The letter is simply addressed to Coach G.

From an Arlington, Va., woman, Diane Clemons, it was accompanied by a small Mass card given out at a Catholic funeral and together they told a wonderful tale.

Clemons wrote how, in 1970 when she was just 16, she was in “a bad car accident” that cost her three fingers on her left hand: “I was feeling beat up and depressed.”

She said her friends tried to keep her active and that’s how she ended up accompanying a neighbor on what was to be a brief stop at a funeral home. She followed him in and said she thought to herself, ‘Wow, there are some really big guys here.’ “

That’s when she found out she was at the wake of famed Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi. She said she knelt at the casket, said a prayer and, as she turned to leave, noticed the card, which she picked up.

She stuck it in a Bible her grandmother gave her and paid little attention to it in the years to come. Then one day she heard about Jack Giambrone, the Dayton coach and administrator who has an extensive collection of Lombardi memorabilia.

She sent the Mass card to Giambrone, saying: “I thought somebody else would appreciate this a little more than I do. I feel it’s found a home with someone who will not keep it shut in the Bible where no one can see it.”

Diane was right.

The card and letter are two of 175 pieces of Lombardi memorabilia on display in the lobby of the Loft Theater during the presentation of “Lombardi,” the acclaimed play about the legendary coach that runs here through Feb. 24.

Another item with a local connection is the transcript of Lombardi’s last speech — June 22, 1970 — that the already-ailing coach gave here in Dayton. Giambrone has found it was presented at Suttemiller’s and the night before Lombardi ate at the old Antonio’s restaurant in Centerville.

There are many other interesting items — a play diagrammed by Lombardi for a game against the New York Giants, signed checks, photos of the smiling coach with the familiar gap in his front teeth, and even his recipe for Vince Lombardi’s Broiled Deviled Ham Steak.

This is all part of a 400-piece collection gathered by Giambrone, the former Sinclair Community College athletics director who is now the assistant commissioner of the Ohio Community College Athletic Conference and a Lombardi Legend ambassador who goes around the country speaking about the iconic Hall of Fame coach.

“When I was a young coach trying to find a philosophy on how to coach my team, Coach Lombardi’s words — about hard work, discipline, not trying to be fancy, loving what you do — kept coming back to me. And the things he talked about years ago are still important today whether you are in sports, business, whatever.”

Friday, Giambrone’s collection shared the pre-show stage with Pro Football Hall of Famer Paul Hornung, who was Lombardi’s most storied player at Green Bay and had driven up with his wife, Angela, from their Louisville home to help launch the Human Race production.

And as Hornung surveyed the collection, he had stories of his own, including one about Lombardi’s days as an assistant coach for Earl “Red” Blaik, the Dayton product who was West Point’s fabled coach:

“Red told me how Lombardi’s job one year was to take the game film of each Army game to the Waldorf Astoria in New York every Sunday afternoon and go through it with General (Douglas) MacArthur, who loved Army football.

“At first Vince dreaded the assignment — he thought it took time away from football, but after two or three weeks he couldn’t wait to go. After all, MacArthur was of one the great Americans for heaven’s sake.”

Hornung smiled at the thought: “Pretty good story, huh?”

You’ll find plenty of them at the Loft the next two weeks.