|
They still call baseball America's past time, but football fans know better. The gridiron is the arena for true heroics. With diving catches by receivers, Hail Mary throws from scrambling quarterbacks, and last second game-winning kicks --- no other sport embodies the competitive spirit like football!
Both at the professional and collegiate level, we think this season looks to be promising for football. We also found some pretty exciting books coming out this fall. Fans should take a look. Actually take a look even if you are not a fan. These books might make you one.
FIELDS OF HONOR: The Golden Age of College Football and the Men Who Created It
Sally Pont
Harvest Books
ISBN: 0156027046
As daughter of former Yale coach Johnny Pont, author Sally Pont is the ideal candidate to offer readers an insider's look at college football. In FIELDS OF HONOR, Pont demonstrates that some of the greatest post-World War II university coaches can trace their lineage to a small college town in Ohio, where Sid Gillman was head coach at Miami University. Woody Hayes, Bo Shembechler, Paul Dietzel, Ara Parseghian, and Johnny Pont can all trace their roots, directly or indirectly, to Gillman.
Taking us back to the golden age of the game with penetrating analysis, Pont examines the influence of these legendary coaches on the game, and relates her personal experiences with the men and their families. The connections, the rivalries, the weaknesses, and the affections --- they're all here in this fascinating history.
MY GREATEST DAY IN FOOTBALL: The Legends of Football Recount Their Greatest Moments (Greatest Day Series)
Bob McCullough
Thomas Dunne Books
ISBN: 0312302967
269 pages
Most of us will never know what it's like to strap on a helmet and shoulder pads, and then hit somebody so hard the wind gets knocked out of you. To read some of the first person accounts in MY GREATEST DAY IN FOOTBALL, you might begin to believe that you're missing something. Here, some of pro football's top players and coaches vividly retell their most memorable moments on the field.
Sports journalist Bob McCullough interviews members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame --- like Frank Gifford, Raymond Berry, and Bob Griese --- with exciting results. Whether reminiscing about Super Bowl wins or multi-touchdown games, the players' personalities take center stage, as many of them discuss not just one game but their view of the game in general and their lives before and after football.
The book really soars when fans get a chance to hear what goes on in the heads of players during memorable plays, like when wide receiver Steve Largent recalls his famous touchdown catch made on the back of Lester Hayes: "I didn't believe it. You just stick your hands up and it sticks. It really is one of those things where, when it happens it happens in slow motion and it really does feel like a dream."
NFL'S GREATEST
Phil Barber and John Fawaz
DK Pub Merchandise
ISBN: 0789489015
160 pages
Football fans love to argue about who's the greatest player at each position and which team in the history of the game remains the most formidable. In this book, the Hall of Fame Selection Committee courageously weighs in with its opinion on the matter. Refraining from individual rankings and presenting the lists in alphabetical or chronological order, professional football's best 100 players, 25 greatest teams, and 25 greatest games are presented.
Many of the selections are hardly debatable, but not everyone will agree on everything. So, who are your picks for the 100 greatest football players of all time? Or what about the greatest teams and the greatest games? Here's your chance to see how you stack up against the esteemed committee. Packed with hundreds of action photographs, this book won't disappoint armchair experts.
RUN TO WIN: Vince Lombardi on Coaching and Leadership
Donald T. Phillips
Griffin Trade Paperback
ISBN: 0312303084
208 pages
All football fans know Vince Lombardi, who may just be the greatest football coach in the history of the gridiron. But Lombardi's exceptional success with the Green Bay Packers and Washington Redskins went beyond top-notch football strategy. The principles guiding this coach certainly have parallels in politics, business, and life in general. Few people have equaled his determination and style. What made him so successful?
Donald T. Phillips, the author of several books on leadership, attempts to pin down the traits that made Lombardi such a winner. This book isn't a biography, nor is it simply a motivational book. Rather, it uses the coach's guidelines in football and applies them to everything in life, particularly leadership in your place of employment. By the end of Lombardi's career, he could take credit for nine successive playoff victories and two Super Bowl triumphs. RUN TO WIN shows how the lessons taught by Lombardi can be incorporated into your daily routines.
THE SWEET SEASON: A Sportswriter Rediscovers Football, Family, and a Bit of Faith at Minnesota's St. John's University
Austin Murphy
Perennial Press
ISBN: 0060505842
After ten years of covering big games on the road, Sports Illustrated football reporter Austin Murphy settles down with his family and follows one of the top small college (Division III) football programs --- Minnesota's St. John's University. The result is a charming look at small-town life and familial delights, not to mention a refreshing look at football without NFL-sized egos. Murphy shows that the coaches, players, his family, and himself are fallible humans.
Football fans will be particularly interested in the portrayal of John Gagliardi, the veteran coach of St. John's, who has won more games than any active coach. Gagliardi employs an unusual coaching method that avoids full-contact scrimmages or countless hours of calisthenics. An example of a St. John's exercise: the Beautiful Day Drill, where players drop to the ground and stare upwards, commenting on the beauty.
And yet, as this book shows, they still hit hard and win every season.
THE UNDEFEATED: The Oklahoma Sooners and the Greatest Winning Streak in College Football
Jim Dent
Thomas Dunne Books
ISBN: 0312303262
288 pages
The pigskin has always been exceptionally sacred in the dustbowl of the American south. Perhaps nowhere else is this more evident than in Oklahoma (though a few Texans may object). When Burnham "Bud" Wilkinson was hired as head football coach at Oklahoma University in 1947, he began string of seasons that would dominate the consciousness of Oklahomans for the next decade.
In THE UNDEFEATED award-winning author Jim Dent offers up another compelling piece of sports history. From the third game of the 1953 season until the eighth of 1957, the Oklahoma Sooners never lost a game, racking up a 47-game winning streak that remains unbeaten today.
Dent not only recounts the amazing performances of this team in the face of mounting pressure, but also delves into the lives of the young athletes, many of them children of the Depression, having raised themselves the old-fashioned way. Like the movie HOOSIERS, this story inspires with its all-American brand of ambition, depicting farm boy players who win against the odds.
--- Reviewed by Troy Froebe
Back to top.
|
