If the candidates for the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay's vacant men's basketball coaching job think this interview process has been tough, they should have gone through what Dave Buss faced when he became the school's first coach in the late 1960s.

To get the job, Buss had to impress none other than Vince Lombardi. Like the other finalist, then Appleton Xavier coach Gene "Torchy" Clark, Buss had to win approval from arguably the most famous -- and intimidating -- man in the National Football League at the time.

Lombardi, who at the time was the Packers' general manager, was recruited by UWGB's first chancellor, Edward Weidner.

One of Weidner's first moves was to appoint Lombardi as special athletics advisor to the chancellor.

"Vince and I became pretty close friends, and he agreed to interview the (men's basketball coaching) finalists," said Weidner, who was UWGB's chancellor until 1986. "That made quite an impression on Dave Buss.

"Most people don't know this about Vince, but he was very oriented toward universities.

"He loved the schools he came from. He always thought it was wonderful that we were establishing a university in Green Bay and was perfectly willing to help."

Buss, a Marshfield native who was an assistant coach at West Virginia Tech at the time, had never met Lombardi before he interviewed in his office at Packers headquarters.

"I felt like I really knew him, because I had been watching him on TV for so many years," Buss recalled.

"His face was always out there. You knew his voice. When I met him, he was exactly like he was on TV.

"He had that big smile with the gap between his front teeth."

Buss remembered the interview, on Dec. 27, 1968, vividly. It was the same day the astronaut crew of Apollo 8 returned from its trip to the moon.

"Vince was in a really good mood that day because the astronauts had just come back," Buss said. "He was very proud. He had such nationalistic pride."

Ten days after his interview with Lombardi, Buss got the job.

"He was quite frank in his recommendation, and I don't mind saying he strongly recommended coach Buss," Weidner said. "He thought Buss would understand the university and would fit in well."

Eleven months later, UWGB began competing in basketball. Buss coached from 1969 to 1982 and helped the Phoenix move to Division I. He remains the winningest of the school's four head coaches with a 271-94 record.

"The way Dave told the story to me, Lombardi was his final interview," said Chuck Aslakson, Buss' longtime assistant coach at UWGB. "I would guess that after it was over, he probably talked to Ed Weidner and they made their decision.

"My impression of Dave is that because of his personality, he would have thrived in that kind of (interview). When I look back on it, Dave was a pretty darn good basketball coach. He had a personality that was both hard and soft, but there were some lines that weren't to be crossed. The guys who played for him both respected him and feared him."

Much the same was often said of Lombardi, whose relationship with UWGB ended in 1969 when he left Green Bay to coach the Washington Redskins.

"I never got to really know him well because he left for Washington," Buss said.

"He went out there, and everything just kind of unraveled for him. He got sick and died (in 1970)."

However, Lombardi did more for UWGB than just help hire its first basketball coach. He helped shape the early days of the athletics department.

"Vince was adamant that the university should not have football," Buss said. "He felt it would be too much of a money drain for us, and it would hurt all of the other sports. He was right. He was giving us some good financial advice."

Had Lombardi remained in Green Bay and stayed healthy, it's likely his connection with the school would have continued.

"I talked to him about lecturing about his philosophy on life," Weidner said. "He and I had many other discussions about relationships between the Packers and the university, but before any of those could be implemented he was off to Washington."

No matter who gets the job this time around -- whether it's Marquette assistant Tod Kowalczyk, Hampton coach Steve Merfeld, Incarnate Word coach Al Grushkin or Michigan State assistant Mike Garland -- the process won't be at all like it was the first time around.