Season of Saturdays: A History of College Football in 14 Games

From an award-winning sports journalist and college football expert: “A beautifully written mix of memoir and reportage that tracks college ball through fourteen key games giving depth and meaning to all” (Sports Illustrated) now with a new Afterword about the first ever College Football Playoff.. Every Saturday in the fall it happens: On college campuses in bars at gatherings of fervent alumni millions come together to watch a sport that inspires a uniquely American brand of passion and outrage. This is college football. Since the first contest in 1869 the game has grown from a stratified offshoot of rugby to a ubiquitous part of our national identity. Right now as college conferences fracture and grow as amateur athlete status is called into question as a playoff system threatens to replace big-money bowl games we’re in the midst of the most dramatic transitional period in the history of the sport. Season of Saturdays examines the evolution of college football including the stories of iconic coaches like Woody Hayes Joe Paterno and Knute Rockne; and programs like the USC Trojans the Michigan Wolverines and the Alabama Crimson Tide. Michael Weinreb considers the inherent violence of the game its early seeds of big-business greed and its impact on institutions of higher learning. He explains why college football endures often despite itself. Filtered through journalism and research as well as the author’s own recollections as a fan Weinreb celebrates some of the greatest games of all time while revealing their larger significance. “Wry quirky fascinating...This surely is one of the most enjoyable books of the college football season...Weinreb wrestles in captivating prose with the violence hypocrisy and corruption that are endemic to the sport at its most cutthroat level” (The Plain Dealer Cleveland).