Football Books

Before I begin, I must express a bias - I have supported West Ham United football club for all of my life. This is not surprising because I live in east London, where West Ham United Football club is located. It is difficult to explain to an American reader what it means to support an English football club - as Korr explains, it is inconceivable that an English football team could be reocated from one side of the country to another (as happened to the Brooklyn Dodgers) and still attract any support. It is a triumph of Korr's book that he can appreciate the similarities between the principal working class sports in the two counties and at the same time highlight the very real differences. Read this book and you will gain an insight into an important component of Enfglish culture.

Like my co-reviewer, I have to admit to the same bias - I am a lifelong (35 years) supporter, although having lived in the United States for the last few years, opportunities to watch them play have been limited. I must say that when the book was first published I derived a certain amount of vicarious pride from the fact that an academic historian (and an American to boot) chose my club as a subject to research and write about. I have read and re-read the book, and lent it many times to expat supporters, and American soccer enthusiasts eager for further insight into the English game's history and traditions. I agree with the parallel with baseball (a game for which I've developed a nearly equal passion) - and would commend it to anyone with a serious interest in sport in its widest societal context. It is a history book first and foremost, and the author makes no bones about it, with a considerable amount of detail and behind the scenes discussion - not a romantic portrayal of the club's (frankly, limited) on the field triumphs, although these are of course duly documented. By the end of the book you can't help feeling that the author has developed a genuine affection for the club, and so will you.

"What Giants They Were" is a fond look back at the New York Giants. Those folks most likely to enjoy WGTW will remember when one specified "football Giants" when referring to that franchise! The tale recalls a very special time for this reviewer: He can well remember taking a short subway trip to Yankee Stadium and purchasing a bleacher ticket-the day of the game. Price: $2.00. He could buy a game program, a coke and 2 hot dogs and still have change from a Lincoln! For the 1963 season, this reviewer bought a season ticket in the bleachers. Price: $28.00! The actual games, it should be mentioned, were played on real GRASS! By November, the green grass was gone, changed to beautiful brown dirt! The Giants owned New York in the Fall. People paid attention to basketball and hockey-but not until Winter. The Manhattan-centric Giants WERE New York sports. The players became small gods, helped by the fact that rosters were stable in those pre-free agent days. The defense, anchored by #70, the great Sam Huff was virtually unchanged from 1956-1963. The team appeared in 6 NFL Championship Games in that span. That they lost the final 5 of those contests did not cost them a single fan. Those Giants were the pinnacle of franchises in a time that can never be recaptured. The memories of the old Giants are enhanced by the brutal fact that living in NYC was, to put it mildly, vastly simpler then. Author Whittingham has dutifully interviewed 20+ former players and coaches. "Someone" on high was cooperating with the author! The very names tell the story: Huff, Gifford, Rote, Webster, Conerly, Katcavage, Lynch, Mozelewski, Robustelli and Summerall. Those unable to instantly supply the relevant first names to those titans of the past will not fully enjoy WGTW. Homage in passing is paid to the Parcells/Simms era but they are blessedly outside the scope of Whittingham's tale. Those guys do not belong here! In fact, the author goes farther back than forward! Space is devoted to guys like Red Bagro, Benny Friedman, Mel Hein, Tuffy Leemans and Ken Strong! In addition to his strong research, the author has provided some of the sharpest and most personalizing photos this fan has experienced in any sports book. Many readers take typesetting for granted, or suffer silently with it, but in WGTW the work is excellent! The production values are very high indeed. Other attractions are sections on some of the men's college days and the trials they endured as rookies. Sam Huff was on his way back to West Virginia when assistant coach Vince Lombardi collared him at the airport! There is also a section on "life after football". Most of WGTW is positive. The only dirt spilled is Sam Huff's latter day rant about his trade to the Redskins after the '63 season. That was his due; his trade was the dumbest move in the life of the franchise. Sam was the heart of the team; the Giants took nearly 20 years to recover from his untimely departure. If there is a weakness to WGTW, it lies in what is NOT revealed. Some unaddressed issues might include: 1) How did the team let assistants Vince Lombradi and Tom Landry get away in favor of a guy named Allie Sherman? 2) What about the intra-Mara family squabbling? It had to be serious but never made the press. 3) What was behind Kyle Rote's sudden retirement after the '61 season? 4) Why didn't a Mara stop the Huff trade? And on a lighter note: 5) Why on earth did Allie Sherman allow backup quarterback Glynn Griffing to skip practice the entire week before the '63 championship game against the Bears? Couldn't his wedding in Mississippi have been postponed a week or two? And what ever happened to the heir apparent QB after his woefully brief performance in that game? This is first class sports reporting! We may term it pure nostalgia, but to so is to bestow a compliment. Looking backward is the crux of WGTW. This review won't deduct a star for the limited scope. The strengths vastly outweigh the "weaknesses" of a limited audience and the aforementioned unaddressed issues. We should treat WGTW like an old Hank Williams CD. Don't fret that they don't make them like they used to. Let's enjoy pleasant memories as they are handed to us.

THIS BOOK IS A COLLECTION OF INTERVIEWS AND SHORT STORIES ABOUT SOME OF THE LEGENDARY GIANTS OF THE EARLY ERA AND MOSTLY OF THE GOLDEN ERA OF THE LATE 50'S AND EARLY 60'S. IT IS A FASCINATING COLLECTION ALONG WITH SOME GREAT PICTURES. I REALLY LOVED THIS BOOK, EVEN THOUGH I AM A BROWNS FAN. A BOOK THAT SHOULD BE A MUST READ FOR GIANT AND THE NOSTALGIC FOOTBALL FAN.
VERY RECOMMENDED.

This is a fantastic book about Huskies football history. I am a big husky fan and I learned a ton about former players from Greg's book. It gave a lot of really neat insight into their opinions of the program and their personal experiences. This is a MUST READ for any Washington Huskies fan! Thanks for writing a great book, Greg !!!

If you are a bonafide Husky football fan, you must read this book. Tells the players inner thoughts and what motivated them. His players are unanimous in describing Coach Don James as a man of integrity, loyalty and are proud to be part of his legacy.
K. Wong, M.D.

For anyone who wants to understand the passing game. This book is easy to read, has lots of diagrams, and is user friendly. If you want the tools needed to implement a winning passing game this book is for you! I purchased this book for my private collection. This is one of the best books, on the passing game, that I have read so far.

Coach Rice has produced a masterpiece which has withstood the test of time. Although written in the 1980's, "Winning Football With the Air Option Passing Game" remains an important treatise on using formations and motion to isolate a given defender against two receivers. Quarterback reads then become as easy as finding one receiver, then checking down to the other if the first is covered.

This makes Rice's book invaluable to those coaches who are looking to insert some passing into a ground-based attack, rather than spreading out five receivers and throwing on every down.

Of course, Coach Rice does such a masterly job of explaining and diagramming his pass route combinations that even pass-happy offensive coordinators will find useful insights here.

Highly recommended.

"Winning Single Wing Football" is a complete revision of the late Dr. Kenneth Keuffel's classic 1964 "Simplified Single Wing Football" (or SSWF, which I will contrast with the newer WSWF). Written an astonishing FORTY YEARS later, WSWF starts with the core of the unbalanced-line single wing offense that SSWF first presented, then adds much more. The irony to me is that WSWF is actually far more "simplified" than SSWF. It is as though with 40 additional years of experience to draw on, Dr. Keuffel pared away all but the absolutely essential information.

After a brief introductory chapter that outlines his playing, coaching and teaching careers, Dr. K walks the prospective single wing coach through all the steps he must take to get an offense up and running. He does so in a way that reflects credit on his Ph.D. in English Lit from Penn -- simply and logically.

I know of no other coach able to impart the basics of setting up a single wing attack in only 10 pages, but Dr. Keuffel manages this in the second chapter of WSWF. He follows with an elegantly simple description of how to teach linemen to be single wing centers.

(In the process, Dr. K highlights the necessity for training several centers, but without scaring coaches away. This is a skill that can be taught with sufficient application and attention to detail -- it isn't rocket science.) All other positions receive the same treatment in chapter three.

Next Dr. Keuffel gets to the heart of the single wing offense, the straight series running plays. Coaches who have seen SSWF will notice the first of Dr. K's major simplifications here with the very first play -- Play 48, the straight-series off-tackle play. Where before Dr. Keuffel ran two different variations of this play, one with linemen pulling and leading, and a separate goal-line variation with solid blocking and the blocking back kicking out the EMLOS defender, he now only uses the goal-line version.

Time after time in WSWF, Dr. Keuffel extols the benefits of "getting two for one" -- i.e., teaching one thing that you can use in two or more situations. He leaves the door open, however, for others to do things differently. Readers are free to go back to the original pulling scheme for Play 48, or even to adapt the popular modern method of pulling the backside guard and tight end, the water boy, and the larger members of the cheer squad through the off-tackle hole.

Chapter 5 lays out the fun stuff, the indirect attack. Dr. Keuffel details the methods behind the FB full and half spin sequences, as well as a complementary TB half-spin cycle. He also strongly urges selectivity in choosing cycles -- more is most definitely not better when choosing which indirect cycles to run, especially given limited practice time. Again, the astonishing thing to me is that Dr. Keuffel is able to impart an entire lecture on indirect-series single wing football in only ten pages.

Next, the section dearest to my wild-eyed heart -- the passing game. Chapter 6 covers the basics of passer development, setting up dropback protection, variations on dropback route packages, teaching the running pass, and then explores the arcana of reverse passes, special passes (a jump pass, a shovel pass, etc.), and fake passes, including the legendary Statue of Liberty play.

Again, Dr. Keuffel's interest in simplification leaps off the page with his new versions of the optional running pass (Plays 79 and 99). Where before he released three receivers strongside (WB, TE, and BB), he now adds a strongside blocker and releases either the wing and blocking back (Play 79) or the wing and TE (Play 99). He makes explicit mention of his decision to do so and the reasons which drove his decision, which leaves the way open for coaches to do it the old way -- or even adopt a more modern method.

The Andrew Coverdale/Dan Robinson book The Bunch Attack: Using Compressed Formations in the Passing Game (Art & Science of Coaching), for example, features a Flood route package which is perfect for adaptation to Dr. Keuffel's Play 79/99. Using such modular methods (including 30-degree, "severe-angle" blocking) allows coaches to continue to modernize and personalize their single wing attack. (Note: The thoughts on Bunch passing and SAB are mine, but I believe they fit perfectly with the methods Dr. Keuffel used to teach his offense.)

Chapter 7 presents the quick-kicking game, which can be a tactical weapon of great value whether your opponent expects it or not, and which can allow a team to out-think a more talented opponent by forcing him to drive the length of the field if he wants to score. There is a wide array of fake quick-kick plays -- runs, passes, even a screen and a Statue -- and something of even greater potential value, a way to further simplify your entire kicking game.

Dr. Keuffel advocates using quick kick protection for punts, field goals and extra points, unbalanced line and all. This could be a real time-saver during pre-season installation, and as with all unusual variations, might cause your opponents to waste valuable practice time preparing for them.

To me, the most important section of the book starts with Chapter 8 and runs through Chapter 10. Here is where Dr. Keuffel's decades of experience truly shine through -- he discusses the smallest details of pre-game strategy and mid-game tactical adjustments. He tells coaches exactly how to use the spotter in the booth, how to break down film, and how to create and use a game plan. It is among the finest discussions of coaching strategy and tactical application during the game that I have ever seen.

I would advocate purchasing this book to offensive coaches of all stripes for these three chapters alone. The effective use of variations -- in formation, cadence, alignment, personnel; pre-season preparations; and focusing on and exploiting defensive weaknesses, are all addressed with Dr. Keuffel's typical economy of expression. This book is pure gold, whether you run single wing, Power-I or five-wide shotgun spread, because he teaches coaches how to THINK.

Buy this book -- you'll thank me later.

DR. K has done it again with his second book on the single wing. All I can say is that this book is all you need to run a complete offense at any level.

I bought this item for my son, a football coach, and he stated that it was the best presentation that he had ever heard. Although I had heard this previously from the person who had recommended it. Haven't listened myself, but will to assure that both are correct.

LOU HOLTZ IS THE GREATEST MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER OF ALL TIME. IT'S NO WONDER HE WAS SUCH A GREAT COACH.

Betsy has written a great book. Its a fun read and saves women from having to repeatedly ask dumb questions. Betsy, nice job. By the way, I heard you got married. I hope all is well.

Love ya,

Dan

Betsy Berns has done a great service here; allowing women to better understand the great game of football. I happen to know Betsy and I can vouch that she is both knowledgable of the game and a witty author. Keep it up, Berns.

As a football-mad kid growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1950s, Frankie Albert, Norm Standlee and Bruno Banducci were heroes on the earliest 49ers teams. Unknown to this kid was the fact they had been teammates before, on the Stanford team that won the Rose Bowl in 1940. Their story, and the part they played with their new coach, the innovative Clark Shaughnessy, in introducing (more properly re-introducing) the T-formation offense to college football is artfully told by James W. Johnson in "The Wow Boys." It's a sparkling gem of a book that will please football fans of all ages, from those who remember to single-wing offense that the T replaced, to others simply interested in the history of the game, as well as some of its formative personalities like George Halas, Pop Warner, Buck Shaw. The author, who was raised in the Bay Area as a fan of the 49ers and who worked as a reporter for the Oakland Tribune and other newspapers before teaching journalism for many years, did plenty of research to produce lively accounts of each game in Stanford's undefeated season, as well as chapters on college football recruiting, campus life, and the "Big Game Fever" surrounding the annual season-ending game with the University of California. The authoritative and wholly entertaining book is among the best written on football at any level.

'The Wow Boys' tells the story of the 1940 Stanford Indians (Stanford's mascot was the 'Indian' until 1972) football team. Coach Clark Shaughnessy arrived at Stanford in 1940 and installed the "T" formation. The result was to change football forever. Most teams ran a single wing offense at the time - the "T" was considered an outdated formation that had died in the 1890's, but Shaughnessy's T included innovations such as the 'man in motion' and deception plays such as the counter.

The 'The Wow Boys isn't about coaching football - missing are play diagrams and technical information about the "T" as it differed from the standard single wing offense of the time. Instead it tells the story of the team through game by game accounts of what it was like to be playing football in 1940 as a member of the Stanford Indians. Detailed are the exploits of quarterback Frankie Albert, running backs Hugh Gallarneau and Pete Kmetovic, and fullback Norm Standlee.

Did you know that in 1940 it was against the rules for a player who'd been substituted to speak in the huddle until after he'd been in for a play? Or that once he was substituted, he couldn't be taken out until the start of the next quarter? Ever heard of card stunts? What about the cheers the crowd did? How did college football's status compare among other major sports of the time? The book touches on each of these, giving the reader an excellent view of what college football was like in 1940.

Nebraska played their first bowl game, the 1941 Rose Bowl, against the Stanford Indians. The book does a great job of capturing the Rose Bowl fervor that swept Nebraska, the reason as to why it was Nebraska's first bowl game, and the action of the game itself.

If you're someone who enjoys watching the History Channel or you'd like to know more about the history of football, you'll love 'The Wow Boys'. It is an easy read and truly transports you back to 1940, leaving you with a a deeper respect of the game.

I very much enjoyed reading the book. Wallace weaves a very sensitive potrayal of the players from Yale and Princeton during and after the game. The book has a rather large font. I liked the appendix containing newspaper clippings and excerpts from alumni bulletins.

Bill Wallace's book, Yale's ironmen, is a treasure of knowledge. Not just the knowledge of the Yale-Princeton football game of 1934 but the human history of the men who played in the game, their coaches, their families and how the development of television and professional football affected the attitudes of consumers for football and other sports activities.

Bill has given readers a unique gift of historical perspective on the game and how commercialism has distorted the sport. Though it's focussed on football and the details of the game, it will appeal to the general reader. It is also a reminder that the vicissitudes of life can be most difficult when the bright spotlight of fame has turned away.

It is writing at its best, easy to read, unvarnished truth and facts, heartfelt without spin on the life of the game and its participants, a very poignant tale of the joys and woes of reality by an author who knows, and luckily is sharing his knowledge with the general reader.

This was a very interesting and quick read. Didn't talk much about the games but chronicled the crazy world of H.S. recruiting and chronicled what a season is like for one of the premier high school program.

I purchased this as a birthday gift for a friend, and he loved it too. It is a "must-have" for any college or high school football fan, but even moreso for the Arkansas football fan. Go Mustain!