotel and motel rooms, eating meals on the go and time away from family in search of football talent.

But few people were better at it than Jack Vainisi. He joined the Packers shortly after he graduated from Notre Dame in 1950 and helped build a team that won five championships in seven seasons in the 1960s.

Vainisi was ahead of his time. He did more than most scouts during that era. In addition to traveling to watch players, he set up an extensive network of contacts with coaches throughout the country with many of them having ties to either the Packers or the Fighting Irish. Vainisi didn't only ask coaches about their players but about opposing team's players as well. And in the days before computers and the Internet, he set up an extensive collection of binders containing all his scouting information. He scouted nearly 4,000 players during his time with the Packers organization.

The hard work paid off. The Packers added eight Hall of Fame players based on Vainisi's recommendations. The group includes Paul Hornung, Jim Taylor, Bart Starr, Ray Nitschke, Jim Ringo, Forrest Gregg, Jerry Kramer and free agent signee Willie Wood.

Hornung had fond memories of Vainisi. "I loved Jack Vainisi -- all the players did," Hornung later told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "He was a football man, that's what he was, pure and simple. He brought so much talent to Green Bay, but it took Lombardi to make us champions."

Other outstanding Packers players added after strong recommendations by Vainisi were Dave Hanner, Boyd Dowler, Max McGee, Bob Skoronski, Dan Currie, Hank Gremminger and Ron Kramer. Many of they key components of the Packers dynasty of the 1960s joined the team because of Vainisi's work.

He was also largely responsible for the Packers 1958 draft class, widely regarded as one of the greatest in league history. The Packers added three eventual Hall of Fame players in oe draft with Taylor, Nitschke and Kramer. In the first round, they added Currie who was a mainstay at linebacker.

Vainisi did more than just select talent, though. It was because of Vainisi that Lombardi came to Green Bay in the first place, at least that was what the Packers coach and general manager told the team's executive board when he interviewed for the job in 1959.

It was also Vainisi who told Lombardi to insist on being named both coach and general manager of the team because he told Lombardi the executive board would get his way otherwise.

In his outstanding biography of Lombardi, "When Pride Still Mattered," author David Maraniss had this to say about the role Vainisi played in building Lombardi's championship teams. "If Lombardi found the best in his players, their performance, in the end, was limited by what that best could be. Lombardi inherited an uncommonly talented collection of athletes when he came to Green Bay and Jack Vainisi realized that before anyone else."

Sadly, while Vainisi helped created the talented roster that Lombardi molded from also-rans to a championship team, he didn't live long enough to see the fruits of his labor. He had contracted rheumatic fever while stationed in Japan with the Aarmy after World War II and it weakened his heart. He died of a heart attack at the age of 33 on November 27, 1960, roughly a month before Lombardi's squad played the Philadelphia Eagles for the NFL Championship.

"We were all deeply shocked," Lombardi told reporters shortly after Vainisi passed away. "I have lost a close personal friend. I had known [Jack] for several years before I came here. It will be hard to do without him."

The Packers honored Vainisi in 1982 when he was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame. Now, one of the greatest scouts in the history of the NFL has a chance to be immortalized in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, an honor he richly deserves.