A while back I reviewed 'Nebraska Cornhusker Football' by Mark Fricke from Arcadia Publishing. Pretty cool book. I'd recommend it for Husker fans interested in Husker football history.

'Nebraska Cornhusker Football' is part of Arcadia Publishing's series 'Images of Sports'. I asked the publisher Arcadia Publishing to send me a couple more books of their choice so that I could see an example of the series. I received the books about Oregon State and North Carolina - two schools I wouldn't associate with powerhouse football - but interesting nonetheless.

Both books provide a good history of their perspective universities and as the Cornhusker Football book, are littered with pictures throughout history of college football. The Oregon State book includes some great photos of the early years such as a 1893 photo showing uniform decorations that the players had drawn on their uniforms. Another photo from 1895 shows a player with an early 'nose guard' - giving an idea of the equipment used at the time. Both books are littered with player photos - tons of the 'action shot' photo that showed players flying through the air, running backs striking a Heisman pose, quarterbacks in awkward throwing motions. By today's standards they're pretty hilarious.

Several universities are represented in the Arcadia Publishing series, including Michigan State, University of Tulsa, Northwestern, the University of Wisconsin, and Yale to name a few. Given that several of these schools, particularly Yale were very important in the founding of football, the books should be pretty interesting for sports history buffs.

The 'Images of Sports' series contains books about a variety of sports, not just college football. There are several books on boxing around the nation, the Little League World Series, the College World Series, several Major League Baseball and NFL teams, the Indy 500, and college basketball - the complete list is here.

Books from the 'Images of Sports' series can be purchased online through Amazon, or at the Arcadia Publishing web site.

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