Authors: Marv Levy, Jim Kelly
ISBN-13: 9781582617978, ISBN-10: 158261797X
Format: Other Format
Publisher: Sports Publishing LLC
Date Published: August 2004
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Levy was born in Chicago and developed a love for sports at a young age. After high school, he served from 1943 to 1946 in the Army Air Corps. At Coe College he was a talented running back and sprinter and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate. He later earned a master's degree at Harvard University in English history. He joined the Buffalo Bills as head coach in 1987. In 2001 he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He currently lives in Chicago with his family.
This book is about one man's life as a football coach and much more. Forty-seven years of joyous celebrations after victories and crushing disappointments after defeats are encompassed in it, but it is about more than just touchdowns and interceptions. It is about how a person like Marv Levy, dedicated to his life's work, can begin his career as the obscure assistant coach of a high school junior varsity team and then one day, decades later, lead his men out onto the field in football's greatest spectacle--the Super Bowl. Readers are invited to come experience what it was like to be on the sidelines and be the winning coach in a game that has been designated as the greatest upset in collegiate football history and then be there again 25 years later when an injury-riddled team, losing 35-3 in the second half, rallies and then miraculously goes on to achieve the greatest comeback victory in the history of the National Football League. Fans will learn what it was like to wallow in the exhilaration that comes from leading a team to four consecutive Super Bowl appearances, only to follow it with the desolation that strikes when all four of those games end in defeat. But they will also learn about the character, persistence, and personalities of those incomparable Buffalo Bills of the 1990s who so resolutely pursued their impossible dream. There will be some laughs and there may be some tears. Readers will meet the people who shaped this coach's life, and they will wind up feeling close to them. They will look forward to each adventure contained in these pages, and when each new one does come, they are likely to say, along with the author, "Where else would I rather be than righthere--rightnow!"
Foreword | vii | |
Preface | ix | |
Section I | "When You Are Going Through Hell, Keep On Going." | |
Chapter 1 | Tampa Stadium, January 27, 1991 | 2 |
Section II | From South Chicago to Harvard | |
Chapter 2 | Sowt Chick-ahgo in da Nineteen Toitees | 12 |
Chapter 3 | Nothing Can Stop the Army Air Corps | 32 |
Chapter 4 | What in the World Is a Kohawk? | 45 |
Chapter 5 | Fair Harvard | 54 |
Section III | Time to Start Earning a Living | |
Chapter 6 | Just Call Me "Coach" | 64 |
Chapter 7 | I Gotta Go Back to Coe Again | 69 |
Chapter 8 | Where Else Would You Rather Be? | 76 |
Chapter 9 | California-Here I Come | 85 |
Chapter 10 | The Overachievers | 105 |
Section IV | Special Teams Are Really a Kick | |
Chapter 11 | Pro Football! I Love It! | 122 |
Chapter 12 | California Dreamin' with George Allen | 130 |
Chapter 13 | Mr. Allen Comes to Washington | 148 |
Chapter 14 | Hail to the Redskins | 165 |
Section V | North of the Border | |
Chapter 15 | Take This Job and Love It | 182 |
Chapter 16 | 'Twas Not the Season to Be Jolly | 196 |
Chapter 17 | My Grey Cup Runneth Over | 206 |
Section VI | The Battle of Kansas City | |
Chapter 18 | Can We Go to the Super Bowl with This Quarterback? | 214 |
Chapter 19 | Stick to Your Guns | 229 |
Chapter 20 | Turning a Corner? | 238 |
Chapter 21 | Strike Three! You're Out! | 248 |
Section VII | The State Between the Wars | |
Chapter 22 | Have I Got a Deal for You | 264 |
Chapter 23 | When a Coach Is No Longer a Coach | 274 |
Section VIII | Reborn | |
Chapter 24 | Nothing Is as Beautiful as Niagara Falls | 282 |
Chapter 25 | The Pendulum Begins to Swing Our Way | 287 |
Chapter 26 | Strike Four! | 300 |
Chapter 27 | The Day They Tore the Goalposts Down | 311 |
Chapter 28 | The Bickering Bills | 322 |
Chapter 29 | It Wasn't All Football | 331 |
Section IX | The Buffalo Bills Ride Herd | |
Chapter 30 | 1990 Was a Super Year | 338 |
Chapter 31 | We're Going Back to the Super Bowl | 357 |
Chapter 32 | Four Scores and Seven Minutes Ago | 365 |
Chapter 33 | The Dream Goes On | 382 |
Chapter 34 | Never Give In. Never Give In. Never! Never! Never! | 388 |
Chapter 35 | Farewell to Buffalo | 405 |
Epilogue | 413 |