Definitely the final word on this game.
Much ado about a football game.
College Football News recently ranked the Texas-Arkansas game of December 6, 1969, as the fourth greatest college football game ever. Sportswriter Frei gives us an exhaustive reckoning of both football teams’ ’69 season and of the game itself, with, sometimes, little lucidity (“The fact that Peschel was held up on the half count because of contact with the ‘monster’ outside him didn’t seem to register or trigger significant adjustments”). Frei is enamored of football terminology, and while fans will find the plethora of names familiar, some will be more so than others, like James Street, the Longhorn quarterback, or the Razorback quarterback and split end duo of Bill Montgomery and Chuck Dicus. Frei has background stories for nearly all the athletes, often about injuries and illnesses or colorful off-field behavior. Freddie Steinmark takes the prize for most inspiring story (small for college football, he drove himself to be a star safety; his later bout with cancer, which he finally lost, drew national attention). Frei tries to make the game an emblem of social changes of the ’60s. Nixon was at the game, and so was Congressman George Bush. Black students at Arkansas had been protesting the playing of “Dixie” as a school spirit song, and 200 antiwar demonstrators, on a hill behind the Razorback stadium, protested Nixon. Things fizzled when “Dixie” wasn’t played and the demonstrators’ banners weren’t shown on TV, though the game did signal the welcome end of an era: it was the last time the national championship team was all white. The game itself was a test of Texas’ “wishbone” offense. The excitement fans remember includes Razorback Rees’s catch on the Texas 2 yard line, setting up a Razorback touchdown only 87 seconds into play; and an unexpected pass, “Right 53 Veer,” which Longhorn coach Darrell Royal ordered and Street and receiver Randy Peschel flawlessly implemented.
Definitely the final word on this game.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-7432-2447-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2002
A behind-the-plate memoir by a catcher from the Negro Leagues’ glory years. Perhaps Robinson (who died in 1997) was nicknamed “Slow” for lumbering around the bases, but his memories and observations are quick and lively, capturing a homey slice of African-American history. Co-author Bauer, a baseball book antiquarian, allows the Oklahoma native to speak with local color. Back in 1940, when Robinson made $325 a month with the Kansas City Monarchs, he recalls a trash-talking opposing batter in friendly terms: “He—d jive to you and we—d jive at him. You might be mad that he got you [homered off your pitcher], but you couldn—t be mad at him.” This laid-back spirit suffuses the book’s best portions. In a haphazard baseball world where team rosters were a matter of which stars were barnstorming where, some impromptu games pitted a Negro League team against a colorful white bunch of Gospel fundamentalists like the Israelite House of David, whose players sported waist-long hair and shaggy beards. When games with the New York Cubans brought him to New York, Robinson visited the Apollo Theater or hung with Red Foxx and Count Basie, but off-field life’s most memorable episodes involved cruising country roads with Satchel Paige, who could barely drive his Chrysler and once wouldn—t pitch because he had 52 traffic violations and —was afraid he—d be arrested on the mound.— Robinson also caught for other greats, like Leon Day and John Markham. Jackie Robinson’s breakthrough changed all their lives for the better but meant the end of the Negro Leagues. The fan gets a rare glimpse at some Negro League players, like Larry Doby, before they crossed over, and at many stars who would have had Hall of Fame careers if they—d had the chance. Authentic Americana, with enough balls, strikes, players, and pennant chases to keep the hardcore fans happy. (30 b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8156-0563-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Syracuse Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
An involving and thorough look at pro golf’s crown jewel and the driven individual who created it. Clifford Roberts, the martinet co-founder and chairman of Augusta National Golf Club, pursued his vision of excellence with a single-mindedness that would have impressed Captain Ahab. As Owen (My Usual Game, 1995) tells it, however, there was a more human side to the Masters” steely cynosure. Tracing Roberts’s childhood during the financially unsteady 1890s and his coming-of-age in the Roaring ’20s, Owen reveals the emotional underpinnings of a man best known as a control freak. The son of an impractical father and a chronically ill mother, Roberts learned early how to do things for himself. In New York during the heady 1920s, he quickly insinuated himself into a fast crowd on Wall Street, where his passion for golf cemented many important business and personal relationships. One crucial bond was with the immortal Georgia-bred golfer Robert Jones, to whom Owen credits the idea for the course; the rest, he contends, was Roberts’s doing. In 1931, Jones and Roberts acquired property near Augusta, Ga., with the latter securing financing and arranging construction. At first, owing to the Depression, Augusta National foundered. Before long, however, the club established itself, mostly as a result of the Masters’ growing prominence. The tournament is unique among tour majors in being run by a private club rather than a national body, which enabled Roberts and his successors to impose their high standards on every element, from the contestants’ attire to the amount and type of broadcast advertising. While severe, this regimentation has created an event beloved by all. This sort of warmth arising from a cold adherence to discipline, Owen suggests, was the very core of Roberts’s personality. Yes, he craved control, but he also was warm, generous, and loyal; former employees interviewed fondly recall Roberts’s fairness and genuine concern for their welfare. A most enjoyable, and surprisingly moving portrait of a man and the institution he crafted in his own image. (32 pages color photos, not seen) (Author to ur)
Pub Date: April 5, 1999
ISBN: 0-684-85729-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999
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