Reddit reviews The Opening Kickoff: The Tumultuous Birth of a Football Nation

Just started reading Opening Kickoff: The Tumultuous Birth of a Football Nation, it's pretty good so far.

A small plug for The Solid Verbal podcast for bringing it to my attention.

There's a part in The Opening Kickoff that relates to your comment. Even in the early days, football was a revenue generator for these colleges. As new colleges began to be established, fielding a football program was a quick way to obtain money, influence, and prestige. There were a large number of graduates from Yale, Princeton, Harvard, etc... that were spreading around the country (compared to preachers in the book) to teach the game. All of this coincided with the rise of the newspaper. It mentioned that improved printing technology, availability of wide distribution, and improved literacy rates established the substantial influence of the newspaper. Many of these newspapers dedicated a section to sports, and latched on to football quickly.

The John U. Bacon ones are pretty good.

Three and Out. Fourth and Long.

I'm kinda intrigued by this one coming out by Dave Revsine.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Opening-Kickoff-Tumultuous-Football/dp/0762791772

The Opening Kickoff by Dave Revsine

Gotta add The Opening Kickoff. Sign me up, and I'd also be down to help organize whatever.

An EXCELLENT treatment on the origin of the sport is The Opening Kickoff: The Tumultuous Birth of a Football Nation by Dave Resvine of the B1G Network.

Starts with the birth of the sport in the Ivy league, its role in the birth of the Big 10, its reform and eventually the formation of the NCAA.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Opening-Kickoff-Tumultuous-Football/dp/0762791772

Gonna plug a book on topics similar to this:

"Opening Kickoff" by Dave Revsine

There's a Pat O'Dea narrative. And also some interesting chapters on rules, eligibility, and the safety of the game.

http://www.amazon.com/Scoreboard-Baby-College-Football-Complicity/dp/0803228104

http://www.amazon.com/The-Opening-Kickoff-Tumultuous-Football/dp/0762791772

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You should read this book. Lots of cool history. Much of it covers wisconsin's star player, who was the best punter in the country. In the early days they had rules like the offense turns over the ball to the opponent if they commit a penalty, so punters were huge. You'd punt on first down if you had real bad field position. Also, field goals were at one time worth more than touchdowns, and they used to have many limits on when you could sub, so players had to do everything. The game was quite different when it first began.