The title of When March Went Mad: the Game That Transformed Basketball is misleading.  It's not a book about the 1979 NCAA Basketball Championship Game between Larry Bird's Indiana State Sycamores and Magic Johnson's Michigan State Spartans, which is still the highest-rated college basketball game of all time.  That's probably a good thing, since the game wasn't that great.

First and foremost, WMWM is instead a book about Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, Coaches Jud Heathcote and Bill Hodges, and both teams' supporting casts.  Like a documentary, the story in WMWM recounts the roads Magic and Bird took to their respective schools, and the roads their teams took to the Final Four.  It's a great narrative, and does a good job of painting the world of college basketball in the late 70s (the Big 8 Coaches of the 80s make guest appearances: Johnny Orr at Michigan, Billy Tubbs at Lamar, and Danny Nee as a Notre Dame assistant).

Of course, the history lesson is only the framework of the real themes of the book.  At its heart, WMWM is about two things.  One is stated, and provides the framework of the narrative.  In the prologue, Davis recounts the production meeting before NBC's broadcast of the championship game, where Don Ohlmeyer recognized the birth of spectacle: Magic and Bird were far bigger than anything else about this game.  1979 was a year that transformed the way America watches sports.  ESPN was born, the NBA was about to erupt into the biggest thing around, and the NCAA Tournament went from a niche event to the biggest month in sports.

The other theme present through the book is leadership.  Magic and Bird were great players not because they were scoring machines (though they were) but because they could do so much.  The best game skill either possessed was their ability to pass -- distributing the ball to where their teammates could do the most damage.  They were great on-the-floor leaders, and it showed.  Likewise, the coaches, Heathcoate and Hodges, demonstrate highly contrasting styles, but both achieving the same results.

Seth Davis, a college basketball analyst for Sports Illustrated and CBS, adds his own touch to the narrative.  His connections throughout the college basketball world are a big asset, as he is able to connect with all the people who played major roles in the 1979 season, and his ability to connect the world of sports before the Game and after makes it an informative and entertaining read.  Moreover, his focus on the human aspects of the season, especially the stars, makes it an enjoyable and relatable read, highly recommended for any fan of college basketball, or sports in general.

Note: One of the things readers asked for is consistency. From now on during the off-season we'll be providing reviews on Monday. This will include author interviews as well. I truly hope you enjoy these, because I'm still a book guy. There is so much of our sports that simply cannot be explored in enough depth online.

"The Maisel Report - College Football's Most Overrated & Underrated" is a book of lists. Ivan Maisel, one of college football's better writers, gives us his rundown of the most overrated and underrated in the following categories:

• - Conferences
• - Rivalries
• - Heisman Trophy Winners
• - National Champions
• - Moments
• - Coaches
• - Players - This section includes a list of players from the 19 biggest powerhouse programs along with Army.
• - Stadiums And Campuses
• - Traditions, Fight Songs, and Mascots
I'm not going to spoil the book by giving away the lists of the overrated and underrated. Some are obvious, such as the Heisman Trophy being the most overrated entry under "Traditions, Fight Songs, and Mascots", or Miami being the most overrated program in college football. Some are unknown, such as the incredible story of Johnny Bright's broken jaw in 1951, chosen by Maisel as one of the most underrated moments.

Perhaps I'm being unfair to Maisel in stating that "lists" is what the book is about. When you think of 'lists', you tend to think about Internet sites that make up a list, then include one or two little snippets (50-100 words per entry, maybe) about why they placed such and such in the list.  Not so with books. Maisel  has been around for a long time and he has quite a history with which to back up his lists. He clearly states each entry is based upon his opinion, but then backs up his choices with his extensive knowledge of college football history.

For Nebraska fans, there's Maisel's ranking of '97 Nebraska as an overrated champion. Why? Same reason we've heard for years - the coaches gave Tom Osborne a present. It's infuriating to hear the same damned arguement again, but Maisel presents the case, as I stated, in a straight forward manner that asks you to argue with it.

Also for Husker fans, Maisel provides a pretty good discussion as to why Eddie George was one of the most overrated Heisman Trophy winners, the primary reason being that Tommie Frazier should have won it instead.

That's kind of the point of the book. Maisel doesn't spare anyone, which means there's something in the lists that'll irritate fans of any powerhouse program. It's not that Maisel takes pot shots because he's not that type of writer. He merely states the facts in a blunt manner, some times facts you don't want to face.

"The Maisel Report - College Football's Most Overrated & Underrated" is a very good book, not a great book. Fun to read, especially if you're a fan or alum of a powerhouse school. If you're an experienced and well-read college football fan, you might feel that Maisel doesn't explore enough new territory to satisfy your interest. If you're new to college football or under 30, it just might be a really good choice to broaden your college football background.

Steve Richardson's "Then Osborne Said to Rozier..." is a compilation of anecdotes and stories compiled from interviews with former Huskers from the Devaney, Osborne, and Solich eras.  Some you may have heard before, such as Devaney's classic line "Excuse me ladies, I was looking for my football team..."  Others you haven't.

And that's the great thing about this book is that it tells the story of how Devaney and Osborne built the Husker program to the pinnacle of success.  It also touches on the Solich years, and how Frank Solich tried to follow that 60-3 run, and how Steve Pederson's "Extreme Makeover:  Husker Edition" was a complete clusterfool from the moment he called Solich into his office on Thanksgiving weekend 2003.

Richardson brings a unique perspective; he is not on the Husker beat like most other authors.  Instead, he's covered Big Eight and Big XII football for papers in Kansas City and Dallas as well as USA Today.  But he called on former players such as Adrian Fiala, Turner Gill, Aaron Taylor, Eric Crouch, and Mike Minter as well as opposing players and coaches such as Oklahoma State's Pat Jones and Oklahoma's Dean Blevins.

It's a fairly comprehensive review, talking about Devaney's initial success, then setbacks in the late 1960's that may have paralleled the downturn of recent years.  The changes that resulted in the 1970 and 1971 championships, and the transition to Osborne.

Probably the most startling quotes in the book came from none other than Steve Pederson in a 1996 interview where he talked about the importance of the walk-on program and how it gave Nebraska a distinct advantage over other programs.  Startling because it was Pederson who led the charge to downsize the walkon program when he took over.

It's not all knocks on Pederson; it also discusses the end of the Solich era and points out a few of Solich's downfalls that contributed to his downfall.  It also points out the facilites lapse as a contributing factor, one of the things Pederson tried to address during his time.

It's a great read for Husker fans.  You may know some of these stories, but others you haven't heard  It also comes with a CD of an interview with Adrian Fiala, which I haven't had a chance to play yet as my laptop's CD/DVD is on the fritz.  But it should be an interesting listen when I get the chance.

 The Nebraska Football Vault is more than a mere coffee table book - it’s more like a Nebraska football souvenir book. It's a gorgeous book that delivers a little more than just text and photography.

Author Mike Babcock is well-known to Husker fans, having written about Nebraska football for 30 years. He is currently a contributing editor for Huskers Illustrated, and writes for the Grand Island Independent, York News-Times, and The Reader. He’s authored several Husker books, two of which I’ve previously reviewed; "Heart of a Husker: Tom Osborne’s Nebraska Legacy", and "Stadium Stories: Nebraska Cornhuskers".

Babcock does an excellent job of detailing Nebraska’s football history, beginning with its start in 1890 and continuing through the hiring of Bo Pelini. He introduces you to great players, great coaches, and the greatest games of each era of Husker football. Husker football fans should know the names - George Flippin, Guy Chamberlain, Sam Francis, Ed Weir, Tom Novak, Bobby Reynolds - and what they meant to Husker history.

Babcock makes it clear that Nebraskans fell in love with football and their football team from the very beginning. Knowing the history of Nebraska football helps us understand our Nebraska heritage - something Roger Aden points out in Huskerville - so Babcock's book could be seen as something that transcends mere football but leads to an understanding of why the sport is so important to the state.

The foreward is provided by Tom Osborne as he talks about the importance of history, while the afterword is provided by Bo Pelini as he talks about what makes Nebraska unique amongst college football programs, again pointing out why Nebraskans hold football so dear.

The book is rich in it’s coverage of Husker football history with plenty of interesting photography to go along with the text. What makes the Nebraska Football Vault unique are the pouches attached to pages throughout the book. Each pouch is like an envelope containing reproductions of football paraphernalia pertinent to the historical period on the page. There are many of these reproductions throughout the book.

A few examples:

- A photograph/postcard with a picture of the 1907 Nebraska football team, complete with signature on the back by "Mr C.L. Swanson". Hand-written on the front is "How many of these boys do you know".

- Postcard reproductions of game day program covers throughout the years.

- Ticket reproductions from games throughout Husker history. Cool not only to see the style of the times, but to track the ticket price as it progressed. Cost for the 1941 Rose Bowl? $2.50. The 1964 Orange Bowl? $5.00. The 1998 Orange Bowl? $80.00. My how times have changed.

- And my favorite from the World War II era, a bomb leaflet stating:
"Cornhuskers Surrender! You Are Fighting for A Lost Cause! Forget While There Is Still Time! This Leaflet Guarantees You Safe Conduct Behind The Lines. Present it to Any UCLA BRUIN".

At $49.95 list, the price tag may seem a bit steep (although the Amazon discount isn’t too bad), but Babcock’s complete coverage of Husker history plus the photography along with the reproductions makes the book worth it. It's truly a gorgeous and unique book.

The Nebraska Football Vault  is a perfect Holiday present for any Husker fan. It's well-known that Steve Smith’s Forever Red is THE Husker fan book every Husker fan should own. Mike Babcock’s Nebraska Football Vault is now THE guide to Husker football history that every Husker fan should own.

In the 1920s, four athletes stood like giants in a golden age of sport - Babe Ruth, Bobby Jones, Jack Dempsey and Red Grange. With “The Galloping Ghost”, author Gary Andrew Poole delivers an authoritative autobiography of Grange, who was most responsible for the popularization of professional football during a time at which the pro version of the sport was considered undesirable.

Grange played for Illinois in college, his most famous day coming against a Fielding Yost Michigan team on October 18, 1924. That day Yost was determined that Grange wouldn’t beat the Wolverines, ordering his team to kick the ball to Grange, then “hit him hard and see that he stays hit”. Instead, Grange returned the kick 95 yards for a touchdown. He then scored on runs of 67, 56, and 45 yards, scoring four touchdowns within 12 minutes. He then left the game to rest for the second quarter and returned in the third to score on a 12-yard run.

Grange’s day ended up being one of the greatest in college football history - finishing with 402 yards, 212 rushing, 64 passing and 126 in kickoff returns. He rushed for five touchdowns and threw for a sixth. In an era in which players played both ways, he also intercepted two passes. All of this came against a Michigan team that hadn’t lost in three years. It was a game that made Grange a living legend.

Grange’s life story is certainly compelling, but moreso are the cast of characters that surrounds him. His Illinois coach, Bob Zuppke, made his mark upon football by inventing the huddle. His battle with Grange’s desire to play professional football further establishes how much Grange meant to the game.

C.C. Pyle, Charlie “Cash and Carry” Pyle, is Grange’s promoter. He is a con man and is as much a skinflint as he is full of brilliant ideas. Together with Grange, Pyle creates an audience for professional football where none had previously existed. Pyle is such a character that his exploits could make a decent movie by themselves.

The story wouldn’t be complete without the inclusion of George Halas, the owner of the Chicago Bears, who convinces Grange (at Pyle’s urging) to sign a professional contract in 1925. There is much detail about the early origins of professional football, including a barnstorming tour that has Grange playing 30 games in 12 weeks while enduring ten concussions and a host of other injuries. The tour establishes Grange’s nationwide celebrity.

Author Poole does an excellent job of placing the reader with the context of the times. His detailed account of the barnstorming tour leaves you wondering how the men of the era could survive such brutality. He makes it clear that football was a much different game being played in an era that is other-worldly as well.

If you like college or professional football history, this is a must read book. Poole’s writing is compelling as the book reads more like a novel than a history text. His research is extensive and the characters are exquisite. It’s easily the most fun history-based football read I’ve reviewed to date, comparable to James W. Johnson’s “The Wow Boys”.

Sports Illustrated has just released "The College Football Book", a coffee table book measuring 12" by 10.5" that contains tons of great photography, interspersed with facts about college football throughout the years.

The book begins with a foreward by Rick Telander, then steps through the history of college football. Each decade is presented as a section starting with the "Pre 1920s" and continuing on to present day. Each section starts with a page full of pictures of game day programs, then proceeds with an overview on that decade's  dynasties. Included are snippets on the best games during the decade and a "Campus Culture" side bar places you in the context of the times - pointing out the political issues along with popular books, musicians and movies.

A "By The Numbers" sidebar contains interesting tidbits about football through the ages, for example, the 1920s section includes:

32 - Fumbles by Iowa and Wisconsin in a game on Nov. 7th, 1925, played during a driving snowstorm in Iowa City.
 
From the 1940s we get:

31 - Head coaches who either played or began their coaching careers at Miami (Ohio), a.k.a. the Cradle of Coaches. Among them: Red Blaik, Paul Brown, Sid Gillman, Weeb Ewbank, Woody Hayes, Ara Parseghian, Bo Schembechler, and Jim Tressel.

And from the 1960s:

102 - Age of Amo Alonzo Stagg when he died on St. Patrick's Day 1965.

Most of the 288 pages are filled with great game day photography - action shots of great hits and great catches. We see a young Joe Namath, Darrel Royal looking astute from the sideline, John Elway's grime-covered face, and Johnny Rodgers taking off upfield. One of the stranger pictures is from 1889, where one of the teams looks like they're playing in long johns (winter underwear for you Southerners).

There are also pictorials centered around historical themes. For example, there are series of photographs that show the progression of the football shoe/cleat throughout the years and the progression of the football helmet. Another set shows several nose guards that were used before face masks.

There are several article excerpts with subjects including the obligatory salutes towards college greats such as Joe Paterno and Johnny Rodgers. There is also a piece on Jerry LeVias, the first black scholarship player in the Southwestern Conference in 1965.

Several Sports Illustrated writers chose an All-Time All-Star Team. They were not allowed to pick more than one player from any one school.

The All-Time College Football All-Star Team is as follows:

Coaches
-          Knute Rockne, Notre Dame, 1918-30
-          Paul (Bear) Bryant, Alabama, 1958-82
 
Defense
-          Charles Woodson: Defensive Back/Receiver, Michigan, 1995-97
-          Jack Ham: Linebacker, Penn State, 1968-70
-          Kenny Easley: Defensive Back, UCLA, 1977-80
-          Bubba Smith: Defensive End, Michigan State, 1964-66
-          Lee Roy Selmon: Defensive Tackle, Oklahoma, 1972-75
-          Bronko Nagurski: Tackle/Back, Minnesota, 1927-29
-          Hugh Green: Defensive End, Pittsburgh, 1977-80
-          Tommy Nobis: Linebacker, Texas, 1963-65
-          Deion Sanders: Defensive Back, Florida State, 1985-88
-          Lawrence Taylor: Linebacker, North Carolina, 1977-80
-          Jim Thorpe: Back, Carlisle, 1907-08, ’11-12
 
Offense
-          Glenn Davis: Back, Army, 1943-46
-          Chuck Bednarik: Center/Linebacker, Penn, 1945-48
-          Leon Hart: End, Notre Dame, 1946-49
-          Orlando Pace: Tackle, Ohio State, 1994-96
-          Jerry Rice: End, Mississippi Valley State, 1981-84
-          Red Grange: Back, Illinois, 1923-25
-          Jim Brown: Back, Syracuse, 1954-56
-          Herschel Walker: Back, Georgia, 1980-82
-          John Hannah: Guard/Tackle, Alabama, 1970-72
-          Ron Yary: Tackle, USC, 1965-67
-          Pudge Heffelfinger: Guard, Yale 1888-91
 
Specialists
-          Johnny Rodgers: Returns/Receivers, Nebraska, 1970-72
-          Gale Sayers: Returns/Back, Kansas, 1962-64
-          Doak Walker: Kicker/Back, SMU, 1945, ’47-49
-          Sammy Baugh: Punter/Back TCU, 1934-36

Notice that there are no quarterbacks.

In a word: gorgeous. It's a nicely done coffee table book that should be a conversation piece for college football fans. Anyone with an appreciation of history could spend a fair amount of time pouring over the photography before they bothered to read a single word.

The holidays are coming, and for under $20, the price is very fair. If nothing else, you could pick one up and leave it laying around to keep the family occupied during the Christmas holidays. It's sure to start a conversation, if not an argument or two.

I recently reviewed Jason Peter's book, "Hero of the Underground", the story of his life with drug addiction and recovery. It's a great read whether you're interested in football or not.

Jason and I talked mid last week about the book, his life after rehab, Nebraska football, and of course, that guy who sits next to Mark May. I hope that it adds to your experience with the book. 

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Most Husker fans know of Jason Peter. He became an All-American in 1997 and was co-caption of the 1997 Nebraska national championship team. He was a first-round draft pick in 1998 by the Carolina Panthers, but had his career cut short by injuries in 2001. It was then that his life changed, the hero worship ended and he began his descent into a drug-filled hellhole. Out of that hellhole came his story, Hero of the Underground.

Hero of the Underground has been out for over a month, released in early July. Peter changed the names of everyone in the book so as to not implicate anyone but himself. He took a chance in doing so, given the recent scandal regarding James Frey's A Million Little Lies where it turned out Frey's memoir was mostly fiction. It could have turned out that Peter's book was seen in the same light. Fortunately for Peter this has not happened.

It''s a hard book to put down after you get started and it's not because of the Nebraska football content. Instead you're caught up in Peter's life as it becomes a continuous lather, rinse, repeat cycle. He gets high, realizes he's too screwed up to continue, goes to rehab, leaves rehab, immediately gets high and start the cycle all over again. Sooner or later it has to end.

Drugs are mentioned so often in the book that after a while, much like Peter you become numb to them. Heroin, meth, loads of pain killers, vicodin, whatever. There are enough hookers and girlfriends in the book that after a while they, too became nameless, as do the people he meets in rehab. In this regard the book is successful because after a while you don't really care about their names, so it wouldn't have made much difference had Peter used them (other than to the people he was naming, a bunch of lawyers, or public relations people).

For the majority of the book Peter comes off as an arrogant ass. He's as blunt as possible about what he's doing to himself, yet he shirks off every possible attempt by someone to help him. He seems completely aware about the trainwreck his life has become yet refuses to do anything serious about it. Such is the life of a junkie.

There's a point at which anyone in this situation hits rock bottom. For some readers Peter may have hit bottom when he recounts his paranoia about being arrested during a drug-induced bout of paranoia at the beginning of the book. For Peter, it was when he realized he'd nearly killed his mother from anxiety. For me, the exact moment was when he realized he's missed three or four days of his life without any idea of what day it is nor what he'd been doing over that time span.

The football content in the book is interesting, although not as interesting as the rest of his story. Still, I get a feeling of camaraderie in knowing that Peter detests Lou Holtz even more than I do, and his chapter about his stint at Nebraska is worth every word. 

'Hero of the Underground' presents an interesting juxtaposition to other books related to Nebraska football. Fan books, i.e., Steve Smith's excellent "Forever Red', Tom Osborne's book "Faith in the Game", or "What It Means to be A Husker" deal with the images of Nebraska football as Norman Rockwell would have painted them, picturesque romantic visions of hard-working young man doing battle on our behalf. In other words, total goodness, complete with healthy doses of religious faith. Peter's book contains everything that these books are not, the darkest side of sports and humanity against the backdrop of the hero worship that's a part of Husker football.

This isn't a book for Nebraska football fans, it's a book for everyone. Well, maybe not everyone. As a parent, I'd have a hard time giving it to my kid to read unless they were heading down the same dangerous path. While the tale of destruction might give warning, the constant dismissal of faith and 12-step programs (not everyone can afford the rehab centers that Peter uses, then non-chalantly tosses aside) may not have the affect you intend, so if you're considering using it as a warning you damned well better read it first

Don't buy this book because it's about a Nebraska Cornhusker hero. Buy it because it's a damned good book and when you start reading it you won't stop until you're done. Some may get turned off by the raw nature of the subject and the language, but given the success it's had (up to #20 on the NY Times Best Seller list), those are few.

Buy the book if you haven't yet. You won't be disappointed.