Name: Akron-Canton Football Heritage
Brand: Thomas Maroon
SKU: 9780738540788
Price: 24.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Akron-Canton Football Heritage

9780738540788

$24.99

Football in the Akron-Canton area can be traced back to the 1890s with Buchtel College and John W. Heisman. In the early 1900s, multiple professional teams sprouted throughout the eastern Ohio region. Major powerhouses included the Canton Bulldogs, Akron Indians, and Massillon Pros. In 1920, the Akron Pros became the first modern-day national champions of organized football. With the formation of the American Professional Football Association and the National Football League, many players and coaches with ties to the Akron-Canton region have become synonymous with football excellence. Today football in this area continues to play an integral part of life from the high school level to the college ranks to all types of professional football.

Akron-Canton Football Heritage traces the rich and storied history of football in the region as well as the contribution of local players, coaches, and teams through pictures obtained from multiple collections.

Bear Memories

9780738539874

$24.99

"Halas would provide food according to how we had fared against the Packers. If we won, it was steaks for everybody. But if we lost, we were lucky to be served hamburgers."
--Harlan Hill, 1950s

"I didn't have any particular grievance with any of the Packer players, I just wanted to beat them all."
--Hall of Famer Doug Atkins, 1960s

"Doug Buffone took me aside to tell me about Green Bay games . . . to set me straight about the importance of the rivalry. It definitely was not a game to be taken for granted."
--Brian Baschnagel, 1970s

"Each year at the start of the season, fans we'd meet would just have the one request--please beat Green Bay."
--Jim Flanigan, 1990s

Cincinnati Bengals History

9780738540900

$24.99

There were three professional football teams in Cincinnati before the current Bengals became a permanent fixture in the city. The Cincinnati Celts, Reds, and an earlier Bengals team (formed in 1937) all had short appearances in leagues that soon folded. It was not until 1967 that the football gods again smiled on Cincinnati. Paul Brown, who founded the Cleveland Browns in 1942, sold the Browns in 1962 and went to work organizing a Cincinnati team that played its first game in 1968. While the Bengals may not own any Super Bowl rings, they have won two AFC championship games, in 1981 and 1988, and were AFC Central Division champions five times, 1970, 1973, 1981, 1988, and 1990, as well as topping the AFC North in 2005.

Cleveland Browns History

9780738534282

$24.99

There was little fanfare when Art "Mickey" McBride flew into Chicago in 1945 to purchase a professional football team for Cleveland. But that act set in motion a tradition that has brought the city of Cleveland together on Sunday afternoons for (most of) the sixty years to follow. Cleveland Browns History is the story of championship seasons, legendary coaches, and Hall of Fame players. Coach Paul Brown led his teams to seven league title games in their first 17 seasons. Running backs Marion Motley, Jim Brown, and Leroy Kelley each rushed over opposing defenses and
straight into Canton, Ohio, along with fellow Browns like Otto Graham, Ozzie Newsome, and Len Ford. The "Kardiac Kids" in 1980 had too many nail-biters for some fans, but won the AFC Central in typical fashion--by three points in the final game of the season. All these stories, plus those of the many unsung heroes to don the NFL's only logo-less helmet, fill the pages of this book, sure to delight any Cleveland Browns fan.

Cover image for Cleveland Browns History, isbn: 9780738534282

Football at Ball State University

9780738518923

$24.99

Intercollegiate football was played in Muncie, Indiana for the first time in 1924, when the Hoosieroons of Ball Teachers College played their first game against the Indiana State Normal School and their first home game against Central Normal College. The Hoosieroons became the Cardinals of Ball Teachers College in 1927, and then Ball State Teachers College in 1929, and finally Ball State University in 1965. Over the course of the next 75 years, Ball State's football program grew from essentially a small college enterprise to its present status as a respected member of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) and a participant in NCAA Division I football. The echoes of cheering fans can be heard, even in an empty stadium. Using over 200 vintage photos, E. Bruce Geelhoed explores how football grew and developed at Ball State University. Spanning from 1924, when Ball Teachers College was a branch campus of the Indiana State Normal School, to the present day when Ball State is a comprehensive regional university, this book tells the stories of the players, coaches, and traditions that characterize this American pastime in Indiana.

Green Bay Packers

9780738539607

$23.99

Their football legacy is second to none--12 NFL Championships, 25 Pro Football Hall of Fame members, and names like Lombardi, Lambeau, and Favre, synonymous with a winning tradition. In a time when big money and television markets dictate escalating player salaries and franchise relocations, the Green Bay Packers continue to succeed as a professional sports anomaly. While surviving certain bankruptcy, enduring numerous seasons of mediocrity, and playing in the smallest market of any major sports team in America, the Green Bay Packers have risen to the top to be recognized as one of the greatest franchises in sports history. Green Bay Packers: Legends in Green and Gold chronicles the team's phenomenal successes, heartbreaking letdowns, and legendary moments, beginning with an inauspicious inception in 1919 through the Super Bowl XXXI victory over the New England Patriots in 1997.

Legends of the Hall

9780738561691

$24.99

Legends of the Hall: 1950s captures a period of time when playing professional football was for tough, honest men who played solely for the love of the game. The 1950s was an era of crew cuts and nicknames like Crazylegs, Hopalong, and Night Train. The decade began with Sammy Baugh throwing his last passes and ended with the death of Bert Bell. This era also produced some of the greatest quarterbacks ever to play the game. They were known as the glamour boys of the league--Otto Graham, Bob Waterfield, Bobby Layne, Y. A. Tittle, and Bart Starr, to name a few. The incomparable, individual brilliance and unique team chemistry that marked this era have transcended this specific time and place to make Legends of the Hall: 1950s an unforgettable part of the magic and myth of professional football.

Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries

9780738561684

$24.99

High school football has been an institution in metro Detroit since the day the assembly line changed America. From the game's inception at the prep level in the early 1900s to the annual Thanksgiving Day games that would make or break a school's season, prep football has been a rite of passage for players, parents, coaches, and fans alike in Detroit since after World War II. Detroit's high schools were massed and assembled from the immigrant pockets that carved out city and suburban landscapes. The one constant in all these cultural melting pots was high school football. For parents and neighbors of the marching bands, cheerleaders, and players, football season in the golden age of high school sports was an all-community event. Towns shuttered and time stopped for nine Fridays in the fall.

Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries

Michigan State Football

9780738532141

$24.99

Michigan State University's football history is overflowing with famous, interesting, and colorful figures. From Gideon "Charlie" Smith, who in 1913 became one of the nation's first black collegiate players, to George Webster, the "Greatest Spartan of All Time," to Morton Andersen, who still holds the Big Ten record for longest field goal-they are all Spartans. Earl Morrall, Bubba Smith, Lorenzo White... the list goes on. Added to this list of tremendous players are legendary coaches like the "Biggie" Munn and Duffy Dougherty. And who could forget the famous 10-10 tie with Notre Dame in 1966 or the Rose Bowl victory over Southern Cal in 1987?

Spartan tradition is more than the coaches and players on the field, however, and Michigan State Football: They Are Spartans offers many rare images and long-forgotten anecdotes about how the program became a player on the national stage. The early days as a farm college team, the development into a football power as an independent, the successful struggle to join the Big Ten conference, and of course, the historic rivalry with a certain team from Ann Arbor are all recounted in the pages of this book.

Nebraska Cornhusker Football

9780738534374

$24.99

When Matt Davison made a diving catch on the famous "flea-flicker" play against Missouri in 1997, securing Nebraska's perfect season, the Husker faithful were in football nirvana. And that memorable play was preceded by over a century of Nebraska Football greatness. The team was winning conference championships back in the 1890s, and was an established national powerhouse by the time they joined the Big Eight (later Big Twelve) in 1928. Even the mediocre years brought excitement, such as the stunning 25-21 upset of the "unbeatable" Sooners in 1959. Five National Championships (1970, '71, '94, '95, and '97) under the coaching of Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne, when the Huskers won at least 9 games per season for over 30 straight years, is an accomplishment of which most collegiate football programs can only dream.

Northwestern Wildcat Football

9780738534336

$24.99

Their program was once regarded as a powerhouse, but 25 years ago the Northwestern University football team set records for futility. Defying nearly all expectations, the Wildcats experienced a rebirth in 1995 and have been surprising the college football world since. Northwestern Wildcat Football describes in detail the team's first games in the 19th century, the Wildcats' title runs in the 1930s, the career of NU legend Otto Graham, the 1949 Rose Bowl championship, the era of Ara Parseghian, the woes of the '70s and '80s, and Northwestern's return to football prominence in the past decade. From their beginning as one of the earliest college teams in the Midwest to the recent series of Big Ten championships, the Northwestern Wildcats have clawed their way to claim 8 conference titles, 36 All-Americans, and victory in some of the most thrilling college football games ever played.

University of Nebraska-Omaha Football

9781467114615

$24.99

From its inaugural season in 1911 through its final season in 2011, the University of Nebraska-Omaha football team always faced an uphill struggle in terms of resources. The program reached a pinnacle in 1954 with its lone unbeaten season. Many other teams and individuals also found great success, winning conference titles and bowl games and moving onto professional careers. Just because the school no longer offers football, it does not mean that the thousands of men who played for the Mavericks from 1971 to 2011, the Indians from 1939 to 1971, and the Cardinals and the Maroons before should not be remembered and honored for the years they poured their hearts and souls into the Omaha football program.

University of Wisconsin Football

9780738539829

$24.99

From their humble beginnings as an intramural club in 1889 to Rose Bowl champions in 1994, 1999, and 2000, the Wisconsin Badgers have risen among the ranks of college football to become one of the elite teams in the nation. The University of Wisconsin football program can claim 11 conference championships, 16 bowl game appearances (8-8 record), and 7 National College Football Hall of Famers. The legendary names of Pat O'Dea, Alan Ameche, and Ron Dayne may span decades, but they are timelessly united in meaning to generations of the Badger faithful. Great coaches like Phillip King, "Ivy" Williamson, and Barry Alvarez likewise share a winning tradition that dates back more than 100 years. Each season Wisconsin football fans return to fill the seats--all 80,000 plus--at Camp Randall stadium to witness more history in the making.

Western Michigan Football

9780738540887

$24.99

From its beginnings as a small teaching college in Kalamazoo to becoming a major program in a state full of major college football programs, Western Michigan University boasts a unique and storied gridiron history. Celebrating 100 years of football action, the Western Michigan University Broncos have faced some of the greatest names in sports, including the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame, the Michigan Wolverines, and their arch nemesis from Central Michigan. Year after year, the Broncos have risen to the challenge. Starting life as the Hilltoppers, Western Michigan University saw many great moments, including a record-setting 62-yard fi eld goal by the legendary George Gipp. The powerful 1922 team went undefeated and unscored upon. As the program grew, they put many celebrated players of their own into national prominence, including Jason Babin, Pro Bowl star John Offerdahl, and Super Bowl player Tom Nutten.