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The Big Scrum: How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football (2011)

by John J. Miller(Favorite Author)

3.49 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0062078992 (ISBN13: 9780062078995)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

HarperCollins e-books

review 1: I enjoyed this book for its value concerning the beginnings of American football, but the connection with Teddy Roosevelt is minor at best. I also did not enjoy how sporadic the author was with the chronology of the events; he seemed to go back and forth with the years that it was difficult to keep track. This book is particularly timely as the dangers of football have gone away from the obvious skull fractures that used to occur to the more silent and impairing effects of concussive or sub-concussive hits.
review 2: Only last five chapters deal with 1905 reforms of collegiate football. First half of book is needless recap of Roosevelt's youth. Much reliance on secondary sources. Author is a right-wing wacko, but the politics that characterize most of his other... more work do not appear here. Would have been a much more effective work if the study of early football was expanded beyond the confines of Harvard and Yale, but such things as the creation of the Big Ten's forerunner only receives one sentence. less

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