by Frank P. Maggio ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 4, 2007
A fascinating event in the history of football, told in a humdrum style.
How the Fighting Irish used their 1913 game against favored Army to become a national football power.
Debut author Maggio begins his history by describing the origins of Notre Dame University and of football in America. The sport began as an activity more similar to soccer than to rugby, with prohibitions against using anything but the feet or head to advance the ball. As it evolved into a more violent contact game, its popularity rose—and so did the controversy surrounding it. In the early years, players did not wear padding or helmets, they could not tackle below the waist and the forward pass was not used as a means of advancing the ball. As a result, the sport became notorious for terrible, sometimes fatal injuries. From 1880 to 1905, more than 325 deaths were reported in college football, a figure that prompted the intervention of President Theodore Roosevelt, himself an admirer of the game. To curb fatalities and injuries, new rules were instituted, including the legalization of the forward pass. The use of this new offensive weapon as a winning strategy came in 1913. Coached by legend Jesse Harper and led by star Knute Rockne, Notre Dame defeated the heavily favored Army team 35-13. This victory revolutionized how football was played and elevated Notre Dame to the college football elite, proving Harper was both a brilliant innovator and a dynamic coach. Unfortunately, Maggio completes his recounting of the historic 1913 game before the text’s midpoint. The remaining pages describe the mostly successful seasons that followed under Harper, Rockne’s ascendance as coach and Harper’s eventual return after Rockne’s death. They often read like an extended box score and are anticlimactic in the extreme.
A fascinating event in the history of football, told in a humdrum style.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-78672-014-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2007
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by John Maher with Kirk Bohls ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 23, 1991
A colorful history of the Univ. of Texas Longhorns football program by Austin sportswriters Maher and Bohls, who help explain the mentality behind the unofficial team slogan, ``Be number one, or be no one.'' The Longhorns won their last national championship in 1969, crowning the glory days of coach Darrell Royal, a legendary figure who led the team to ten Cotton Bowls and never had a losing season in 20 years. Opening the 1990 season under head coach David McWilliams, following a losing 1989 campaign and scandals involving steroids, gambling, and academic snafus, there was little reason for optimism. But a convincing win against Penn State and a close loss to tough Colorado showed promise of better things. Bookend tackles Stan Thomas, 6'6'', 300 lbs., and Chuck Johnson, 6'5'', 275 lbs., brought back memories of yesteryear, when grind-it-out trench warfare was the Longhorns' strong suit. Interspersed with descriptions of the 1990 season are glances back at the Royal years and after, with profiles of athletic director DeLoss Dodds, running back Earl Campbell, ``the perma-pressed [Coach Fred] Akers era,'' and powerful ``Czar'' Frank Erwin, who was chairman of the Board of Regents in the 60's and 70's. Maher and Bohls also examine—and only occasionally soft-pedal—the issues of racism (Royal ``didn't manage to recruit a black to his football team until'' 1969), NCAA recruiting violations, and drug use and other scandals that have plagued college football in recent years. As the Longhorns progress through the 10-1, 1990 season en route to an embarrassing loss to Miami in the Cotton Bowl, there are big wins against rival Oklahoma, Arkansas, TCU, and Houston, amply detailed and analyzed by the authors, who are both fans and critics of the ``whatever it takes'' football philosophy. As much fun as a Texas barbecue, but with its serious side. (Sixteen pages of b&w photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Sept. 23, 1991
ISBN: 0-312-06305-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1991
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by Judy Oppenheimer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1991
A new convert to the game of football, Oppenheimer (Private Demons, 1988) decided to observe, record, and analyze the daily activity of her son's 1988 Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School team. Like the team's season, the results are mixed. Toby, senior offensive lineman in only his second year, didn't like the idea: ``What seventeen-year-old wants his mother hanging around a locker room?'' The BCC Barons and head coach Pete White, meanwhile, felt there was reason for optimism despite going 5-5 in 1987, their best record in years. ``Win 8 in '88 and go to state!'' was the battle cry. The talent at this ethnically diverse, affluent suburban school included a 300-lb. center, a 5'-6'' Korean linebacker, a swift Jamaican running back, and an assortment of blacks, Asians, and white kids more inclined toward soccer. It wasn't always a comfortable mix. As Oppenheimer follows their progress, she scrutinizes their attitudes toward one another and the coaches, toward winning and losing, their sex lives, and their use of drugs and alcohol. Fighting off her own anxieties—``Zen and the art of football parenting''—about her son, she rarely inserts herself in the picture but allows the boys to speak in their own, often inarticulate, tiresome way: But I'm, like, okay, so I go, and he goes.... There's a disappointing opening game; a racist coach (``black kids...were more arrogant, tougher, meaner''); a bitter, injury-rife, one-point loss to rival Einstein; the boys' cockiness following the homecoming victory; and, finally, the season-ending trouncing at the hands of ``mammoth, untouchable, abandon-all-hope'' Gaithersburg. The annual banquet, despite the 4-6 record, would toast individual achievements and look toward next year. At times self-conscious and shrill (the locker room, ``a place for the ancient rites of grabass'') and at other times perceptive, but Oppenheimer never quite puts it all together. Rather like missing the point after.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-671-68754-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1991
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