Season of Saturdays: A History of College Football in 14 Games

Description

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).

Get the book

Amazon.com

Search the book

eBay.com

Search the book

Other editions

• 

  Season of Saturdays: A History of College Football in 14...

  • 2015-08-11
  • 288 pages
  • Paperback
  • Simon and Schuster

Similar books

• 

  When Saturday Mattered Most: The Last Golden Season of Army Football

  By Mark Beech

  Caldwell's pass was a little short, and Morrison had to reach back and stoop to corral the ball as he crossed the 3. He gathered it into his belly and took another step before tumbling forward into the end zone. Nobody had touched him.

• 

  Georgia: Saturdays Between the Hedges

  By Jeff Dantzler

  Detailed in full-color splendor through this remarkable book is the essence of a University of Georgia football weekend at legendary Sanford Stadium.

• 

  The Saturdays

  By Elizabeth Enright

  The Saturdays is the first installment of Enright's Melendy Quartet, an engaging and warm series about the close-knit Melendy family and their surprising adventures.

• 

  Dixieland Delight: A Football Season on the Road in the Southeastern Conference

  By Clay Travis

  Dixieland Delight is Travis's hilarious, loving, irreverent, and endlessly entertaining chronicle of a season of ironic excess in a world that goes a little crazy on football Saturdays.

• 

  Out of the Pocket: Football, Fatherhood, and College GameDay Saturdays

  By Kirk Herbstreit

  The face and voice of college football, in this riveting and revealing memoir, takes readers behind the scenes, describing how a combination of hard work, perseverance and a little luck landed him on the set of ESPN's iconic College GameDay ...

• 

  Florida Saturdays at the Swamp: An Inside Look at the Pageantry, Tradition and Spirit of Game Day at the University...

  By David Stirt

  Examines the history and tradition that takes place on football Saturdays at the University of Florida.

• 

  The Last Season: A Father, a Son, and a Lifetime of College Football

  By Stuart Stevens

  We ask for understanding and forgiveness for those who did this terrible act and for the peace that passes all understanding for the Evers family in their terrible hour of need. In God's name, we pray. Amen.” “Amen,” I said.

• 

  The Best Saturdays of Our Lives

  By Mark McCray

  white staircase and wearing white tuxedos to match, the Hudson Brothers sang “Socko Saturday” during the finale. The scene was hilarious, classic, and so memorable. COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 11: FOX'S SATURDAY MORNING AND SILLY SNEAK PEEKS ...

• 

  Every Saturday in Autumn: College Football's Greatest Traditions

  By Ron Smith

  The perfect gift for rabid college alumni All of the great traditions of college football are collected in the latest commemorative title from The Sporting News. Every Saturday in Autumn...

• 

  Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer: A Road Trip Into the Heart of Fan Mania

  By Warren St. John

  The first is that there is no way in hell — his words — that I'll be invited to spend a weekend with Skeeter Stokes aboard his RV . Second : Over the years Stokes has compiled a list of names and phone numbers of RV - ers he's met at ...