9781501116193 |
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Searching... Library 21c | Book | 796.332097 GWYN | Nonfiction | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year
In the tradition of Michael Lewis's Moneyball , award-winning historian S.C. Gwynne tells the incredible story of how two unknown coaches revolutionized American football at every level, from high school to the NFL.
Hal Mumme is one of a handful of authentic offensive geniuses in the history of American football. The Perfect Pass is the story of how he irreverently destroyed and re-created the game.
Mumme spent fourteen mostly losing seasons coaching football before inventing a potent passing offense that would soon shock players, delight fans, and terrify opposing coaches. The revolution he fomented began at a tiny, overlooked college called Iowa Wesleyan, where Mumme was head coach and Mike Leach, a lawyer who had never played college football, was hired as his offensive line coach. In the cornfields of Iowa, while scribbling plays on paper napkins, these two mad inventors, drawn together by a shared disregard for conventionalism and a love for Jimmy Buffett, began to engineer the purest, most extreme passing game in the 145-year history of football. Implementing their "Air Raid" offense, their teams--at Iowa Wesleyan and later at Valdosta State and the University of Kentucky--played blazingly fast--faster than any team ever had before, and they routinely beat teams with far more talented athletes. And Mumme and Leach did it all without even a playbook. Their quarterback once completed sixty-one of eighty-six passes, both collegiate records.
In The Perfect Pass , S.C. Gwynne explores Mumme's leading role in changing football from a run-dominated sport to a pass-dominated one, the game that tens of millions of Americans now watch every fall weekend. Whether you're a casual or ravenous football fan, this is a truly compelling story of American ingenuity and how a set of revolutionary ideas made their way from the margins into the hot center of the game we celebrate today.
Author Notes
S.C. Gwynne is a journalist who worked for Time and Texas Monthly. He has written several books including Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History and Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Even into the 1980s, passing was an almost exotic element in all levels of football, while the safe and steady running game aligned with the sport's macho ethos. Coach Hal Mumme had other ideas, as Gwynne (Empire of the Summer Moon) writes in this excellent sports history. Mumme was fascinated with the possibilities of constantly passing and embarked on a quest to build a perfect offense, borrowing concepts from coaches and tinkering with them to fit the dream plays he scribbled on scraps of paper. His laboratories were a variety of small, overlooked high schools and colleges in Texas, Iowa, and Georgia, where a variety of small, overlooked players became statistical superstars thanks to a system that preached simplicity and repetition in a world of dictionary-sized playbooks with endless wrinkles. This offense, nicknamed "Air Raid," made its way to big-time college ball; now, the relentlessly airborne approach has found its way to the likes of Tom Brady. Gwynne serves up an intriguing parallel history to football's pass-dominated renovation, with Mumme playing the role of overlooked (and overworked) forefather. The author also provides an inspiring reminder that great ideas don't automatically permeate the existing ideology. Sometimes, a devoted few must pursue their principles with diligence, even if they don't get the glory. Agent: Amy Hughes, Dunow, Carson & Lerner. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
A perennial conference doormat in football in the mid-1980s, a desperate, financially ailing Iowa Wesleyan University took a flier on young high-school coach Hal Mumme, who quickly implemented a series of cutting-edge changes: he trimmed an oversized playbook to a mere 15 pass plays and 6 rushing plays, and he built his entire offense on the short pass, then plugged in a quarterback of average arm strength who could nevertheless throw often and with deadly accuracy. Decades ahead of his time, Mumme (pronounced mummy) eliminated hard contact and such ponderous drills as windsprints and pushups in team practices, all of which injected, well, joy into his players' training. While it's a little unclear how many of Mumme's changes were entirely new, or came from like-minded coaches he consulted (the legendary Bill Walsh was one), Pulitzer Prize finalist Gwynne (Empire of the Summer Moon, 2010) still delivers a rousing tale of innovation finding success in the face of the gale-force winds of convention.--Moores, Alan Copyright 2016 Booklist
Library Journal Review
This book by Pulitzer Prize finalist Gwynne (Empire of the Summer Moon) is not only about the evolution of football strategy, particularly in the passing game, it also illuminates the challenges and rigors of college football coaching and its effect on family life. The story is told through the experiences of itinerant football coach Hal Mumme, who rose from high school assistant coach in Texas to head coach of University of Kentucky in the vaunted Southeastern Conference to his current position as head coach of Belhaven University after four tumultuous years in Lexington. Mumme, along with his chief assistant Mike Leach who has forged his own nomadic college coaching career, developed the Air Raid offense that is prominent in the present game. Mumme's simple, fast-paced, pass-oriented attack draws inspirations from plays such as the run and shoot offense, the single-back offense, and legendary football coach Bill Walsh's West Coast offense. Diagrams make the technical -aspects clear and understandable. Despite his innovative role in the sport, Mumme now languishes in the lower depths of NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) football, a prophet without honor in his own country. VERDICT This interesting amalgamation of football strategy and biography will interest all fans of the sport. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
1 The Mad Pirate's Revenge | p. 1 |
2 A Job You Wouldn't Want | p. 9 |
3 A Brief History of Men Throwing Balls | p. 19 |
4 Secrets of the Air | p. 33 |
5 Ballad of the Lonesome Polecat | p. 47 |
6 Of Mouse and Mormons | p. 61 |
7 Maybe the Worst Team in America | p. 75 |
8 The Future Does Not Exist | p. 85 |
9 A Convocation of Rejects | p. 91 |
10 Hal's Theory of Relativity | p. 101 |
11 The Air Show Comes to Town | p. 117 |
12 The One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Pass | p. 135 |
13 No Good Deed Unpunished | p. 149 |
14 Bumps in the Road | p. 157 |
15 Pilgrimage to Margaritaville | p. 165 |
16 Rise of a Great American Offense | p. 175 |
17 The Street Value of an Aerial Circus | p. 189 |
18 Air Raid | p. 197 |
19 High, Wide, and Handsome | p. 219 |
20 Stars in Their Courses | p. 239 |
Epilogue: The Game Changes | p. 249 |
A Note on Sources and Methods | p. 269 |
Bibliography | p. 273 |
Index | p. 277 |