ESPN College Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of College Football from 1869 to the Present
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The most comprehensive reference book ever assembled on the history of college footballFrom South Bend, Indiana, to Lincoln, Nebraska, Palo Alto, California, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Tallahassee, Florida, college football attracts the most dedicated fans in all of sports. This book is their Bible -- a rich and exhaustive reference guide to the game's history, tradition, and lore. Based on three years of research by the nation's foremost college football experts, the book features:-Capsule histories for each of the Division 1-A programs, the Ivy League schools, and the historically black colleges-Year-by-year schedules and scores for each school-Statistical leaders from each school-Fight-song lyrics-Box scores for every bowl game ever played-Weekly AP and UPI polls dating back to 1936-A four-color insert illustrating the evolution of each school's helmet design-Essays by the game's top wordsmiths, including Dan Jenkins, Beano Cook, Chris Fowler, and more.-And a lively round-table discussion on the state of the game with ESPN's popular GameDay team (Fowler, Lee Corso, and Kirk Herbstreit).Packed with tables and charts and designed in an easy-to-read style, the ESPN College Football Encyclopedia is sure to dazzle even the most knowledgeable fan.Michael MacCambridge is the author of The Franchise: A History of Sports Illustrated and America's Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation, and the editor of the bestselling ESPN SportsCentury. He lives with his wife and children in St. Louis, Missouri. Library Journal College football has a devoted nationwide following, but few books are published on it annually. This year brings two mammoth, high-quality, but very different resources. Published by the sports broadcasting giant, ESPN College Football Encyclopedia is edited by renowned sports author McCambridge and written by 25 sportswriters who specialize in college football. Its relatively short opening section, "The Game," consists of a series of topical essays written by the experts. The second, "The Schools," profiles each of the 119 Division 1A schools as well as the Ivy League and the major historically black colleges. These profiles provide yearly statistics leaders, year-by-year game scores, and write-ups within numerous categories such as best player, best coach, and biggest game. The third section, "Annual Review," summarizes each season since 1869 with conference standings, weekly poll results, and national statistical leaders. The final section, "Bowl Games," lists summaries of all bowl games since 1902. Since the only things missing from this wonderful reference book are an index and tables of all-time series results between schools, how could another book compete? "With passion, personality, and 15 years of research" might be the response of Fifty Years of College Football coauthors Broyles and Guido, two dedicated, even crazed amateurs. Smaller in scope but written with immense authority, this work consists of a quirky introductory essay and just two sections. The first is an annual review of each season going back to 1955 and including weekly poll results, conference standings, and bowl game summaries. To this, the authors have added recaps of the top dozen games each week plus an expanded recap of the game of the year, two personality features on prominent coaches or players from the season, and up to the first eight rounds of the NFL draft. The second section profiles 70 schools with major football programs and gives career and yearly statistics leaders, year-by-year scores, and a bonus feature of annual starting lineups for each team. Bottom Line The ESPN volume is the more comprehensive of the two works and should probably be the first purchased, but the independently produced Fifty Years includes several unique and worthwhile features and would be a welcome addition to any library.-John Maxymuk, Rutgers Univ. Lib., Camden, NJ Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
