Summer Reading

by 40AS on May 28, 2007 9:02 PM CDT in Basketball Comment 10 comments

One of the best ways to learn and stay excited about Texas football during the summertime is a little activity we like to call "reading books." Thus, for your enjoyment, here are our top 5 Longhorn football-related books to get you through the next 96 days:

Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming: Texas vs. Arkansas in Dixie's Last Stand. As a piece of scholarly work, this is far and away the best Texas football book out there. Author Terry Frei gives you an in-depth look at both the Longhorns and Razorbacks of 1969, along with all the social, political, and athletic context in which that classic game was played. Plus: we won.

Backyard Brawl: Inside the Blood Feud between Texas and Texas A&M. W.K. Stratton spins a pretty good yarn and he's a pro in terms of his writing. It's a lot of fun reading about a series that the Longhorns have so thoroughly dominated through most of its history (we'll just pretend the 80's never happened. And not just because of Whitesnake). The bad news about this book is that Stratton focuses a lot on, and seems to sympathise with, the ridiculous "traditions" that the Cult of Reveille is known for. The good news is, that gives you some insight into their crazy.

Longhorns' Perfect Drive: Texas' 2005 National Championship Season. This Austin American-Statesman recap of the 2005 season has Vince Young on the cover. And it's about the 2005 national championship team. So, you should read it. Again.

One Heartbeat II: The Road to the National Championship. We haven't read this book. But it's by Mack Brown, and it's updated to include the 2005 national championship. How can it be bad? Plus, Corn Nation liked it.

Runnin' With the Big Dogs: The True, Unvarnished Story of the Texas-Oklahoma Football Wars. The unvarnished truth is, you should probably only read this one if you've gotten through the other four on this list and it's still July. It's not particularly well-written and it's largely anecdotal. But, most of the anecdotes are pretty entertaining, so it's worth a little time if you've got it.

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Non Longhorn-Related, but still a fantastic read

"The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game" by Michael Lewis is a great book to read about football, even though it has nothing to do with the Texas Longhorns. Lewis talks about the evolution of pro football and how the left tackle has become the game's hottest commodity, while at the same time telling the true story of Michael Oher, an innercity youth who gets taken in by a Christian family and given the opportunity to absolutely demolish the opponents he faces as a tackle at Briarcrest Prep (in Memphis). I am a teacher in Memphis, and one of my students is a cousin of Michael Oher, so this book had a lot of significance for me; even so, if you enjoyed reading "Moneyball," then you will definitely like this book. Hopefully it's in paperback now.

When does football start again?

by bendj on May 28, 2007 10:00 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

i second that

I read The Blind Side and Horns, Hogs and Nixon Coming back to back in January and both were excellent. Michael Lewis is simply one of the best sportswriters out there these days. I have issues with him the fact that he fetishizes innovation -- any innovation -- seemingly without regard to anything else, but he's a phenomenal writer and story-teller. If you have any interest in the intricacies of football or in the human and societal impact of football, then it's just a phenomenal book.

Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming isn't as well-written as the Blind Side. Terry Frei is pretty clearly a newpaper reporter writing a book, which brings a different dimension to the book. It's still quite well-written though, probably one of the best of its genre, non-Halberstam division. The game itself is a big part of the book, but it's secondary to the context in which the game was played and the players and coaches that took part in that game. While some of the "context" feels like a stretch, it's still a phenomenal retelling of the events of that game and everything that surrounded it.

by billyzane on May 29, 2007 12:03 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Arkansas-Texas 1969

What does Frei have to say about Penn State, which finished undefeated for the second straight season (outscored opps. 322-90) but was snubbed by the polls for the second straight season after Nixon declared Texas the champion? PSU got some kind of consolation prize commending it for "longest winning streak," but in his own books, Paterno has always been bitter about neither of those teams - nor his undefeated teams in 1973 and 1994 - going down as national champion.

by smq on May 29, 2007 9:50 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Good friend of mine

who is a big Penn State fan, still give me shit about Nixon declaring UT a national champion.

He also counts the 1994 season as a national championship, because the were the New York Times national champion.

by Wells on May 29, 2007 10:55 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Response

"We could never figure out why they didn't choose to settle it on the grass in Dallas, rather than from a soapbox in Pennsylvania."
-- Freddie Steinmark on the protestations of Penn State and Joe Paterno that they deserved the MNC in 1969, after they refused the invitation to play the Horns in the Cotton Bowl.

by 40AS on May 29, 2007 11:06 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

yeah, that's pretty much what Frei makes of it

He does talk about Penn St and how they were pissed at Nixon for basically declaring it. but the cotton bowl tried to get penn st. to play in the game against texas but they chose to go with their natural bowl tie-in instead.

But Penn St. has gotten screwed quite a bit in the undefeated-season-but-no-national-championship department. Meanwhile, Florida's never had an undefeated and untied season and yet they have 2 national championships in the last 10 years. I actually looked that up. Florida went 5-0-1 in 1911. That's it. Seasons in which they only had 1 loss: 1923 (with 2 ties); 1928; 1969 (with 1 tie); 1984 (1 tie); 1985 (1 tie) [in both '84 and '85, UF was stripped of SEC titles for cheating]; 1995; 1996; 2006. That's it. Looking through all that, it's amazing how terrible Florida was as a program until they started cheating in the '80s.

.....and that was a magnificent tangent.

by billyzane on May 29, 2007 11:48 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Florida has class

They changed those cheating years to "First in the Conference" in their stadium display.

by Bob LaBlog on May 29, 2007 11:58 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Backyard Brawl

is a decent read. I received it as a gift soon after it was first published in 2002, so I was just a sophomore in high school at the time. I learned a lot about both schools I wasn't previously aware of, and Stratton does indeed seem a wee bit sympathetic about the Aggies' tradition.

Kinda funny story: after I read the book, I knew more about A&M tradition than my Aggie friends (still in high school at the time, though). They were embarassed that a 'sip like myself was more knowledgeable about Aggie history.

...til Gabriel blows his horn

by BigTexBD on May 29, 2007 1:42 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs