In November 1934, the Princeton football team-unbeaten in its last fifteen games-faced the 33 Yale Bulldogs, who gave new meaning to the term "underdogs." As much a thrilling play-by-play account of college football at its finest as it is a fascinating work of sports history, this book chronicles the season that brought Princeton and Yale together in a game like no other since.
Princeton and Rutgers played the first game, in 1869. But it was at Yale where football evolved and no institution has a more meaty history of the sport. Yale was the first college to record 800 victories, that milestone reached in the year 2000. Sixty-six years before, a more significant triumph came unexpectedly to the Bulldogs on Princeton's field and from that contest emerged Yale's Ironmen. They were supposed to lose by at least three touchdowns to an undefeated opponent being touted as a Rose Bowl candidate. The eleven Yale starters played all 60 minutes, an uncommon feat never duplicated thereafter in major college football. The game was played against the background of the Depression. Yet Princeton's Palmer Stadium was full that warm November afternoon for the first time in six years. 'I guess people wanted to get their minds off their troubles," said the Yale quarterback, Jerry Roscoe, who threw the winning touchdown pass to Larry Kelley, the latter the first winner of the Heisman Trophy. How did this game, this success, affect the lives of those eleven men of iron? Who were they? What happened, as World War II descended and snared them?
In an oral history recalling football's heyday, rugged gridiron legends--including Bucko Kilroy, Michael Jarmoluk, Otto Graham and Crazylegs Hirsch--recount their grueling and exhilarating careers
At least nine million Americans trace their roots to Poland, and Polish Americans have contributed greatly to American history and society. During the largest period of immigration to the United States, between 1870 and 1920, more Poles came to the United States than any other national group except Italians. Additional large-scale Polish migration occurred in the wake of World War II and during the period of Solidarity's rise to prominence. This encyclopedia features three types of entries: thematic essays, topical entries, and biographical profiles. The essays synthesize existing work to provide interpretations of, and insight into, important aspects of the Polish American experience. The topical entries discuss in detail specific places, events or organizations such as the Polish National Alliance, Polish American Saturday Schools, and the Latimer Massacre, among others. The biographical entries identify Polish Americans who have made significant contributions at the regional or national level either to the history and culture of the United States, or to the development of American Polonia.
Oregon State University began its football program in 1893 and has been a study in contrasts ever since. The Beavers went to the Rose Bowl after the 1941, 1956, and 1964 seasons and to the Liberty Bowl in 1962. There was also a streak of losing seasons that lasted from 1971 until 1998. Two years later, the Beavers competed in the Fiesta Bowl and ranked among the top five teams in the country. From the Iron Men of 1933 to the Civil War rivalry between OSU and the University of Oregon, and from Terry Bakerthe first Heisman Trophy winner on the West Coastto a pair of bowl victories over Notre Dame, this entertaining and informative volume presents many seldom-seen images and the stories behind them over a century of Oregon State football. Oregon State University began its football program in 1893 and has been a study in contrasts ever since. The Beavers went to the Rose Bowl after the 1941, 1956, and 1964 seasons and to the Liberty Bowl in 1962. There was also a streak of losing seasons that lasted from 1971 until 1998. Two years later, the Beavers competed in the Fiesta Bowl and ranked among the top five teams in the country. From the Iron Men of 1933 to the Civil War rivalry between OSU and the University of Oregon, and from Terry Bakerthe first Heisman Trophy winner on the West Coastto a pair of bowl victories over Notre Dame, this entertaining and informative volume presents many seldom-seen images and the stories behind them over a century of Oregon State football.
An in-depth look at one of the most storied dynasties in Detroit sports history. During the 1950s, the Detroit Lions were one of the most glamorous and successful teams in the National Football League, winning championships in 1952, 1953, and 1957, and regularly playing before packed houses at Briggs Stadium. In When Lions Were Kings: The Detroit Lions and the Fabulous Fifties, journalist and sports historian Richard Bak blends a deeply researched and richly written narrative with many rare color images from the decade, re-creating a time when the Motor City and its gridiron heroes were riding high in the saddle. Representing a city at its postwar peak of population and influence, coach Raymond "Buddy" Parker and such players as Les Bingaman, Bob "Hunchy" Hoernschemeyer, Yale Lary, Joe Schmidt, Jack Christiansen, Jim Doran, Lou Creekmur, and Leon Hart helped sell the game to a country discovering the joys of watching televised football on Sunday afternoons and Thanksgiving Day. Quarterback Bobby Layne and halfback Doak Walker were celebrity athletes during this golden age of pro football—a decade when the game first started to replace its slower-paced cousin, baseball, as the national pastime. While the quietly modest Walker was a darling of Madison Avenue advertisers, the swaggering Layne became the first NFL player ever to grace the cover of Timemagazine. Along with detailed profiles of the players, coaches, and games that defined the Lions' only dynastic era, Bak explores such varied topics as the team's languid approach to desegregation, the wild popularity of bubble gum trading cards, and the staggering physical cost players of the period have suffered in retirement. When Lions Were Kingsis a lively portrait of the golden age of professional football in Detroit that will delight younger fans and inform die-hard followers of one of the NFL's oldest franchises.
Yale's great players and achievements are portrayed through rare and captivating images. With 26 national championships, two Heisman Trophy winners, and more than 800 victories, Yale football captures all the elements that make the sport so special.
‘Football matters, as poetry does to some people and alcohol does to others… Football is inherent in the people… There is more eccentricity in deliberately disregarding it than in devoting a life to it. The way we play the game, organize it and reward it reflects the kind of community we are’ Written just two years after England’s ’66 triumph when the national game was at its zenith, Arthur Hopcraft’s The Football Man is repeatedly quoted as the best book ever written about the sport. This definitive, magisterial study of football and society profiles includes interviews with all-time greats like Bobby Charlton, George Best, Alf Ramsay, Stanley Matthews, Matt Busby and Nat Lofthouse. It is a snapshot of a pivotal era in sporting history; changes and decisions were made in the sixties that would create the game we know today. For many who are disenchanted with the modern game – the grip of businesses and corporations, the dominance of advertising, the extortionate ticket prices and inaccessible matches, the fickleness of teenage millionaires – The Football Man takes the reader back to the heart and soul of the national game when pitches were muddy and the players were footballers not brands. Voted in May 2005 as one of Observer’s top sports books of all time, this is a long-awaited reissue of the classic football ‘bible’. ‘Masterpiece among sports books’ Guardian ‘It remains one of my favourite football reads’ Graham Taylor
