What is the Football Book List You Say?

Now gone, the Football Book List was just what its name implies. WHY is there a Football Book List? Well, hard to say EXACTLY why, but over the years it has served as a way point, or better yet, a starting point for researching the amazingly varied history of America's great game.

You may find it courtesy of the Wayback Machine here.

First, a bit about yours truly. My name is Damon Betz. I played football many years ago (as it were).

I have always had the knack for the game.
As I grow older this knack has diminished quite steadily: Creaky knees and a stiff back are testaments to the many battles won and lost on the gridiron.

It was prior to my participation in the SEC (the BEST conference in the land) that I discovered several books in my high school's library:

 "Championship Football by 12 Great Coaches" (Prentice Hall  1962), "Run and Shoot Football: Offense of the Future"(Glenn Tiger Ellison 1965), "The Pro-T Offense in High School Football" (Harry Gamble 1962) and "Modern Single Wing Football" (Charles Caldwell 1951) are a few of the vaults unlocked. These titles, along with the periodical Athletic Journal spurred my interest in the science of and into the "X's and O's" of football.

Diagram from Run and Shoot Football Offense of the Future

It wasn't until about 6 years ago did I really find another interest, one that surpasses, but that does not supersede the X's and


O's... After finally truly reading the introduction to Charles Caldwell's "Modern Single Wing Football's introduction, I was staggered by the DEPTH of the HISTORY of football.

Many of us know about the Bill Walsh lineage of coaches responsible for the development of the "West Coast"offense that garnered high praise in the mid 80's and 90's. The success of these coaches, combined with the growth of the national media's outreach and spotlight,  assured that the casual and more-than-casual fans were aware of these strategic developments , but did you know about famed Princeton coach Charles Caldwell's ties to a tiny New England College called Williams College or of legendary Eagle's front office man the late Harry Gamble's (yes, Eagles fans, father of current front office head Tom Gamble) connection to New Jersey's Rider college?

The list goes on and on:

Fritz Crisler was at Princeton before he brought and developed his innovative offensive attack to Michigan.

Dewey King's lexicon of defensive back play from the late 50's is still used by many coaches today.  Terms like 'eye control' and 'leverage' and 'change for depth' are all from a defensive backfield coach born during his stint at Rutgers University 60 years ago!.

There's more! So much more.

Williams College Legends

I've digressed. What IS the Football Booklist Explorer?

The Football Book List is ordered by the author's last name, so you could dig back into your memories and see if there's a book written by say... Steve Owen (for you New York Giants Fans out there) and VOILA:

( I will even put a link into the Abe Books search result for the title.)

Owen, Steve - My Kind Of Football - McKay & Co, 1952 

More to the point and maybe more utilitarian in nature, is that, since I have this book and many others, I can tell you a few things before you purchase it. For example, there is NO section on the somehow obscure but famous A-Formation in the pages of My Kind of Football.

Strategy geeks will no doubt know to what I refer!

Up next: More Background on how The Football Book List Explorer came to be and just What is Inside the Introduction to Charles Caldwell's "Modern Single Wing Football" that really made me think.

D.B.