College Football Books

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DL65

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I just finished reading "The SYSTEM: The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football" by veteran investigative reporters Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian. The book, which was published late last fall, is an in-depth, behind the scenes report of big-time college football. The varied (headlines) topics covered are detailed in vignettes related to the escalation costs of college football operations, high profile coaches and players, recruiting processes/abuses and the rise of recruiting services (Rivals, Scout, ESPN), recent scandals (hostesses, tutors, boosters, players/coaches), behind the scenes of ESPN’s Gameday, etc.

"The SYSTEM" is a page turner that is insightful and thought provoking. I highly recommend the book.

Two other books that I enjoyed, which were published in 2012, are: "HEISMAN: The Man Behind the Trophy" by John M. Heisman (great-nephew) and Mark Schlabach and "When Saturday Mattered Most" by Mark Beech.

The book on Heisman is good book, especially for those interested in the history of college football and one of its legendary coaches.

"When Saturday Mattered Most" details the 1958 Army team and its iconic coach, Earl “Red” Blaik. The Army team went 8-0-1 and had been ranked number one until their late season tie with Pittsburgh. A few weeks after the Cadets season ended, the Baltimore Colts defeated the New York Giants in overtime in the NFL Championship game. The Giants-Colts overtime game, which some have dubbed “the greatest game,” is also considered the doorway game of the NFL and led to the sudden rise in popularity of the professional game. In the first sixty years of the last century, college football was the “kingpin” of the gridiron.

"When Saturday Mattered Most" is book that I highly recommend.

Go Gophers!!
 

Thanks DL65. I forgot to buy myself a Christmas gift and was thinking what should I get myself. I can't think of a better place to start than your list of recommended books.
 

There is "Football at Minnesota" published in 1914, it provides a great insight into the early days of the Gophers. If you do a Google search, you can download it for free.

There is "The Forward Pass in Football" published in 1921, a good insight to the early days of the forward pass. You can download this book for free as well.

"Gopher Sketchbook" is another good one, although it's newer, and not in the public domain.
 

May I humbly suggest a few other good ones:

"Monster of the Midway" by Dent - a bio of our own Bronko Nagurski

"A Civil War" by Feinstein - chronicles the Army-Navy game/rivalry/history

"Turning of the Tide" by Yeager - the story of 'Bama and Bryant's reaction to when John McKay's USC Trojans were the first integrated team to play at 'Bama

"The Autumn Warrior" by Wilkinson - a bio of our own Murray Warmath
 

There's also Gopher Tales by Ray Christiansen. It's not all about football, it covers all of the men's sports, but it's a good read.
 


I'm (slowly) reading THE SYSTEM as well, and it's fascinating. At the same time, it's absolutely sickening to see what college football has become.
 

I actually have an original copy of Football at Minnesota. Its an antique, of course.......
 

MGGopher said:
I'm (slowly) reading THE SYSTEM as well, and it's fascinating. At the same time, it's absolutely sickening to see what college football has become.
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Agree, The System is a good book.
 

I know it's not a 100% college football book, but has anyone read Bud Grant's autobiography? I've heard some really good thing a about it! Just curious if anyone else could echo those sentiments. Sorry for going a bit off subject.
 



An interesting, coffee table-type book is "Autumns Cathedrals." It has pictures of every D-1A football stadium with a brief description.
 


JoeDirt said:
An interesting, coffee table-type book is "Autumns Cathedrals." It has pictures of every D-1A football stadium with a brief description.
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Boy, that sounds like one I'd be interested in!
 




I'm loving this read! It is awesome. So full of fun anecdotes and stories. Like this one, about an incident from the 1890 season, on p. xv.: "One day there occurred an incident that made an impression so deep on some of the players that now, twenty-five years later, the imprint is still easily discernible. One of the 'recruits' was approaching the practice grounds. 'What is the matter with Thompson'-a former Princeton student-'does he limp'? 'for de lan's sake, what's he got on.' And then as he come closer, 'what's the you got on your leg.' 'Shin guards'! 'Shin guards'? 'Well get right off this field you baby, we don't allow any little children around here who are afraid of getting hurt.' That was the first 'protector' ever seen on the Minnesota football field."
 

The story of the first MN-Becky game (p. xvi) is priceless!

I love this summary line-"…for Wisconsin was given a terrible drubbing."
 

JoeDirt said:
Whatever. D!ck
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I was actually being serious! It is something that I would be interested in getting! I hadn't heard about that book before! Sorry for the miscommunication.
 

e.bigelow said:
I was actually being serious! It is something that I would be interested in getting! I hadn't heard about that book before! Sorry for the miscommunication.
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My apologies if being serious. Just thought you were being buttholeish. Anywho, we really should have a different fonts for different intentions! I'll be sure to mention that in the yearly survey.
 

JoeDirt said:
My apologies if being serious. Just thought you were being buttholeish. Anywho, we really should have a different fonts for different intentions! I'll be sure to mention that in the yearly survey.
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Haha. No worries man! It is a book I'm seriously interested in as I enjoy stuff like that. And, yes, outside of the 'roll eyes' emoji, their isn't a whole lot to do to show sarcasm in a post. I usually use the 'roll eyes' one if I'm being a smart a$$.
 

Two more books that I recently read and recommend:

"Art Briles: Looking Up: My Journey From Tragedy to Triumph" by Nick Eatman. This engaging and insightful biography was published in 2013. (Coach Jerry Kill has mentioned Art Briles a few times in his recent comments on the Sports Huddle. Apparently Kill has great respect for Briles and his coaching acumen, and I can see why.) Baylor's head coach - Art Briles - has been successful in turning around downtrodden programs at the high school and college levels in Texas. It's a book that I highly recommend. IMO, one of the better football biographies that I've read in recent years.

"Bowls, Polls & Tattered Souls: Tackling the Chaos and Controversy that reign over COLLEGE FOOTBALL" by Stewart Mandel. The book was published in 2007. So its discussion about the BCS is dated, now that a 4-team playoff will be implemented this year. Nevertheless, the topics on polls, recruiting and recruiting services, conference re-alignments, Notre Dame's special status, the plethora of bowl games, questionable tactics, etc. are timely and pertinent. Another good book, if you enjoy reading about the college game.


Go Gophers!!
 


I think my favorite football book is called "The Story of Football" by Leckie. My favorite part about the book is probably that it came out in the early 70s, so at a time when people's impressions of Gopher football were still really good. There are several chapters of interest, including one called "Go, Go, Gophers", another titled "Line Bustin with The Bronk", other chapters give a lot of attention to Pudge Heffelfinger, Henry Williams, Gil Dobie, Biggie Munn, Bud Wilkinson and the 1960 Gophers.

Another one I enjoyed, is called "Football Immortals" and is another book that came out way back in the day, back when the feeling about the Gophers was still very good. This book singles out several highly rated individual players and writes at length about them, giving examples of big games they played in and stuff like that. Several Gophers are featured in this book.
 

I would highly recommend 'The Junction Boys' about Bear Bryant's 1st team at Texas A&M, great read.

Also, I know this is blasphemy in Minnesota, but I am currently reading 'When Pride Still Mattered' about Vince Lombardi. Lots of Minnesota connections there when Lombardi was coaching at Army. Murray Warmath (sp?) is mentioned a lot.
 

gregbrady said:
I would highly recommend 'The Junction Boys' about Bear Bryant's 1st team at Texas A&M, great read.

Also, I know this is blasphemy in Minnesota, but I am currently reading 'When Pride Still Mattered' about Vince Lombardi. Lots of Minnesota connections there when Lombardi was coaching at Army. Murray Warmath (sp?) is mentioned a lot.
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I have many of the recommended books in this thread. And I agree with you, "The Junction Boys" is a great read. Jim Dent is an excellent writer. Other books by Jim Dent that I recommend are:

a) "The Undefeated" is about Bud Wilkinson and his winning teams in the 1950s (during a nine-year stretch his record was 94-4-2). The first part of the book focuses on his youth, growing up in Minnesota and playing for the Golden Gophers.

b) "Resurrection," is about Ara Paarseghian's first year at Notre Dame (1964) and how he turned around the former football power that had been down for ten years.

Two books about Paul "Bear" Bryant:

"Coach" by Keith Dunnavant and "The Last Coach" by Allen Barra.

Other recommended books from my library:

"Blood, Sweat and Cheers: Great Rivalries of the Big Ten" by Todd Mishler
"Bo" by Mitch Albom and Bo Schembechler
"Greatest Moments in Big Ten Football History: The Unforgettable Coaches, Players and Teams," edited by Mike Bynnum
"The Real All Americans" by Sally Jenkins. Covers the early days of college football (Pop Warner, Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indians).

Minnesota-related:

"Gold Glory" by Rainbolt Turtinen
"Game of My Life: Minnesota: Memorable Stories of Gophers Football" by Joel A. Rippel
"Maroon & Gold Forever: Celebrating 125 Years of Gopher Football" by Ross Bernstein
"Pigskin Pride: Celebrating A Century of Minnesota Football" by Ross Bernstein
"University of Minnesota Football Vault: The History of the Golden Gophers" by Rick Moore
"100 Years of Golden Gopher Football" edited by Ralph Turtinen


Go Gophers!!
 


A bit far left field but last summer I read a book called 'Selling Saturdays' - it was using recruiting tactics employed by college football coaches (Brewster featured quite a bit) to demonstrate marketing and sales techniques.

It really helped me with a work project and was quite entertaining too.
 

I was just looking at the 1914 book "Football at Minnesota", and I found something interesting. On page 19, it says that there was a newspaper called "Football" which was the forerunner of the Minnesota Daily.
 

RodentRampage said:
I was just looking at the 1914 book "Football at Minnesota", and I found something interesting. On page 19, it says that there was a newspaper called "Football" which was the forerunner of the Minnesota Daily.
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Another example of how important football was at The U. Here's to regaining that glory, brick by brick.
 

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