Best of
Football

1989

Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen


Joe Drape - 1989
    They have done so by embracing a philosophy of life taught by their legendary coach, Roger Barta: "Respect each other, then learn to love each other and together we are champions."But as they embarked on a quest for a fifth consecutive title in the fall of 2008, they faced a potentially destabilizing transition: the greatest senior class in school history had graduated, and Barta was contemplating retirement after three decades on the sidelines.In Smith Center--population: 1,931--this changing of the guard was seismic. Hours removed from the nearest city, the town revolves around "our boys" in a way that goes to the heart of what America's heartland is today.Joe Drape, a Kansas City native and an award-winning sportswriter for "The New York Times," moved his family to Smith Center to discover what makes the team and the town an inspiration even to those who live hundreds of miles away. His stories of the coaches, players, and parents reveal a community fighting to hold on to a way of life that is rich in value, even as its economic fortunes decline.Drape's moving portrait of Coach Barta and the impressive young men of Smith Center is sure to take its place among the more memorable American sports stories of recent years.

Bo: Life, Laughs, and Lessons of a College Football Legend


Bo Schembechler - 1989
    The University of Michigan's football legend Bo Schembechler recalls his career, from his early years at Michigan to his retirement and position with the Detroit Tigers, along with his views on football scandals.

A Payroll To Meet: A Story Of Greed, Corruption, and Football At SMU


David Whitford - 1989
    The school’s football team was the pride of the university and the city. Before the late 1970s, however, the relatively small school had trouble recruiting and struggled to keep up with the big-time football universities that were often more than double its size. Under pressure to compete, the SMU football program engaged in ethics, rules, and recruiting violations for years. When the corruption came to light, the NCAA handed out its most serious punishment in the history of college sports—the “death penalty”—which cancelled the team’s entire 1987 schedule.In A Payroll to Meet, author David Whitford details the Mustangs’ descent into corruption and the fallout when it was discovered. Most egregiously, the football program ran a huge slush fund that was used to pay players from the mid-1970s through 1986. Bill Clements, chairman of the SMU board and soon to be reelected governor of Texas, knew all about the slush fund before the NCAA did. He opted, however, to phase out the payments rather than stop them immediately, for fear that angry players might go public and create still more problems for SMU. Clements and the athletic director Bob Hitch decided that the football program had “a payroll to meet.”

Manchester United


Michael Crick - 1989
    

Forward Pass


Thomas J. Dygard - 1989
    Jill Winston is the surprise he comes up with--but a girl on a high school football team? Thomas Dygard takes readers through the maze of problems that the coach must maneuver to get his new star on the field.

Paterno: By the Book


Joe Paterno - 1989
    16-page b&w photo insert.

The Murchisons: The Rise and Fall of a Texas Dynasty


Jane Wolfe - 1989
    The Murchisons, an intimate portrait of the real-life Ewings of "Dallas," is the tragic and true story of their ambition and genius, the greed, power and pride.