collegefootballtopten.com

I haven’t made a “Short, Short List” in a while.  I have read and reviewed a few books since my last one in May.  This list is not quite as short as I have reviewed a few more books.

1.  Tarnished Heisman: Did Reggie Bush Turn His Final College Season into a Six-Figure Job? by Don Yaeger and Jim Henry.  The authors delve into the controversy surrounding the potential gifts that Reggie Bush received his last two years as a student athlete at USC.  Here is my review of the book.

2.  Hero of the Underground by Jason Peter.  This book is a memoir by former Nebraska Cornhusker defensive lineman and Carolina Panther Jason Peter about his journey to heroin abuse and back to sobriety.  It is a tough book to read in which Peter describes the lifestyle in which he was entrenched, and I don’t recommend it for young teenagers.

3.  Season of Life: A Football Star, a Boy, a Journey to Manhood by Jeffrey Marx.  A good inspirational and encouraging book about a couple of high school football coaches who are seeking to make a difference in the lives of young men more than they are trying to win games.  But, they win the games too.  Here is my review, in two parts.

4.  Top Dawg: Mark Richt and the Revival of Georgia Football by Rob Suggs.  If you were watching Gameday on ESPN this morning, you saw the moving segment on Mark Richt and his wife who adopted two children from the Ukraine.  Mark Richt is one of the reasons that Georgia Bulldog football is a top ten program once again.  This book by Rob Suggs captures the unique revival that Richt brought to the ‘Dawg program.  Here is my review.

5.  Walk-On:  A Memoir by Thom Gossom, Jr. This book is a memoir by the first African American athlete to graduate from Auburn University.  Gossom went on to excel in many aspects including a film and TV career.  Gossom does a terrific job of describing the hardship he endured as one of the few African American students at the rural southern school.  Gossom holds memories of pain and joy from his days at Auburn.  Here is my review of the book.

Currently I am reading Rosebowl Dreams by fellow blogger Adams Jones (no relation), and I will be reading The Galloping Ghost: Red Grange, an American Football Legend by Gary A. Poole shortly.  I will do reviews of these books in the next couple of months.  At that point, I am thinking of reading something Christmas through the holidays.  What do you think?

Previous Short, Short Lists

Short, Short List number one
Short, Short List number two

Walk-On:  A Memoir by Thom Gossom, Jr.

My friend Doug Bigelow has created a new award to honor those student athlete football players who show the inspiration and courage to be a contributor for his football team minus the scholarship.  The award will be named the Lynn “Pappy” Waldorf Trophy.  You can learn more about the award by visiting www.collegefootballwalkon.com.

Thom Gossom, Jr. was a walk on football player at Auburn University from 1970-1975.  But Gossom wasn’t just a walk on at Auburn, he was an African American walk on.  Gossom had made a promise to himself, a goal really, to play football for Auburn as a boy growing up in Birmingham, AL.  Goals were encouraged by his father on New Year’s Day, and Gossom made that goal even though most boys would have wanted to play football for the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Gossom describes with detail the clash in cultures as a young black man who attended a college with very little integration in the rural south and dominated by the culture of the southern whites.  The barriers were plentiful, but Gossom managed to secure a student loan to pay for the first year.  As a walk on, Gossom had to live in a small apartment just off campus failing to have some of the luxuries of the scholarship athletes including the dining hall which the scholarship athletes had access to.

Gossom’s work ethic, and raw talent eventually earned him a scholarship for the legendary coach “Shug” Jordan and an opportunity to contribute to the famous 1972 team nicknamed the “Amazins.” Gossom had a kind of love-hate relationship with Jordan, a man he admired and greatly respected but who had trouble understanding many of Gossom’s cultural experiences.  Jordan also struggled with the changing cultural in society at large as well.  Somehow, through the misunderstandings and cultural changes, the two men respected and admired one another.

While Gossom was not the first African American to play football at Auburn, or even the first African American in the entire athletic department at Auburn, he was the first African American athlete to graduate.  Gossom equiped himself well to be in the communications industry taking a class in theatre and journalism.  Gossom even worked as a reporter for the school newspaper getting the opportunity to interview Mohammed Ali.  Gossom went on to be an actor and an enterpreneur.  Gossom had roles in such films as Fight Club and TV shows In the Heat of the Night and Boston Legal.  Gossom is the Principal and founder of Best Gurl Entertainment.

I feel very honored to have been given the opportunity to read an advanced copy of Top Dawg: Mark Richt and the Revival of Georgia Football by Rob Suggs.  I want to thank those who contacted me and sent me a copy of the book for this opportunity.  The book is about the revival of the Georgia Bulldog program under the leadership of Head Coach Mark Richt.  Coming into the 2008 football season, the Bulldogs were ranked number 1 in the preseason Associated Press poll as well as many other preseason polls (number 5 in the CFTT preseason poll).  The Bulldogs ended the 2007 season as one of the hottest teams in the country including their 41-10 thumping of Hawaii in the BCS Sugar Bowl.

For the readers of Collegefootballtopten.com, I highly recommend you buying and reading this book.  I have been told that it will be released on September 9.  You should be able to order a copy from the Collegefootballtopten bookstore, your local Borders Books or any other book store.  The book is published by Thomas Nelson, a Christian publisher, and Suggs has written primarily about matters of faith.  In this book, Suggs manages to peek inside the doors of a top level Bowl Championship Subdivision football program as well as inside the faith that inspires, empowers and shapes Mark Richt, the man who leads that program, all at the same time.

Rob Suggs is a Georgia Bulldog fan.  He is up front about that.  He explains his own history and how it intersects Georgia football.  Growing up a Razorback fan, I understand and appreciate that, and I am sure Longhorn fans, Rebel fans, Crimson Tide fans, Buckeye fans, Wolverine fans and countless other fans across the country will understand that too.  He was proud in the early 1980’s when Vince Dooley and the Junkyard Dawgs were winning SEC titles, a National Championship, and Herschel Walker won the Heisman Trophy.  However, like many Bulldog fans, he suffered through the period of time when Georgia football was just one of many in the SEC finishing in the pack behind Florida and Tennessee.

The book begins with a pivotal game against Tennessee in Knoxville, TN on October 6, 2001.  Georgia rallies to win the game and the players and fans begin to believe that the Bulldogs can be a top caliber program once again.  From there Suggs, jumps back into time, leading us on a journey of Mark Richt, his disappointments along with his new dreams and the inspiration of his new-found faith.  Suggs also leads us on a parallel journey of the decline of the Georgia program, setting up the need to find a new leader who will lead the Dawgs into the promised land.

From this point, Suggs bring the two together.  One of the interesting parts of the book is the description of the mat drills which Richt brought to Georgia from Florida State via his friend and Strength and Conditioning Coach Dave Van Halanger.  Mat drills is Van Halanger’s creation, a hodgepodge of exercises, drills, etc. inspired from “such elements as the obstacle course in military boot camps and the ropes course in programs like Colorado’s Outward Bound.”

The real test was not necessarily physical, but mental.  The drill were designed to strengthen the team’s mental toughness and create bonds from among the players.  For starters, they held the mat drills at 5 AM in the morning.  The players were grouped according to position types in groups of four.  You are recorded, by two cameras, and graded for the next morning’s mat drills.  Are you still with me?  Each group must perform a particular drill at one of five stations.  Each person in the group must execute the drill perfectly.  If anyone does not, the group performs the drill again.  And again, for each misstep.  Until all members of the group executes each drill perfectly.  I nearly cried reading about the drills.  The grading put you in a group the next morning with a similar grading.  If you were a player who did not do so well, the next morning your group would be with fellow players who also did not do so well.  Eternity can be a long time!  These drills exhibited an intensity in Mark Richt that some might be surprised to learn.

Richt earned the love and respect of his former players.  One player, D. J. Shockley, actually wrote the forward for this book.  Shockley played four years as a back up behind fellow QB David Greene before getting his shot to be the starter in 2005 as a Fifth-Year Senior.  His willingness to be patient in a time when QB’s will simply transfer to play somewhere else quicker is a testament to the love he felt from the staff and Coach Richt.  Nevertheless, Richt exhibits a certain amount of intensity and demands it of his staff and players as well.

As a Razorback fan, I almost found myself rooting for Georgia to win the National Title this year.  The story is compelling, and Suggs does a great job of taking the reader on the journey of how Mark Richt and the Georgia Bulldogs football program converged.  In an age when so many major college football programs are shrouded in negative actions, both by players and coaches, this story is refreshing because, while no one is perfect in the Bulldog program, Richt emphasizes positive behaviors from those in his program and leads by example.  Mark Richt is someone you can root for and feel good about it.

Below is a Sample Chapter of Top Dawg

Read Chapter One of Top Dawg

Continued from Part I

In a time when young men struggle to know what it means to be a man, this book is so poignant.  For decades, it seems as if other men in society have been urging boys and young men to grow up and “be a man.”  Season of Life by Jeffrey Marx faces the question of what it means to be a man head on.  It seems as all cultures have some kind of ritual which signals the end of boyhood and the beginning of manhood.  At this point in time, in the United States of America, it seems that we, as a society, have no definition of what it means to be a man.  Unless, you look at the society as a whole, to Hollywood, traditional stereotypes, etc.  Some seem to find the changing in a young man’s life marked by that of conquest:  sex, money, fame, etc.  But is that really the definition of being a man?

Marx began the journey when he had heard that the old Baltimore Memorial Stadium was being torn down in the Winter of 2001.  Marx had served as a ball boy in the 70’s for the old Baltimore Colts team which had played in the stadium.  Marx wanted to see it one last time.  In this context, he decided to find as many of those football players as he could.  The search led him to a small private school in Maryland, Gilman High School.  There, Joe Ehrmann, a former Baltimore Colt defensive lineman, was serving as a volunteer assistant football coach.  Ehrmann and his head coach, Biff Poggi were coaching Gilman to conference championships while teaching their football players how to become men:  Men Built for Others.

Marx decided to stay a while.  He decided to follow the Gilman football team for a season, and to see what Ehrmann was spending his time doing.  Ehrmann was a “life of the party” type person during his time with the Colts until he experienced tragedy when his little brother was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and passed away before attending college.  Ehrmann began to seek answers to the meaning of life, and, after beginning a relationship with God, attended Dallas Theological Seminary during his offseasons.  Erhmann became a minister and started a ministry called The Door in inner city Baltimore.  Eventually, Ehrmann served as the preaching pastor at Grace Fellowship Church in Baltimore.  Along with his wife, Paula, Ehrmann founded Building Men and Women for Others, an organization which strives to empower men and women to be their best for the sake of others.

Through Ehrmann and Poggi’s work with Gilman, they instilled the principles derived from Ehrmann’s Building Men for Others Ministry.  Even though the coaches were dedicated to helping the team achieve success on the field, the purpose for the boys was something entirely different.  Marx related the ritual in which the coaches would ask the team, “What is our job as coaches?”  The boys would answer in unity, “to love us.”  Then the coaches would ask, “What is your job?”  “To love each other,” they would respond.  This ritual was delivered with the enthusiasm you would expect from a football team getting ready to take the field.

Each game day, hours before the game, Gilman players would head to “chapel” where Ehrmann would lead them in Building Men for Others 101.  The coaches shared stories, often from the Bible, to help the boys identify areas in which they could help others.  Ehrmann explains that what society teaches as becoming a man is really false masculinity.  Instead of defining masculinity in terms of athletic abilities, economic success and sexual conquest, masculinity should be defined in terms of relationships and having a purpose bigger than one’s self.  This is underscored to the players through Gilman’s code of conduct.  Each player is to accept responsibility, lead courageously, and enact justice on behalf of others.  The coaches encourage their players to never let another boy sit alone at lunch.

One story in the book (p. 53) highlights the importance to the coaches of building these boys to be men for others.  After a scrimmage, at a team cookout, one of the parents of the boys asked Coach Poggi how successful he thought the team would be.  Poggi responded that he didn’t know.  He said he would know in about 20 years when he sees how good of a father, husband, member of the community they will be.  The parent, of course, was talking about that season.  Biff was talking about the rest of their lives.

Marx followed the team thoughout the whole season.  During the season, he shared regular visits with Ehrmann to learn more about the concepts involved in Building Men for Others.  The journey led him to explore his own relationship with his father.  In the end, he decided to do something about it before it was too late.  The principles he had learned from Ehrmann and Poggi as they coached the boys from Gilman High School, ultimately became principles that would cause him to make a decision and act upon it.  The last chapter, a visit with his father, was very moving.

Before I begin, I want to give a little history on my relationship with this book.  First, I work in a bookstore.  I have seen this book before.  In fact, I think someone may have recommended it once.  Customers are always recommending books, but most of the time I just nod and say, “O.K.”  I don’t have time to read every book in the store, and there are some really interesting books.  I check some customers out so often at the cash registers that they wonder if I live at the store.  I joke and tell them that I have an apartment in the back and that I drink coffee and read after the store is closed.  Even if I did that, I still would not have time to read every book that I would like to.  Anyway, because I run a college football website, my manager asked me to make a display on football since season is almost here.  She gave me a very prominent spot in the periodical section with a large end-cap where I can display magazines and books.  I put up the display about a month ago.  The picture above is of the display taken by a co-worker (Amber) on Saturday.

Now about the book.  One week, when I came to work, somebody kept putting Season of Life: A Football Star, a Boy, a Journey to Manhood by Jeffrey Marx, the book I am reviewing, on my display.  Now, it wasn’t my idea, and I wasn’t the one who put it up.  And, I don’t think that a co-worker did it.  Each time I found the book on the display, I would grumble and remove it.  This happened about two or three days in a row.  The last time it happened, I grumbled again and took a peak at what someone thought was such a great book that they kept putting it–without permission I might add–on my football display!  I thought, maybe it’s a good book.  Someone sure thought so.  So, I read the jacket cover.  It seemed to have an inspirational ring to it.

Now, if you visit my website/blog regularly, you know that I value telling the positive side of things in college football.  There are enough people out there that talk about the negative things:  arrests, scandals, academic problems, etc.  I don’t need to rehash that stuff.  I am looking for positive, inspirational type of things to talk about.  So, I thought the book might be a good read to review for Collegefootballtopten.com.  I had just finished Hero of the Underground: A Memoir which was dark and difficult as Jason Peter retold the story of his heroin addiction.  I thought that Season of Life might lighten my mood a little bit, make me smile.

So, there you have it.  Someone–I don’t know who–kept putting this book on my display.  Maybe it was some kind of divine inspiration.  Maybe God wanted me to read this book.  Maybe it was just a big coincidence.  I don’t know.  It seems rather divinely initiated.  A book that I was upset with at first–for being on my display–was one of the best, most inspirational reads of the year for me.  If you work with boys, coach youth football, soccer, baseball, basketball, etc., I would ask you to strongly consider reading this book.  If you are a man and struggled in your relationship with your father, please consider reading this book also.

Continue to Part II