No comments about UCLA FOOTBALL - 1954 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS: To Know A Man - Know His Memories.

3 comments about Still Roaring: Jim Phillips's Life in Broadcasting.

1. Jim Phillips trusted Ken Tysiac to help him tell his life story, and the trust was well-placed. Although Phillips has passed away, you can hear his voice again in this well-organized, fast-paced book. If a book can feel like a football Saturday afternoon in the fall, this one does. All Clemson fans will get a big kick out of it.



2. Jim Phillips' autobiography "Still Roaring" tells the life story of Jim Phillips -- the Voice of the Clemson Tigers for over 30 years. Although it was written with the assistance of Ken Tysiac, but you can hear Jim Phillips' conversational style come across in the narrative.
   
   After a short history of Phillips' childhood and early broadcasting days in Ohio, Phillips tells how his hiring at Clemson was almost a fluke and was certainly unexpected. Phillips tells his stories about some of Clemson's most memorable football, baseball, and basketball games, interspersed with personal anecdotes from his travels with the teams. For an avid Clemson fan, though, Phillips' selective storytelling leave you wanting to read a game-by-game and year-by-year history of Clemson's sports teams, which this book is not.
   
   Phillips also gives insight into the coaches and personalities in the Clemson athletic department during his tenure: Danny Ford, Ken Hatfield, Tommy West, and Rick Barnes especially. However, at times Phillips tells the story as an insider and whitewashes some of the failings of these coaches.
   
   Finally, Phillips tells some interesting stories about his days covering the Greenville Braves, Masters golf tournaments, and other sporting events. His stories hearken back to a bygone era in sports broadcasting, and his nature as a true gentleman comes through in these stories.
   
   This book is a must-read for any Clemson fan - and I would recommend it for any fan of South Carolina sports or for anyone with an interest in college sports or sports broadcasting.



3. I miss Jim Phillips. As the voice of the Clemson Tigers, Jim filled the rooms of my house growing up more often than some of my relatives did. In fact, for the first 30 years of my life, Jim Phillips was the only "Voice of the Tigers" that I knew. His genuine warmth, friendliness, and passion for Clemson athletics made him the perfect ambassador for the university.
   
   Jim was working on Still Roaring at the time of his sudden death in 2003. He shares his memories of growing up in Northeast Ohio, his start in broadcasting, his unexpected hiring at WFBC in Greenville, South Carolina in 1968, and his 36 years of covering Clemson athletics. In those 36 years, Jim broadcast more than 2,000 sporting events, including men's and women's basketball, baseball, and 401 football games. For a while, he was also the voice of the Greenville Braves, the longtime AA affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, and he covered The Masters golf tournament for 13 years. He had a remarkable career.
   
   Those who are familiar with Phillips will instantly recognize his friendly, easy going style in the pages of Still Roaring. It's like he's sitting there, talking to you again. The text is loose and conversational as Jim shares some of his favorite memories from his long tenure at Clemson. In his 36 years at Clemson, the school grew from having a regional presence to having a national presence, including winning a football national championship in 1981. Jim witnessed it all.
   
   Listening to a Clemson football game isn't quite the same now that Jim is gone, but, of course, life goes on. We were truly lucky and blessed to have Jim as long as we did.

5 comments about Remember This Titan: Lessons Learned from a Celebrated Coach's Journey.

1. "Remember This Titan" is an excellent story of an American hero. In a time when personal glory is mainstream, Bill Yoast was not only an inspiration to a community but to the nation as well. Absorbing every word of a simply beautiful story of a no-nonsense man, I learned that, "In navigating life, the best lessons are learned when the riding gets rough". Not only do I believe in the philosophy of life according to Coach Yoast but our entire youth organization and metro area are looking forward to having Mr. Sullivan and Coach Yoast motivate our young men for our 2006 football season. I look forward to meeting Coach Bill Yoast and Steve Sullivan in August, (www.greenmountainfootball.org) and showing them that the TITAN theory exists in Colorado. Steve Sullivan along with Bill Yoast are truly the cornerstone of INSPIRATION.



2. Remember This Titan, is a wonderful accounting of Bill Yoast's life, ups and downs, the expected and the unexpected. It is the story of a man who LIVED decency long before it was fashionable. The success of the team, both on the field and in their interpersonal relationships, was nurtured by the presence of this fine teacher, leader and coach. In a time when schools go out of their way to emphasize that character counts, this is a fine, enjoyable book to share with the children/students in your life. There are so many valuable lessons, from Mary's impact on Coach Yoast to the profound influence of Raymond Tetfeller on Yoast's young life. This book is beautifully written. It flows with astonishing honesty from humor to heart-wrenching pain. Sullivan has an obvious knowledge, understanding and respect for Coach Yoast. As if all of the above isn't enough, there are action plans and lists of invaluable facts in the back. Remember This Titan is a great read which has had a lasting impact on me. p.s. I had a student at the end of the year say, "Hey, Ms. Stewart are YOU reading a football book, cool!" Enjoy.



3. This is a great motivational and uplifting story. A must read for teens and parents alike!!



4. A friend sent me the book as gift. She said it would change my life. She was right. It took me on a glorious trip. In a world filled with deceit, fear, anger and lost people Remember This Titan shows how one man can make a differance. Remember This Titan is a story that delivers integrity and courage in abundance. Coach Bill Yoast is now my hero. Remember This Titan is triumph and should be required reading for anyone looking to navigate life with a sense of purpose. Five Stars is not enough.



5. In a world saturated with stories overcoming life challenges, Remember This Titan delivers a message unlike any I have read.
   Steve Sullivan's ability to capture the essence of Coach Bill Yoast while weaving in an out of the life narrative is remarkable. He has cleverly captured in words, the essence of a man who made it his life's commitment to make a difference and inspire. Sullivan has beautifully portrayed with drama, insight and humor, the life of a man whose unwavering commitment to others enabled them to prosper- all became better, some became great. Many went on to positively impact on other's lives and for this, Sullivan's book is a brilliant reminder that the `Domino Effect' can be a powerful force.
   Although Coach Bill Yoast is in the twilight of his journey, Remember This Titan and the wisdom it delivers is a legacy that will live forever.

2 comments about Johnny Unitas: Mr. Quarterback (Great American Sports Legends).

1. THIS IS ABOUT JOHN UNITAS FORMER NFL GREAT. THE BOOK CONATINS MANY STORIES AND INSIGHTS BY VARIOUS RELATIVES TEAMATES AND FRIENDS OF JOHNNY U. SOME OF THE MANY WHO CONTRIBUTED THEIR STORIES ABOUT UNITAS ARE TOM MATTE, DON SHULA, LENNY MOORE AND SAM HUFF. I FOUND THIS TO BE A NICE BUT NOT TOO DETAILED BOOK ABOUT UNITAS. I THINK HIS TOUGHNESS, LACK OF EGO AND PURE TALENT WERE THE MAIN ISSUES IN MOST OF THESE INTERESTING STORIES. NOT A GREAT BOOK BUT A VERY INTERESTING AND NOSTALGIC TRIP FOR ALL COLT FANS. RECOMENDED.



2. This book may be about the Best Quarterback in the history of the NFL, BUT it is by far the poorest written book I have ever read. The grammer, organization, detail and writing in general is the worst I've ever seen. I couldn't figure out if the book was written for a six year old or by a six year old or both. I am still a huge fan of Johhy U. and have been since the mid 60's, but for future book buys, I'm watching out for this author.

2 comments about Dooley: My Forty Years At Georgia.

1. Good book by a good man who happens to also be an outstanding football coach...Vince Dooley has always been a classy man and this book follows that mode...It is written in keeping with his personality. While it is candid and nothing is held back---see his comments on his favorite players, etc.---it is written and presented in a classy, courteous style, the style of a Southern Gentleman who loved football, was a part of football, an integral part of the Southeastern Conference for more than 50 years, yet had a vision and perspective beyond football....parts on his disagreements with Georgia President Michael Adams should be especially revealing to the reader in terms of campus politics, the most vicious politics of all...even here, Dooley, while being candid, handles the "controversy" in a genteel manner. Tony Barnhart's deft touch is present, but never obvious...He guided and directed--coached--Vince Dooley well...A valuable book to the history of southern football, Georgia football in particular. Any fan of SEC Football will enjoy it.



2. When I joined the University of Georgia faculty in 1969, I kept hearing about Vince Dooley, the university's very young head football coach. The previous year, he had led the team to the Southeastern Conference Championship, resulting in a Sugar Bowl bid. Clearly, Dooley had assumed leadership of a nearly defunct football program and restored a degree of glory quickly.
   
   This book details Dooley's four-decade career at Georgia, as Coach and Director of Athletics. Under his aegis, the program expanded dramatically, culminating in six conference championships in football, a national football championship and a prominent place for Vince Dooley, not only in university circles, but throughout Georgia and the nation--with Dooley holding every leadership position available in the NCAA and other major athletic organizations.
   
   As Georgia football flourished, so did other sports, both in facilities and in season records.
   
   My Forty Years at Georgia talks unabashedly about the good news and the bad news. The teams endured some mediocre seasons, and one losing season. Critics hurled charges of academic favoritism for athletes. Ultimately, Vince Dooley did not get a contract extension he wanted from President Michael Adams.
   
   In this memoir, Dooley shares his most palpable memories, from coaching Herschel Walker to losing his place at the institution that became synonymous with his career, even his life.
   
   Although I left the faculty after five years, to enter academic administration elsewhere and ultimately establish my consulting business, I maintained my Georgia connections. Happily, since 1979 I have attended every home game and have come to know Vince Dooley personally, which I consider a genuine privilege.
   
   I highly recommend this book as a reliable resource for those who want to understand amateur athletics at the highest level, and to glimpse a power struggle that divided a fabled program. Vince Dooley emerges shaken, but unbowed. Every university would benefit from forty years with a Coach and Athletic Director who had his vision and stature--and his dedication to the institution.

1 comments about A Damn Good Yankee: Xen Scott and the Rise of the Crimson Tide.

1. General biography of a little known football coach that became the cornerstone for The University Of Alabama's legacy of great head coaches and very select membership in college football's elite over the past 100 years.
   
   It is the story of Xen Scott but is more important as a history of early college football; especially in the South where so little was documented. The author goes into great detail about the life of both Scott and the teams he coached; especially the Crimson Tide. For an Alabama fan, it gives great insight into the early years and why years of greatness were derrived from Scott's teams in the late teens and early 20's.
   
   Over the years, there have been many books written about Alabama football and particularly Bear Bryant. However and for the most part, very little has been written about Bama's great football history prior to the early Bryant years. Anyone interested in knowing more about this earlier era, should greatly enjoy this author's work.
   
   William M. Moore, Jr.

1 comments about Emmitt: Run With History.

1. This is a great book that displays Emmitt Smith's life and football career and his pursuit of Walter Payton's rushing record. The pictures in this book are very good since they are contributed by an official Cowboys photographer. The book also shows another side of Emmitt, his family life, that you probably wouldn't know even if you have been a fan of his for many years. By reading this book you really get the sense that Emmitt is a good man as well as being an extraordinary running back. I would recommend this book to all Cowboys fans and Emmitt fans.

5 comments about Paper Lion.

1. A very interesteng read, If you are old enough to remember all the players.



2. Back in the 1960s, writer George Plimpton began "covering" a variety of sports through participating on/with pro teams/athletes and reporting on it through books, magazine articles and TV specials.
   
   Perhaps his most famous was in the early 1960s when he was "signed" by the Detroit Lions as a 36-year-old rookie trying to make the club as a third-string quarterback. Plimpton - wearing jersey number 0 - practiced with the team for one month.
   His quarterbacking culminates with his appearance in a scrimmage where Plimpton calls a number of plays under game conditions.
   
   The book leads the reader through the highs and lows of Plimpton as a player, along with great anecdotes on the teammates and coaches.
   
   A reprint is slated for publication in September 2006. I hope the TV special on Plimpton's training camp and QB play gets dusted off during the upcoming NFL season. Anyone reading this inside that large campus in Bristol, Conn.?



3. Long before ESPN cameras and behind-the scenes television programs, George Plimpton went out on a mission to the magical world of the NFL, looking to bring back an original insight on the dream life of a professional football player. In Paper Lion, Plimpton arrives in Michigan for a month of training camp and a preseason scrimmage with the Detroit Lions, having brought a suitcase of clothes, some cleats, and a minimal trace of athletic ability. Though he was not a very skilled or successful member of the Lions, his role is an essential one for us as readers. Plimpton does a marvelous job of painting the picture of a profeesional football player with vivid details and intriguing technique, most notably simile. He details aspects of the training camp with clear references for the everyday reader. This helps explain feelings and strategies such as the Lions' kickoff coverage: " the downfield rush was straight, like a ruler sweeping crumbs off a table." (178). Plimpton also captures the emotions of the players during camp and reproduces them through simile as well: "When a player was hurt in a scrimmage, the others seemed to point their backs pointedly...as if an injury were communicable, like mumps." (194). Another example comes on page 253 when he compares the physical toll of football to "Bronco riding." These details and relatable comparisons are what help Plimpton to bring the reader into the setting and let him experience training camp as if he too were wearing shoulder-pads.
   
   While Plimpton does an excellent job of depicting the setting and emotions that go along with training camp in the NFL, at times he seemed a little too out of place. Plimpton was a writer for Sports Illustrated and thus should have a keen sense on sports and what the players go through. However, there were times in the book where he approached the situation as if he had come from another planet, rather than a different occupation. Such is the case on page 180 when he asks a running back: "do you close your eyes when you run for the middle of the line?" As a sportswriter and an intelligent person it would seem that he would know that a professional athlete would keep his eyes open and not shy away from the contact of the line in a game situation.
   
   George Plimpton's Paper Lion is a great read as well as an entertaining passageway to the world of sports. Plimpton's ability to accurate scenes and vividly detail characters makes a reader feel as though he has not so much holding a book but in fact his own personal uniform on the Detroit Lions.



4. A talented journalist joins the Detroit Lions to get get a greater insight into what it is to be a professional American football player. Some amusing moments because of his ineptitude.
   
   This was a top class team dominanting their opponents, so they wangled an agreement that if they got a big enough lead they could put George in as a last string quaterback.
   
   Top quality sportswriting work here.



5. During the summer of 1963, Plimpton became a rookie for the Detroit Lions, after joining their preseason camp as a 36-year-old rookie quarterback wannabe. He ended up sticking with the club through an intra-squad game before the paying public a month later. He traveled from the east coast to Michigan where he spent four weeks at the Lion's training camp learning how to call plays and take snaps. He ran formations, dressed in thick layers of padding and tried to tackle his opponents. He played cards with the coaches, played pranks on the players, bunked in the dormitories and debriefed in the locker room. Wearing the number zero, he finally was put in the game in a scrimmage, managing to lose yards on each play.
   Throughout his book, Plimpton describes the grueling physical aspects of this sport, and through conversations with many of his teammates, he also captures the mental training these players go through. But, because he immersed himself so deeply into this culture, Plimpton also captures a sense for who these players are. He listened to their stories, learned about their backgrounds and became one of them. This memoir sticks out for its insights into the personalities of the players and the coaches. Compared to a memoir like The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer, Plimpton sticks to his journey to make the team, rather the venturing off about his life. He's not afraid to take detours, such as explaining who Harry Wismer is and his failure as the owner of the AFL team the New York Titans. Reading this classic work of literary nonfiction today, the reader sees that Plimpton not only captured a sense for what football was like in 1963, but what the world was like back then.

2 comments about That's Just Kramer: From Michigan Legend to Lombardi's "12th Man".

1. I remember reading the following quote in Sport magazine during the late 1950's:
   
   "In 1957 two Michigan exports splashed across the American scene both accompanied by terrific fanfare. One was an automobile called the Edsel. The other was a tank named Ronald John Kramer."
   
   Dan Ewald , who has written books about such Michigan notables as George Kell, Sparky Anderson, and Bo Schembechler has provided us with an excellent account on the life of Ron Kramer who starred for the Michigan Wolverines, Green Bay Packers, and the Detroit Lions. Kramer credits his family for instilling in him the discipline necessary for his success at Michigan, the college he chose to attend so his parents could see him play. For their inept play in 1956 the Green Bay Packers received a bonus pick in the 1957 draft as the rules then allowed. That choice went for Notre Dame's Paul Hornung. With the first choice in the regular round the Packers chose Michigan's Ron Kramer. A broken leg in his rookie season threatened his career, but the arrival of Coach Vince Lombardi in 1959 revitalized his career as it did for several others on the team. Lombardi saw Kramer as an ideal tight end, his "12th man on the field", because Kramer could both catch passes and block for others. This was a position held by Packer veteran Gary Knafelc who lacked the size and quickness of Kramer. This was a team going nowhere under previous coaches Lisle Blackbourn and Ray "Scooter" McLean yet possessed a number of future Hall of Famers. The differences between them and Lombardi was that Lombardi stressed discipline and preparation. Following the 1964 season Kramer requested a trade to the Detroit Lions so he could be closer to home where he felt he was needed due to family matters. It was either that or retire. Had he remained in Green Bay he would have ended up on five championship teams instead of two and most likely cemented his place in football's Hall of Fame. However, family came before football as Lombardi himself stressed, and the trade was made. The situation on the Lions under coach Harry Gilmer compared with the Packers was significant. The book also deals with his family life after football and Kramer's emphasis on the importance on friendship in one's life. I did find one error in the book. The author twice refers to Fordham's Seven "Rocks" of Granite when it should be Seven Blocks of Granite. There have been numerous books written on former Green Bay Packer players and I'm glad to see one on Green Bay's other star player named Kramer, Ron Kramer. Football fan or not, you should enjoy it.



2. Written by Ron Kramer with newspaper writer Dan Ewald, and comfortably narrated in third person, That's Just Kramer! From Michigan Legend to Lombardi's "12th Man" is the biography of talented athlete Ron Kramer, from his days dominating football, basketball, and track in the University of Michigan, to his time to playing as one of the Green Bay Packers, to choosing his family over his professional career by switching teams and returning home to Detroit, and more. Black-and-white photographs illustrate this down-to-earth chronicle of Kramer's life, career, and passions. An enthralling biography especially recommended for football fans.

5 comments about Go Long!: My Journey Beyond the Game and the Fame.

1. Excellent book, easy read. Very frank and honest dialogue produces a very refreshing look at the character and
   makeup of NFL great Jerry Rice. He possesses "old school" values, rare for todays athletes and his humble
   approach and its origins are clearly defined in his upbringing. Would highly recommend it for parents and players
   of any sport as well as non-players as it explores more than the world of athletics and promotes a great
   work ethic.
   
   K.F.



2. Not every football memoir/autbio will be like Jerry Kramer's DISTANT REPLAY or have a subject as complex as Jim Brown. It was painful to hear Rice read his book (Audio CD) because he's not a natural reader mor speaker, but one can appreciate the path he laid for future players to emulate. I think this book is more geared towards the non-fan as opposed to the historian, NFL fan or Jerry Rice fan. I do think Jerry could've improved his reading skills for the CD edition or have someone else read the book, but it's a good story. As long as the book served its purpose, I can't complain.
   
   - This review is for the Unabridged CD edition.



3. this was a great book, i rarly read but when i found out Jerry wrote a book I knew i'd have to have it. It was a very quick read, took me only 2 weeks to finish. It's also opened my eyes to the NFL and the way it works. One of the best books ive read



4. I enjoyed the book, but do not expect great writing or insights. This is one of those obligatory autobios that sports figures feel they have to write for their fans. I'd have liked to read more about Rice's growing up in MS. His coments on various fellow sprts stars was fun to reqd. ( He doesn't believe Barry Bonds either ). Quick read. Solid three stars.



5. A quick read. Nothing too heavy. I'm a huge Niners fan and it was good to hear Rice talk about his career. The drive he had while playing and training is inspiring.