Keep A-Goin': The Life of Lone Star Dietz »

Best Biography Book Award for 2006 by NewBookReviews.org

Midwest Book Review

Keep A-Goin': The Life Of Lone Star Dietz by Tom Benjey is the remarkable, inspiring and distinctive biography of Billy Dietz, who was a winning athlete in his own right, a successful football coach in the earliest days of the sport (and who was inducted into football's "Hall of Fame"), and popular idol with the general public of his era. As the child of an adoptive couple in Wisconsin, Dietz was unaware of his biological parents (his mother was Native American) until he heard his parents quarreling when he was 15. As readers of Keep A-Goin' will discover this is an encouraging tale of personal persistence in self-discovery and determined survival throughout his prolific career and seemingly endless personal and professional difficulties from his days attending the Carlisle Indian School, through his move to Washington State as head football coach from 1915-1917, then coaching for the Mare Island team of the U.S. Marine Corps during World War I, a trial by the government ending in the imposition of a 30-day jail term, and so much more. A superbly written biography by Tom Benjey, Keep A-Goin' is very strongly recommended for Billy Dietz fans and for sports enthusiasts with an interest in the history of the NFL

Preface and Acknowledgements     ix
Prologue     1
I was born or so I thought     3
Meet me in St. Louis     15
Looking for myself in all the right places     29
You have a friend in Carlisle     39
I want to be a football hero     55
Artistic pursuits     67
Gone to the dogs     85
This too must end     91
Polytechnics on the Palouse     103
Everything is coming up roses     125
Coug'd already     145
The Great War, or Nature strikes back     163
Tell it to the Marines     173
Who's your mommy?     185
Picking up the pieces     207
Spizzerinktum     221
Ragtime cowboy Bill     231
Give 'em the Axe, the Axe, the Axe!     255
The end of the Trail of Glory     261
Hail to the Redskins     277
Undefeated     285
Endgame     299
Epilogue - a response to Reclaiming James One Star     313
The Lone Star Curse     327
Yip. Yip. You!     331
Endnotes     333
Illustrations     341
Index     353