A Memorable Season in College Football

A Memorable Season in College Football
Author: Robert J. Reid
Publisher: Author House
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2005-10-03
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 1452040338

How did the 1959 season impact the future of College Football? A Memorable Season in College Football: A Look Back at 1959 is a comprehensive study of this unique season. Beginning with an overview of the college game as it was played during that era, the pre-season rules changes, and prognosticators assessments, it then follows all the top teams and players week by week, including game summaries, individual achievements, and the shifting weekly polls. A Memorable Season covers key conference races, the post-season awards, bowl games, and the social climate of racism as it pertained to college football. A History of the football programs at over twenty major universities, from the first season up to 1959, are summarized throughout the text. The history of major post-season bowls and the college game itself are explored. Finally, a thorough analysis is made to determine which really was the top team in 1959, how a different outcome may have occurred, and why this season was so pivotal in the development of the modern game of college football.

Season of Saturdays

Season of Saturdays
Author: Michael Weinreb
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2014-08-19
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 145162784X

From an award-winning sports journalist and college football expert: “A beautifully written mix of memoir and reportage that tracks college ball through fourteen key games, giving depth and meaning to all” (Sports Illustrated), now with a new Afterword about the first ever College Football Playoff. Every Saturday in the fall, it happens: On college campuses, in bars, at gatherings of fervent alumni, millions come together to watch a sport that inspires a uniquely American brand of passion and outrage. This is college football. Since the first contest in 1869, the game has grown from a stratified offshoot of rugby to a ubiquitous part of our national identity. Right now, as college conferences fracture and grow, as amateur athlete status is called into question, as a playoff system threatens to replace big-money bowl games, we’re in the midst of the most dramatic transitional period in the history of the sport. Season of Saturdays examines the evolution of college football, including the stories of iconic coaches like Woody Hayes, Joe Paterno, and Knute Rockne; and programs like the USC Trojans, the Michigan Wolverines, and the Alabama Crimson Tide. Michael Weinreb considers the inherent violence of the game, its early seeds of big-business greed, and its impact on institutions of higher learning. He explains why college football endures, often despite itself. Filtered through journalism and research, as well as the author’s own recollections as a fan, Weinreb celebrates some of the greatest games of all time while revealing their larger significance. “Wry, quirky, fascinating...This surely is one of the most enjoyable books of the college football season...Weinreb wrestles in captivating prose with the violence, hypocrisy, and corruption that are endemic to the sport at its most cutthroat level” (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland).

Head Ball Coach

Head Ball Coach
Author: Steve Spurrier
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2016-08-30
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0399574689

In this New York Times Bestseller, College football's most colorful, endearing, and successful pioneer, Steve Spurrier, shares his story of a life in football -- from growing up in Tennessee to winning the Heisman Trophy to playing and coaching in the pros to leading the Florida Gators to six SEC Championships and a National Championship to elevating the South Carolina program to new heights -- and coaching like nobody else. He's been called brash, cocky, arrogant, pompous, egotistical, and hilarious, but, mostly, he's known as the Head Ball Coach, a self-ordained term introduced to the lexicon of football by none other than the man, himself, Steve Spurrier. He is the only coach who can claim to be the winningest coach at two different SEC schools, and the only person who has won both the Heisman Trophy as a player and a national championship as a coach. Or who has won a Heisman and coached a Heisman winner. From the beginning, Spurrier didn't want to sound like other coaches, dress like other coaches, and, especially, coach like other coaches. As a controversial football pioneer, he ushered in a different style of leadership and play. Spurrier's press conferences were glorious -- he refused to lapse into coachspeak and was always entertaining, although he took his football very seriously. He was known for his fierce competitiveness, roaming up and down the sidelines, often throwing his signature visor to the ground in disgust. Now resigned from coaching at age 70 -- he doesn't like to say "retired" yet -- Spurrier has calmed down, but don't mistake that for a lack of fire. He can be just as feisty as the day he set foot on the East Tennessee dirt in Johnson City's Kiwanis Park, where he grew up to become one of the state's all-time greatest athletes, and went on to play for Florida where he launched one of sports history's all-time great careers. In his memoir, Spurrier talks for the first time about the circumstances under which he unexpectedly became a coach and why he resigned at South Carolina. He explains his unique style, the difference between winners and losers, his relationship with the media, why he follows the wisdom of ancient philosophers and warriors, his affinity everything taught by John Wooden, and the reasons behind his relaxed regimen for living well. Spurrier, as always, speaks candidly, bringing together his thoughts about his words, actions, and achievements, while telling countless wonderful anecdotes.

Unbeatable

Unbeatable
Author: Jerry Barca
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2013-08-13
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1250024838

An account of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish's unbeaten 1988 season cites the pivotal contributions of such figures as coach Lou Holtz, star quarterback Tony Rice and NFL-bound Ricky Watters, drawing on original reporting and interviews to include coverage of the infamous "Catholics vs. Convicts" game.

Breaking the Line

Breaking the Line
Author: Samuel G. Freedman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2013
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1439189781

Looks at the 1967 football season leading up to that year's black college championship between Grambling College and Florida A & M, and how it fit into the civil rights struggles of the time.

The College Football Championship

The College Football Championship
Author: Matt Doeden
Publisher: Millbrook Press
Total Pages: 68
Release: 2015-11-01
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 146778852X

In 2015, when Ohio State took on the University of Oregon in the first College Football Playoff championship game, millions of sports fans tuned in. But back in 1869, when Rutgers University and Princeton University played the first-ever college football game, no one predicted the national spectacle that a college football championship game would become. Author Matt Doeden takes readers on a journey from the disorganized games of the early years to the most recent playoffs to determine the best college team in the nation. Along the way, discover some of the most incredible moments, games, blunders, and statistics in the history of college football championships.

Diary of an Unforgettable Season

Diary of an Unforgettable Season
Author: Steve Snapp
Publisher: Triumph Books
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2007-10
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1617499188

The expectations, and the stakes, are always sky-high when Ohio State University prepares to begin a new football season. For much of this decade, the Buckeyes have entered the season with very real and realistic national championship hopes. Those hopes became a reality in 2002, and in subsequent years were dashed only by the slightest of margins. Then came 2006, when the expectations again were nothing less than a perfect season and a BCS bowl berth for the national title. OSU's associate athletic director Steve Snapp knew this back in the spring of 2006, which is when he began to pen his personal diary of one of the most memorable seasons in Buckeyes history. His insider's account of the magical 12-0 regular season and the stunning loss to Florida in the national championship game gives fans a rare birds-eye view of the blood, sweat, tears, and love that go into the making of a championship-caliber college football team. Follow the historic season from Snapp's personal accounts that recollect the preseason hype, the spring practices, the non-conference schedule, and then the rigorous, climactic Big Ten slate that ended dramatically with the annual showdown against Michigan. "Diary of an Unforgettable Season" also details the 51 days between games and OSU's mental and physical preparation for a national title game that went horribly awry. Readers will not only feel like they've been through a big-time college football season, they will also share the bumps, bruises, scars, triumphs, and disappointments that go along with being a player on the grand stage.

College Football's Most Memorable Games, 2d ed.

College Football's Most Memorable Games, 2d ed.
Author: Fred Eisenhammer
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2014-01-10
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0786461853

Presented here are 60 games featuring some of the most outstanding efforts in history--dramatic comebacks (such as USC's 1974 triumph over Notre Dame), stunning upsets (Columbia's 21-20 win over Army in 1947 or Appalachian State's over Michigan, 34-32, in 2007--see front cover), great individual efforts (Jim Brown's 43 points in a single game), bizarre plays (Roy Riegel's wrong-way run that helped Georgia Tech defeat California), and Yale-Harvard, 29-29, in 1968 (the latter scoring 16 points in the final 42 seconds). Each story includes the highlights of the games, with quotes from many of the principals, a look at the contest's effects on football overall, career follow-ups for the key participants, and seasonal wrap-ups for the teams involved.

ABC Sports College Football

ABC Sports College Football
Author: Keith Jackson
Publisher: Hyperion
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2000-09-06
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9780786867103

Now, with this book fans can find out whos on top as a team of blue ribbon athletes, coaches, and journalists in the field come together to choose their favourites. With the tremendous increasing popularity of college football a devoted and large audience of college football lovers are sure to embrace this book for themselves and give as a gift to friends and family alike.