Folks, including me, talking about John U. Bacon’s book Fourth and Long have focused on the “serious” stuff like in there, like the discussion of the state of college football and the Brandon’s handling of the athletic department and struggle of Penn State’s seniors to hold its team together. But much of the book takes a lighter look at many of the elements off the field that we all know, especially in these parts, help form the true soul of this sport. Two of those elements he discusses in Fourth have special place in my heart: the Little Brown Jug (Chapter 18) and the Mudbowl (Chap 19). I played in the Mudbowl but didn’t do much beyond delivering a late hit/cheapshot that triggered a bench-clearing brawl. In future blogger-like fashion I slipped out of the melee because I have sensitive fingers and wrists, man. Bacs described the battle in the slop (two decades removed from my triumph in the early 1990s) and he has it about right: The play wasn’t pretty, but it was fierce, with almost every down resulting in at least one player getting jammed face-first into the swamp, followed by a five-man shoving match, which usually ended with at least one more player eating mud. If you could claim anything was “beautiful” about a game that was…
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Reviewing Fourth And Long
[Ed. 9/3 An important note: I received an advance/uncorrected copy of the book this summer and wrote this review in early July and held onto it, waiting for clearance to pull the trigger. In the time since there have been several excerpts, interviews and reviews out there. I left my early July thoughts basically unchanged. Fourth And Long hits stores today. And P.S. I have questions from July (and now answers) into Bacon on the book – they are now posted here.] If you read this site you probably won’t need to be nudged to pick up pretty much any book John U. Bacon writes on sports. You won’t be disappointed with his latest. In 4&L Bacon walks you through 2012 Big Ten football season looking primarily though the travails of four teams: Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan and Northwestern. This passage from early on kind of sets the stage Bacon’s work and why he chose the Big Ten as his canvas: Given the Big Ten’s unique place in the pantheon of college football–the exemplar that has combined academic power, athletic prowess, and commercial popularity, with a minimum of miscues before 2010–the conference, its twelve-hundred-plus football players, and 17.5 million fans aren’t merely canaries in the coal mine. They’re the coal miners. Bacon defines the soul of college football from…
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Fourth and Not Much Longer
Don’t look now folks but in a few weeks John U. Bacon’s Fourth and Long will be on bookshelves and the talk of the town..err..several towns. It officially drops September 3 and you can order it now on Amazon if you want to impress your friends. Bacs just posted a series a places where you can see him (even get an advance copy of the book), as well as the timing of several excerpts that will run nationally and on prominent sites. Via johnubacon.com: I’ll have updates on the book tour events, the schedule of excerpts and radio and TV appearances very soon, but here are the first events, with more information to come. To attend, feel free to contact these organizations to reserve your spot. We WILL have books available for all at all these stops, even those that pre-date the publication date. EVENTS: -Tuesday, August 20, lunchtime: Columbus, Ohio, Rotary Club, lunchtime. -Monday, August 26, 5:30 p.m.: UM Alumni Club of Chicago, at the Diag Bar. -Friday, September 6, 6 p.m.: Nicola’s Books in Ann Arbor. -Tuesday, September 10, 6 p.m.: UM Alumni Club of Grand Rapids, at the Louis Benton Steakhouse. EXCERPTS, REVIEWS, INTERVIEWS AND STORIES -Friday, August 16: The Wall Street Journal: excerpt on how Penn State kept their team together PennLive.com: Review and story by…