"Keith Dunnavant's triumph is that he takes us into the heart of
Alabama, into the darkness and the light, and there we see Joe
Namath, Kenny Stabler, Ray Perkins, and their band of brothers play
football for Bear Bryant the way life should be lived, at full
throttle, indomitably."
---Dave Kindred, author of "Sound and Fury: Two Powerful Lives, One
Fateful Friendship"
The Missing Ring" is more than a football book. It is both a story
of a changing era and of an extraordinary team on a championship
quest."
Very few institutions in American sports can match the enduring
excellence of the University of Alabama football program. Across a
wide swath of the last century, the tradition-rich Crimson Tide has
claimed twelve national championships, captured twenty-five
conference titles, finished thirty-four times among the country's
top ten, and played in fifty-three bowl games.
Especially dominant during the era of the legendary Paul "Bear"
Bryant, the larger-than-life figure who towered over the landscape
like no man before or since, Alabama entered the 1966 season with
the chance to become the first college football team to win three
consecutive national championships. Every aspect of Bryant's
grueling system was geared around competing for the big prize each
and every year, and in 1966 the idea of the threepeat tantalized
the players, pushing them toward greatness. Driven by Bryant's
enthusiasm, dedication, and perseverance, players were made to
believe in their team and themselves. Led by the electrifying force
of quarterback Kenny "Snake" Stabler and one of the most punishing
defenses in the storied annals of the Southeastern Conference, the
Crimson Tide cruised to a magical season, finishing as the nation's
only undefeated, untied team. But something happened on the way to
the history books.
"The Missing Ring" is the story of the one that got away, the one
that haunts Alabama fans still, and native Alabamian Keith
Dunnavant takes readers deep inside the Crimson Tide program during
a more innocent time, before widespread telecasting, before
scholarship limitations, before end-zone dances. Meticulously
revealing the strategies, tactics, and personal dramas that bring
the overachieving boys of 1966 to life, Dunnavant's insightful,
anecdotally rich narrative shows how Bryant molded a diverse group
of young men into a powerful force that overcame various obstacles
to achieve perfection in an imperfect world.
Set against the backdrop of the civil rights movement, the
still-escalating Vietnam War, and a world and a sport teetering on
the brink of change in a variety of ways, "The Missing Ring" tells
an important story about the collision between football and
culture. Ultimately, it is this clash that produces the Crimson
Tide's most implacable foe, enabling the greatest injustice in
college football history. "Keith Dunnavant has written yet another
fabulous book about the fabled Alabama football program. You will
be amazed at how one of the great injustices in the history of
college football cost them their rightful place in history. And you
just thought the system was screwed up now."
---Jim Dent, author of "The Junction Boys"
"Keith Dunnavant nails it: all the sacrifices the 1966 Alabama team
made to win three national championships in a row, and how we were
robbed at the ballot box."
---Jerry Duncan, one of the boys of 1966
"Dunnavant infuses reportage and passion into a tale that every
Alabamian of a certain age knows: For all the crying about Penn
State in 1969, Penn State in 1994, or Auburn in 2004, no team ever
got shafted the way the 1966 Crimson Tide did. It's all here: the
churning legs, the churning stomachs, and the dreaded gym classes
where Bear Bryant's boys made the sacrifices he demanded in order
to become champions. They conquered their opponents on the field,
but proved to be no match for the politics of the day off the
field. The '66 Tide is still waiting for the Missing Ring." "Thanks
to Dunnavant, we don't have to."
---Ivan Maisel, senior writer, ESPN.com, and co-author of "A War in
""Dixie"""
"Absolutely stunning. "The Missing Ring" left me breathless. Keith
Dunnavant has proven again why he is one of America's greatest
sports authors and historians. With so much having been written
about Bryant and Alabama, I had my doubts going into this book that
there was something I didn't know or hadn't read. Yet Dunnavant has
managed to strike gold with "The Missing Ring" in every way and
shape imaginable. His quiet prose goes down as effortlessly as
bourbon and branch water. Fans of college football will marvel at
his painstaking research. Dunnavant turned the clock back forty
years and it was 1966 all over again. The pain and the glory, the
pride and the prejudice, all brought to life in the pages of this
extraordinary book."
---Paul Finebaum, Paul Finebaum Radio Network""
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