Football Books

THIS BOOK IS ABOUT THE MSU NCAA CHAMPS OF BASKETBALL IN 1979. LED MY MAGIC, JAY VINCENT, GREG KELSER AND COACH JUD HEATHCOTE THIS TEAM DOMINATED INDIANA STATE TO WIN THE FINAL GAME. THE AUTHORS INTERVIEW ALL THE PLAYERS AND COACHES AND WE GET THEIR INSIGHT INTO THAT SEASON ALONG WITH WHAT THEY ARE DOING TODAY. I AM AN OHIO STATE FAN BUT I REALLY FOUND THIS TO BE VERY WELL WRITTEN AND INTERESTING. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS FOR ALL SPARTAN AND COLLEGE HOOP FANS.

Being a die-hard Michigan fan, it's hard for me to admit that I enjoyed anything with the word "Spartans" associated with it. Based on a strong recommendation from a friend of mine, I decided to give this book a chance. I am very glad that I did. It offers a collection of wonderful stories masterfully written by two men who followed this team's every move through the 1978-1979 basketball season. Stabley and Staudt are then able to track nearly every member of the team down 25 years later for their own recollections of what was truly a "Magical" season. A must-read not only for every Spartan fan, but for anyone who appreciates the triumphant nature of the human spirit. I can't wait for the sequel: the story of Rumeal Robinson and the 1989 Michigan Wolverines!

A must for all true Spartan fans as well as basketball fans. The book comes out 25 years after the Spartans' 1979 NCAA championship season and is comprised of many short stories dealing with the players, coaches, media and fans from that season. The stories include the battles the coaches went through to recruit the MSU players including Earvin "Magic" Johnson. It's interesting to see where all 13 players are these days and what they've done in the last 25 years. The battle between Michigan State and Indiana State changed college basketball forever and the book touches the memory banks of those who played in the game. It's a fun read and enjoyable for fans of all ages.

This is an awesome book -- informative, clear, and easy to read. Not only does the book contain great diagrams and illustrations, it will also fit easily into your purse -- perfect for a game. It's a must have for anyone who wants to know more about football.

I bought this book for my wife because she like to watch football but didn't understand any of the game as it turned out I read some of the book too and I am learning a lot about football.
This book was well written and has a lot of ilustrations too to compliment some of the explanations.

This is the essential football book for anyone who wants to learn the basics of the game, yet doesn't have the time to sit down and read a telephone book.

You've read, digested and implemented Jim Thompson's Positive Coaching materials. Now take a Graduate Course.

Bruce Brown's book is filled with wonderful ideas on how to create a sports culture where individuals and teams maximize the personal growth that is possible through athletics.

Personal favorites include sections on the qualities of "Great Athletes" - successfully introduced to players as young as 11 (and, more importantly their parents) - about the choices that athleted make. Similarly "Great Teams" explores the qualities found in the most successful teams. "Positive Conditioning" is an eye-opener (imaging what happens when the winning team in a game at practice does 20 extra push-ups) as well as great team-building exercises such as "Spotlighting". The section on how parents can be helpful participants in the process is also worthwhile.

Run, don't walk (can you do that on-line?) to get this book.

Easily worth the money, this book is amazing. It poses great questions to coaches about why they coach and what they hope to accomplish, methods to teach character traits, and a wonderful section on using conditioning positively, to name a few sections. The book is geared primarily towards junior high or high school programs, and really has some great ideas for a sports program.

This book is essential for every coach in any sport. Bruce Brown does an excellent job of hitting on the issues of what coaches need to think about, but so often get missed in the whole scheme of things. Coaching is so much more than just knowing the particular x's and o's, and reading this book helps the present or future coach realize that. I would recommend Teaching Character Through Sport to any coach of any sport!!

This is a great book that depicts the entire 2006 New Orleans Saints football season. The pictures are wonderful and the story was written very well. I bought it as a birthday present for my husband and he LOVED it.

Excellent book. Great item to remember the Saints amazing 2006 season for years and years to come. I look forward to next year's book about the Saints Super Bowl Championship.

This book was awesome!!!! I have been a Saints fan for many years, through the good and the bad. The 2006 season was awesome. This book is a great recap of a wonderful season for the New Orleans Saints. It has a week by week analysis of each game of the 2006 season. This is a great gift for a New Orleans Saints fan.

Geaux Saints!!!!!

This is great book for a young man or hardcore fan. Easy to read because there are so many short passages in the form of letters or wisdom from the players who left Ohio State University many years before. Their memories with the passing of time - Timeless!

If you are on the go and can only read short passages, plenty of places to bookmark and pick up again later!!!

This was a great gift for my brother. I read it over and there was a lot of history of OSU football in there.

Great Read, Great Book for any Ohio State Fan. Great gift. Strongly Rec. Go Bucks!

I would be interested in more books like this on other teams!

Best football book I have ever read!

Tough Enough To Be Vikings is a comprehensive book that cronicles the history of the Minesota Football Vikings. I refer to it all season long to enhance the current season by tying it to the past. I am buying it as Christmas gifts for all my football fan family and friends. Great coffee table book!

As any fan of the USC Trojans knows, the football program has a very long and storied history. No college football fan would deny that USC has a place among college football royalty, alongside the likes of Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Alabama, Miami, Michigan, Ohio State, Nebraska and Texas. Of course, getting to that level involved winning games - lots of them - and important ones at that. But of USC's hundreds of victories, which were the most important in contributing to USC's status as a former and current powerhouse?

In this book, Barry LeBrock examines ten of the most momentous victories in USC football history. From the early days in the 1920's when Howard Jones' Thundering Herd took on Knute Rockne's Notre Dame teams and forged a tremendous rivalry that has produced some of the greatest players and plays in all of college football history, to the modern day, when Pete Carroll forged his reputation as the most gifted USC coach since John McKay - the top 10 greatest victories in USC history are included. Of course, there might be some controversy involving the ten games included, but I think almost all USC fans would agree that the ten that are listed in the book are indeed milestones in Trojan history. For instance, USC's 2001 victory over UCLA (a 27-0 shutout) is a curious inclusion, given that USC's 2001 season was a mediocre campaign, with only 6 wins against 6 losses, but it was this game that really set the bar in Los Angeles that USC was back, and UCLA was no longer the big dog in town.

Each of the ten chapters involves a description of the game itself, but with ample background information so the reader can understand what was going on in the world of college football at that point in time, and what the stakes involved in the game were. The descriptions of the players and coaches and atmosphere of the game are truly engrossing. This is a wonderful, enjoyable read for any Trojan fan (or for those who just want to know what USC football is all about) and I would highly recommend it.

I have been following USC football for about twenty years and I thought I knew most of the stories about the Trojans. But this book was full of stories that I had never heard before. He quotes everybody -- from guys who played in the 1920's to OJ to Garrett, from Marcus to McKay, and Leinart and Carroll.
Definietly worth reading if you are a Trojan backer. Excellent.

While Barry LeBrock's "The Trojan Ten," as the title suggests, focuses on what he considers to be the ten most significant victories in the long and celebrated history of USC football, the book is actually an historical compendium of a program that stands at the top of the gridiron pedestal alongside Notre Dame, USC's oldest and most competitive rival.

Currently the Trojans and Irish have each secured 11 national championships. They are also even in the Heisman Trophy department with each school boasting 7 winners.

LeBrock explains how graduate manager Gwynn Wilson of USC, realizing that legendary playing Notre Dame under famed coach Knute Rockne could be the springboard toward a Trojan surge into the top ranks of collegiate gridiron teams, was able, with the assistance of his wife doing a good sales job on Mrs. Rockne, to get the famous Notre Dame to okay the series.

LeBrock also reveals how, when USC fired football coach Gloomy Gus Henderson, Rockne lent the Trojans a helping hand in recommending that they consider hiring Iowa's coach Howard Jones. It was a 16-14 come from behind victory by USC over Notre Dame at South Bend in 1931 with Jones as coach that prompted the school from the West to catapult into the same elite circle with ND. This, understandably, was LeBrock's first choice as he chronologically presented his choices of the ten most significant victories in the school's history.

Two other victories over Notre Dame also fell into the elite ten category, the others being 1964 with a 20-17 upset over the number one ranked Irish and the benumbing 55-24 victory over the Irish after the men of Troy overcame a 24-0 deficit and appeared ready to sustain a humiliating defeat.

While the title scheme and a certain amount of emphasis on LeBrock's part extend to the ten victories selected, the book has much more. He leads into those classic games by giving shape and perspective to the Trojan program during the periods in question before and after the classic victories then reveals the aftermath of the impact on the school's overall program.

For instance, in analyzing the great 1931 triumph solid emphasis is given to the winning mentality developed by Howard Jones in establishing a juggernaut that provided national titles in 1928, 1931, 1932 and 1939.

We then see a passing of the dynastic baton almost one generation after Jones's death from a heart attack following his final season in 1940 to the advent of witty and jovial John McKay, the architect of the 1964 and 1974 storybook wins over the Fighting Irish and the molder of four USC national champions in 1962, 1967, 1972 and 1974.

Another game put in LeBrock's top ten was one of the most memorable of McKay's career, when USC battled crosstown rival UCLA for the 1967 national championship. The Bruins featured the quarterback who would win the Heisman Trophy that season in Gary Beban. The game's deciding touchdown in USC's exciting 21-20 win was scored on a 64-yard romp by O.J. Simpson, the Heisman winner to be in 1968.

Once that the McKay years are completed LeBrock segues to the era of Pete Carroll, the next and current USC dynasty coach. His first top ten selection concerning Carroll was a 27-0 shutout of UCLA in 2001 in what he sees as a milestone game in which the Trojans made significant inroads into the future and the recruiting war with the Bruins.

One of my favorite elements of this book is the way that the author explores the USC winning tradition based on the productive careers of three coaches, providing an important insight into winning psychology. Given that there are a lot more people to interview concerning the McKay and Carroll dynasties, this psychological element involving a dynastic football program can be explored at greater detail than in the case of Jones, the great coach who built an impressive Trojan foundation in the twenties and thirties.

Current USC athletic director plays a major role in the development of this book. In addition to writing the foreword, he was recruited by McKay and became USC's first Heisman winner in 1965. As athletic director he was responsible for hiring Carroll over the vociferous objections of many L.A. sports media figures and prominent school alumni, who were proven wrong by Carroll's enormous success.

I'm a multi sport athlete who trains all year round regardless of what sport I play. I bought a few of these Ultimate Guide to Weight Training books, and they definitely helped me train specifically for the different sports that I play. Then about a year later I received an email from amazon that there was a new edition out. These upgraded editions are even better than the originals, with more articles and a lot more sport-specific information. I would definitely recommend this series to anyone who plays a lot of sports or wants to specifically focus on training for one sport in particular.

I work for a high school and got books for all our coaches for fitness training. Our football team already had a training schedule, but we picked up a few tips from this book anyways. Every little bit helps when you are trying to prepare for battle on the field. This book did the job.

This book is EXCELLENT if you are looking for a tailored football-specific weight training program. Very simple, very helpful, VERY informative. Hey, if it worked for the LSU team (NCAA champs this year) then it's good enough for the kids on my high school football team!

Having attended the game, I thought the photographer did a great job of capturing the feeling of the event. My favorite aspect of the book is that his photographs include the subtleties you might not notice while you're at the game.

An outstanding PHOTOGRAPHIC journey across decades of THE GAME - Yale/Harvard. Proves the old addage that "a picture is worth a thousand words" and captures the full experience of America's oldest football rivalry. Not just the tremendous "action" shots of the players, but the entire event. You can almost smell the aromas from the legendary tailgate parties, and the photos of the fans, cheerleaders, and coaching staffs speak to you in a way that words cannot. Not just for Yale/Harvard grads, this is an enjoyable "read" for anyone who has fond memories of attending college football games.

A View of the Game is a pleasure to "read". The photographs detail all the stages of this annual rivalry from tail gating to end of game celebrations. The action game photographs give the feel that you are in the middle of this much anticipated game. Colorful photographs with emphasis on the fans, players and game action. A must see for any Yale and Harvard fan, or anyone who just enjoys good photography.

As a die hard Longhorn I found the stories to be fascinating and often very funny; from Earl Campbell talking about Darrell Royal coming to visit his mom to Doug English talking about his only touchdown in college [which came off a punt blocked ironically by Earl Campell], I thought it was good reading and recommend it to any Longhorn fan who wants to hear a little of the inside 'scoop' on Longhorn football life.

Sit back and prepare to see how over the years, The University of Texas has impacted lives. While the crux of this is supposed to be just about football players, you quickly realize that this book transcends football and really touches how U.T. Austin impacts lives.

I highly recommend for anyone that has every had any connection to U.T. Austin or for any High School student that wants to understand what U.T. is all about.

Hook 'em

VERY AWESOME READ!! SIMPLY CAN'T PUT IT DOWN. THE PERFECT ADDITION TO ANY LONGHORN COLLECTION. BILL LITTLE DID AN OUTSTANDING JOB ON THIS BOOK. IT'S LIKE A LONGHORN TIMELINE FOR PLAYERS. AN INSTANT CLASSIC!!