Gridiron Generals: A Hard-Hitting History of College Football

In college sports, the coach is often the biggest star: athletes only participate for four or five years, but the coach may go on for decades--hence the larger than life profiles of the Bobby Knights, Bear Bryants and Dan Gables of the world. Gridiron Generals ponders the realm of college football coaches, detailing the careers of some of the greatest names in sport, such as Walter Camp, Knute Rockne, Pop Warner and A.A. Stagg--not to mention more recent notables such as Tom Osborne, Steve Spurrier and Bobby Bowden--and imparts a good bit of football history as well. Although the focus of this program is college football, former NFL head coach Mike Ditka lends his gruff, authoritative presence, as does veteran political pundit and unreconstructed Reaganaut George Will, who opines that in the post-Civil War era, "there clearly [was] a sense in which college football was the moral equivalent of war." Moral equivalencies aside, this is a rip-snortin', action-packed history of college football presented in an easily digestible, entertaining package. Still photos, drawings and paintings carry the visuals for the early days, and of course there are lots of film and video clips from later years, including the infamous Gator Bowl sequence in which Ohio State coach and military history buff Woody Hayes slugs a Clemson player. All-American stuff and important cultural history, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (M. Tribby)