On November 18, 1901, the University of Alabama and the University of Tennessee first locked horns on a football field. At the contest's end, the score was tied, nothing had been resolved, and about two thousand fans were on the field at Tuscaloosa, fighting.

Since that day the Tennessee-Alabama game has developed into one of the premier football rivalries in the nation. To many of the faithful, it is much more than a game -- it is a crusade. The intensity with which these games have been waged makes victory as satisfying as the warm crimson and orange leaves that dance in Knoxville's cool Smoky Mountain breezes. Defeat, however, is more bitter than the choking smoke of Birmingham's steel mills.

Beginning in 1928, the annual game has been played on the third Saturday in October, and the contest has produced enough heroes to fill several books. Third Saturday in October tells the story of each game. From Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Red"" Drew, Paul ""Bear"" Bryant, Ray Perkins, Bill Curry, Gene Stallings, and Mike Dubose of Alabama, to Robert Neyland, Bowden Wyatt, Doug Dickey, Bill Battle, Johnny Majors, and Phil Fulmer of Tennessee, the game has been directed by legendary coaches and played by heroic young men who have risen to greatness on the third Saturday in October.

Third Saturday in October is filled with memories and reflections of players, coaches, reporters, sportscasters, and fans. The people who were there, who made or failed to make the key plays, tell what happened in their own words. More than two hundred historic photographs illustrate the lively text. This second edition contains reports of the games from 1987 through 2000.""

Paul "Bear" Bryant was arguably the greatest football coach in the history of college football. Beloved by fans of the Alabama Crimson Tide, by the time he retired from coaching following the 1982 season, his teams had won 323 games, a feat unmatched by any coach in college football history. Before arriving in Tuscaloosa, he had coached at Maryland, Kentucky, and Texas A his teams at Alabama won six national championships and thirteen Southeastern Conference titles.

On July 17, 1981, Coach Bryant sat in his office at Memorial Coliseum reminiscing with sports columnist Al Browning of the Tuscaloosa News. Contemplating the twilight of his career, he calmly said, "They'll forget me as soon as I croak and am buried". When Browning objected, Coach smiled slightly and said, "No, that's the way it is. Life moves on, and people find interest in other things".

While Bryant's memory may have faded slightly, he certainly has not been forgotten, and I Remember Paul "Bear" Bryant is a glowing testimony to the love that those who knew him best continue to have for him to this day. Here dozens of his contemporaries, former players, childhood friends, family, competitors, opponents, and his "boys" offer in their own words their favorite memories of this man they loved so much. They recall ordinary moments as well as extraordinary ones; they recall moments of joyful victory and bitter defeat; they recall memories of the gridiron discipline he dished out and the thoughtful, helpful guidance he offered to his players, even long after they had graduated and gone on to their own careers.

While Bryant has moved on from this life, he has not been forgotten, and the personal memories included in IRemember Paul "Bear" Bryant proves it beyond doubt.

Of all the great National Football League coaches, none have earned the level of respect and reputation that Vince Lombardi merited during his tenure as head coach of the Green Bay Packers. Both feared and beloved by players and peers, Lombardi coached the Packers to five NFL championships and victories in the first two Super Bowls ever played. Over ten seasons, his Green Bay teams compiled a remarkable 98-30-4 record, although it was Lombardi's relentless, uncompromising tactics and values that defined him and his career more than the victories could by themselves.<P" Remember Vince Lombardi takes readers back to a bygone era when professional football was a game of guts, grit, and spit, not the corporate, dollar-driven entertainment vehicle it is today. Lombardi embodied greatness, and he demanded it from his staff and players. In this book, dozens of people familiar with Lombardi, many of them personal acquaintances, talk about him in their own words. Former players, assistant coaches, opponents, and league officials are among the people whose memories reveal Lombardi as the genuine legend he was, on and off the field.<P>Among the many memorable events and circumstances included in I Remember Vince Lombardi are his days as an assistant coach with the New York Giants and colleague Tom Landry, his relationships with players and assistants, the unforgettable "Ice Bowl" NFL title game of 1966, his two Super Bowl victories, his sudden departure from the Packers, and his short-lived position as coach of the Washington Redskins. Many aspects of Lombardi's personal and professional life are covered in this book, offering a new and refreshing look at one of football's greatest icons.

An in-depth look at the fifty best Bears players in franchise history, featuring profiles and photography created by the Chicago Tribune. The Chicago Bears football team has a grip on the Windy City that spans generations and cultures, endures disappointments, and impels celebration of triumphs great and small. From the team's humble beginnings through its century-long history as the flagship NFL franchise, the Chicago Tribune has documented every season and kept a close eye on the superstars who have shone the brightest over the last 100 years. The Chicago Tribune's 50 Best Chicago Bears of All Time is a tribute to Bears tradition, collecting classic photography and original profiles on the very best players to don the navy and orange uniform. In 2019, as the team set out to begin their 100th season, the Chicago Tribune took a look at the one thousand, five hundred and eighty-two players who have ever suited up for the Bears and culled down the list to the fifty best of all time. The Chicago Tribune's 50 Best Chicago Bears of All Time is a must-have collector's item for any Bears fan. From Larry Morris to Walter Payton, the Chicago Tribune has put together an in-depth look at each of these top players in franchise history, with profiles that provide readers with an overview of the player's life and career, as well as his stats and how he measures up against the rest of the field. As a team, the Bears found success at its very beginning, dominating the sport with four NFL titles in the 1940s, seven winning campaigns in the 1950s, and a final title with founder George Halas as coach in 1963. Their 1985 Super Bowl championship transformed the city's passion into a full-blown love affair that continues today. Professional football was practically born in Chicago, nurtured by Halas through the Depression and a world war. The NFL game was made for Chicago, in Chicago, by a Chicagoan. Now the award-winning journalists, photographers, and editors of the Chicago Tribune have produced a collector's item that every Bears fan will love.

From the time he was old enough to remember, Jim Hock was told stories of his dad's glory days playing football in LA. A member of the 1950s LA Rams, John Hock, Jim's dad, was a member of Hollywood's Team, a football team that redefined what a sports team looked like, sounded like, and acted like, all while revolutionizing the sport of football. But Jim didn't know John the football star, he just knew the sweet, funny guy he called Dad. In a warm and aching memoir of childhood, good dad's, and what it is to realize that your parents had a life and successes before you came along.

During World War I, American army camps, navy stations and marine barracks formed football's first true all-star teams, competing against each other and top colleges while raising millions of dollars for the war effort. More than fifty college football hall-of-famers, dozens of future generals, and two Medal of Honor winners would play for, coach, or promote military teams during the war, including Dwight Eisenhower, Walter Camp, and George Halas. In War Football: World War I and the Birth of the NFL, Chris Serb recounts a fascinating chapter of military and sports history. He details three of the best but long-forgotten seasons of American football, when college amateurs mixed with blue-collar pros on the field of play. These games showed investors a lucrative market for teams of post-collegiate stars and made players realize that their football careers didn't have to end after college. Soon the barriers to professionalism began to fall, and within two years of the Armistice the National Football League was born. War Football explores for the first time this lost chapter of sports history and makes a direct connection between World War I and the founding of the NFL. Seven future Hall-of-Famers led the charge of more than 200 military veterans who played in, coached for, and shaped the character of the young league. Football fans, sports historians, and military historians alike will find this book a fascinating read.

The All-America Football Conference and the National Football League battled for supremacy from 1946 through 1949. In the end, the players from the AAFC, as well as three teams, were brought into the NFL, including many future members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Through extensive research, the Professional Football Researchers Association (PFRA) has corrected the statistics and coaching records, selected All-Pro Teams for all four seasons and an All-Conference team, and provided brief biographies and scouting reports for the members of the All-Conference Team. Unlike All-Pro teams selected at the time, in which offense and defense were merged into a single position, the PFRA has selected individual offensive and defensive All-Pro teams.

Today’s game of football is more physically demanding than ever. Every play is full speed, sideline to sideline, goal line to goal line, for four punishing quarters. To withstand the rigors of the game, today’s players must be better conditioned than ever. The team with the stronger, faster, more agile, and more powerful athletes is the one earning Ws on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. Complete Conditioning for Football provides the modern training system needed to prepare your players to perform at their peak and win consistently. Former National Football League (NFL) strength and conditioning coach and current college senior assistant athletic director for football performance Aaron Wellman addresses every aspect of football conditioning—emphasizing strength, power, and muscle hypertrophy—to deliver results at every level of competition. From initial movement preparation to an integrated, comprehensive, year-round training plan, Complete Conditioning for Football offers ready-to-use research-based training methods and programs involving general and position-specific exercises, drills, activities, and progressions. This book is an ideal resource to help strength and conditioning coaches design training regimens for their team and each player. It is also a practical guide for coaches and athletes in a program without a full-time strength coach. Complete Conditioning for Football explains how to evaluate current fitness levels and monitor progress in each aspect and phase of training throughout the year. Included are team-wide and position-specific exercises, drills, and programs as well as training plans for preseason, in-season, and off-season workouts, all aimed at building speed, agility, strength, power, and stamina to achieve optimal performance. Useful nutritional information and recommendations are provided to boost the benefits of training, aid in recovery from workouts, and fuel players to perform their best in games. Guidelines and recommendations for sleep and rest are included to ensure athletes stay fresh and primed for every physical and mental challenge they’ll face. The book also features invaluable guidance for safely and responsibly reintroducing players to training and competition after an injury. The most comprehensive conditioning guide in the sport, Complete Conditioning for Football offers readers expertise from a top strength and conditioning coach to physically prepare teams and players to dominate on game day.

You can't separate football from the man. The game gave him everything and "Bullet Bill" Dudley said as much. But you can separate the man from football. As a husband, father, businessman and citizen, he put far more into this world than he took out. Three years before Bill died, he asked his son-in-law Steve Stinson to write his story. William McGarvey "Bullet Bill" Dudley (December 24, 1921 - February 4, 2010) led a thrilling career as a professional American football player in the National Football League for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Detroit Lions, and Washington Redskins. With humble beginnings in Bluefield, Virginia he made the football team his junior year, and in 1938 he kicked a 35-yard field goal in the season's finale. Dudley was drafted in the 1942 NFL Draft with the first overall pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1966 and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1972. During the 1942 season, he led the league in rushing with 696 yards on 162 carries and was then named to the All-Pro team. Steve Stinson revisits his father-in-law's journey from Bluefield, Virginia through his retirement from the NFL and shares everything he brought to communities in between each pivotal moment in Dudley's life.

They are known as "cupcake games"-lower division teams get paid to travel to college football Meccas where the hosts make a nice profit from an extra home game. On September 1, 2007, the Michigan Wolverines, with more wins than any team in history, hosted the Appalachian State Mountaineers from Boone, North Carolina, in the first such game at Michigan Stadium, the largest stadium in the country. App State was no cupcake. Coach Jerry Moore, in the spirit of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team and other memorable underdogs, assembled his team with two things in mind-speed and character-and conditioned them to the breaking point. "We're fixin' to shock `em," he shouted at practice, in the locker room, at the dinner table. This book tells the inside story of Moore's legendary team and the Mountaineer's historic win.

One of the most ambitious (and short-lived) endeavors in professional sports history, the United States Football League was founded in 1982. Premiering with a spring schedule and an abundance of talent that included top rookies and National Football League veterans, the USFL gained national attention with broadcast and cable television contracts, controversial player signings, ownership battles and an unsuccessful billion-dollar lawsuit against the NFL. The USFL folded after four years yet represented the last major challenge to America's big four sports leagues-the NFL, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League and Major League Baseball. Based upon extensive research and interviews with owners, coaches, players and administrators, this book chronicles the league's formation, its three seasons of play and its long-term effects on pro sports.

In football-obsessed Steubenville, Ohio, on a summer night in 2012, an incapacitated sixteen-year-old girl was repeatedly assaulted by members of the "Big Red" high school football team. They took turns documenting the crime and sharing on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The victim, Jane Doe, learned the details via social media at a time when teens didn't yet understand the lasting trail of their digital breadcrumbs. Crime blogger Alexandria Goddard, along with hacker collective Anonymous, exposed the photos, Tweets, and videos, making this the first rape case ever to go viral and catapulting Steubenville onto the national stage. Filmmaker Nancy Schwartzman spent four years embedded in the town, documenting the case and its reverberations. Ten years after the assault, Roll Red Roll is the culmination of that research, weaving in new interviews and personal reflections to take readers beyond Steubenville to examine rape culture in everything from sports to teen dynamics. Roll Red Roll explores the factors that normalize sexual assault in our communities. Through inter-views with sportswriter David Zirin, victim's rights attorney Gloria Allred and more, Schwartzman untangles the societal norms in which we too often sacrifice our daughters to protect our sons. With the Steubenville case as a flashpoint that helped spark the #MeToo movement, a decade later, Roll Red Roll focuses on the perpetrators and asks, can our society truly change?

In 2016 the Rams left St. Louis for Los Angeles - having left L.A. for St. Louis in 1995 - causing much heartbreak among fans. NFL teams are notorious for decamping to more profitable markets and the Rams' history of opportunistic moves goes back to 1946, when they left Cleveland, Ohio, their original hometown where fans had cheered them to a championship a month earlier. The move to L.A. from Cleveland shocked the NFL and shook up its power structure. It also jolted the all-white league into integration, preparing the way for the Browns and making the Rams the only NFL champs ever to have spent the following season in a different city. This is the story of how the Rams went from a homegrown Ohio team funded by local businessmen to the first major-league franchise on the West Coast, and how their departure jumpstarted a chain of events in Cleveland that continues to this day.

Para cuando se dieron los primeros esbozos de organizacion en el futbol americano en Mexico, este ya contaba con mas de medio siglo de evolucion en la Union Americana. Los primeros intentos de traer al juego a suelo mexicano, a mediados de los 1890s, fueron asfixiados por la dictadura porfirista y por el conflicto interno que se avecinaba. Los aficionados al basquetbol saben a ciencia cierta quien fue James Naismith (aunque tal vez no sepan de su cercana relacion con Amos Alonzo Stagg y los primeros anos del ovoide); cualquier aficionado al beisbol sabe de Alexander Cartwright, e incluso de la leyenda de Abner Doubleday, ademas de tener cumulos de informacion sobre los primeros astros del diamante, como Cy Young o los hermanos Wagner. Pero cuantos aficionados al futbol americano saben de la historia de Leggett y Gummere? Cuantos han oido hablar de Robert Grant y David Roger? Cuantos saben quienes estan detras de los nombres de los trofeos Heisman, Outland o Maxwell? Cuantos aficionados en el resto de iberoamerica saben que Mexico ya cuenta con una tradicion de 80 anos en la practica de este deporte? Hoy, que buena parte de los paises de habla hispana dan sus primeros pasos en la practica organizada de este deporte, "El Juego que el CAM jugaba..." busca poner a su alcance las raices del deporte de sus amores.

Telling the story of Saints football in New Orleans is a way to understand larger social, political and economic conditions during pivotal moments of the city's history. This book is the first to explore the team's role in rebuilding the city following Hurricane Katrina. The author documents New Orleans' initial efforts to attract professional football, the Katrina disaster and some successes and failures during 10 years of post-disaster recovery. The narrative of community recovery and cohesion crafted by Saints fans transcends racial divides and illustrates the relationship between professional sports and the American city. The voices of female fans-largely overlooked in the study of sports-compel a more inclusive definition of football fandom.

According to the National Football League, the 1972 Miami Dolphins are the only undefeated, untied Super Bowl champions. But pro football's first undefeated championship team was crowned in 1948, when the Cleveland Browns won their third straight All-America Football Conference title with a record of 15 victories, no losses and no ties. They were led by Hall of Fame head coach Paul Brown, whose methods revolutionized the game and influenced every coach who followed. On the field, the '48 Browns' roster featured six future Hall of Famers, including Marion Motley and Bill Willis, who broke pro football's color barrier with the first snap of the 1946 season.

Between 1979 and 1937, Hall of Fame coach Jock Sutherland took the championship program at the University of Pittsburgh that was built by his mentor Glenn ""Pop"" Warner, and won five of the nine national championships the school now claims. While a successful period, it was also controversial: Sutherland employed the help of wealthy boosters named the Golden Panthers, who helped him secure the services of the best players western Pennsylvania had to offer. While they made sure the players had what they needed, the school also made sure the players had enough money to be comfortable. Critics accused Pitt of employing what amounted to professional athletes in a college sport. These accusations not only embarrassed the school administration, but led to the end of their dynasty and its coach. This book tells the exciting tale of their championship run, and describes how their downfall began what has since been a continual academics-versus athletics tug-of-war at the school.

Publishing on the 50th anniversary of that magic season, the definitive chronicle of the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the only undefeated team in NFL history-from an award-winning literary sportswriterThe 1972 Miami Dolphins had something to prove. Losers in the previous Super Bowl, a ragtag bunch of overlooked, underappreciated, or just plain old players, they were led by Don Shula, a genius young coach obsessed with obliterating the reputation that he couldn't win the big game. And as the Dolphins headed into only their seventh season, all eyes were on Miami. For the last time, a city was hosting both national political conventions, and the backdrop to this season of redemption would be turbulent: the culture wars, the Nixon reelection campaign, the strange, unfolding saga of Watergate, and the war in Vietnam.Generational and cultural divides abounded on the team as well. There were long-haired, bell-bottomed party animals such as Jim "Mad Dog" Mandich, as well as the stylish Marv Fleming and Curtis Johnson, with his supernova afro, playing alongside conservative, straight-laced men like the quarterbacks: Bob Griese and the crew-cut savior, 38-year-old backup Earl Morrall. Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick, nicknamed "Butch and Sundance," had to make way for a third running back, the outspoken and flamboyant Mercury Morris. But unlike the fractious society around them, this racially and culturally diverse group found a way to meld seamlessly into a team. The perfect team. Marshall Jon Fisher's Seventeen and Oh is a compelling, fast-paced account of a season unlike any other.

This book explains how the NFL determines each team's opponents and how the league's scheduling format has evolved throughout the years. It includes a history on the evolution of the pro football schedule, explores all of the scheduling formulas used in the National Football League, American Football League and the All-America Football Conference, presents home-and-away opponent charts from 1933 through the 2017 season, and provides a detailed explanation of how playoff game sites have been determined in pro football history.

In 1927 Cuban national Ignacio S. Molinet was recruited to play with the Frankford Yellow Jackets of the old NFL for a single season. Mexican national Jose Martinez-Zorrilla achieved 1932 All-American honors. These are the beginnings of the Latino experience in American Football, which continues amidst a remarkable and diversified setting of Hispanic nationalities and ethnic groups. This history of Latinos in American Football dispels the myths that baseball, boxing, and soccer are the chosen and competent sports for Spanish-surname athletes. The book documents their fascination for the sport that initially denied their participation but that could not discourage their determination to master the game.

The inside story of the only undefeated team in NFL history, the 1972 Miami Dolphins--by the Hall of Fame quarterback who led it to victory

Hall of Fame quarterback and long-time ABC college football announcer Bob Griese is a living football legend. Now, on the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Miami Dolphins' incredible championship season, Griese tells the behind-the-scenes story of the team both on and off the field as it achieved a feat no other team has ever succeeded in matching: perfection.

You'll see Griese shocked in his first meeting with Joe Robbie as the Dolphins owner balanced big contract figures and a staggering number of drinks. You'll hear Griese meeting Don Shula for the first time and being ordered to start staying in the pass pocket rather than scrambling. ""Build me a pocket and I'll stay in it, ' Griese told Shula. You'll understand the friendship and on-field relationship developed between Griese and Paul Warfield after they became the Dolphins' first inter-racial roommates.

You'll follow Griese through a storied season that began with him wondering just how good the Dolphins actually were and ended with him awarding the game ball in the winning Super Bowl locker room. Along the way you'll hear: How Shula implemented and Griese embraced the first use of situation substitution in the NFL and the controversy it caused in a backfield of Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick and Mercury MorrisThe lengths to which NFL players of that era kept themselves on the field, including regular trips from the hospital bed to the playing fieldInsight and anecdotes from Hall of Fame players Warfield, Csonka, Nick Buoniconti, Jim Langer, and Larry Little as well as Griese

Packed with behind-the-scenes drama and on-the-field excitement, "Perfection" is a book every football fan will want to read.

The Washington Redskins franchise remains one of the most valuable in professional sports, in part because of its easily recognizable, popular, and profitable brand. And yet "redskins" is a derogatory name for American Indians. Prominent journalists, politicians, and former players have publicly spoken out against the use of Redskins as the name of the team. The number of grassroots campaigns to change the name has risen in recent years despite the current team owner's assertion that the team will never do so. The NFL, for its part, actively defends the name and supports it in court. Redskins: Insult and Brand examines how the ongoing struggle over the team name raises important questions about how white Americans perceive American Indians, about the cultural power of consumer brands, and about continuing obstacles to inclusion and equality. C. Richard King examines the history of the team's name, the evolution of the term "redskin," and the various ways in which people both support and oppose its use today. King's hard-hitting approach to the team's logo and mascot exposes the disturbing history of a moniker's association with the NFL-a multibillion-dollar entity that accepts public funds-as well as popular attitudes toward Native Americans today.