War As They Knew It: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and America in a Time of Unrest » (Bargain)

MICHAEL ROSENBERG is a sports columnist for the Detroit Free Press as well as a featured columnist at foxsports.com, making him one of the best-read sports writers in the country. Rosenberg's work appears in the 2005 edition of Best American Sports Writing and he has received numerous awards for his work.

The Vietnam War...
Nixon...
Kent State...

The late 1960's and early 1970's were a time of total turmoil in America—the country was being torn apart by a war most people didn't support, young men were being taken away by the draft, and racial tensions were high. Nowhere was this turmoil more evident than on college campuses, the epicenters of the protest movement.

The uncertain times presented a challenge to two of the greatest football coaches of all time. Woody Hayes, the legendary archconservative coach of Ohio State, feared for the future of America. His protégé and rival, Bo Schembechler of the University of Michigan, didn't want to be bothered by these distractions. Hayes worshipped General George S. Patton and was friends with President Richard Nixon. Schembechler befriended President Gerald Ford, a former captain and team MVP for the Wolverines.

In this enthralling book, Michael Rosenberg dramatically weaves the campus unrest and political upheaval into the story of Hayes and Schembechler. Their rivalry began with Schembechler arriving in protest-heavy Ann Arbor, Michigan, at the height of the Vietnam War. It ended with Hayes wondering what had happened to his country. War As They Knew It is a sobering and fascinating look at two iconic coaches and a different generation.

Publishers Weekly

The yearly battle between Ohio State and the University of Michigan is one of the most intensely fought rivalries in college football, and one of its greatest eras began in 1969, when Bo Schembechler arrived in Michigan as the team's new head coach. Schembechler had been a former protégé of Woody Hayes, the legendary coach of Ohio State-who was so intimidating that one player used to be terrified that Hayes would kick him in the testicles during practice, despite never having seen him do it to another player. Rosenberg, a sportswriter for the Detroit Free Press, tracks how the two coaches pushed their players to greatness over the next nine years (until Hayes was fired after punching an opposing player in the middle of a game) while trying to adjust to the social upheavals of the 1970s. His attempts to bring the radical student underground into the story are an intermittent distraction-the most powerful drama is out on the football field and in the locker room when every year Schembechler and Hayes went head-to-head. The story has its strong moments, including one of history's most notorious missed field goals, but it's the dual portrait of the old-school coaching legends that's the real attraction. (Sept. 10)

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1 What Kind of Game? 1

2 The Fall of '69 29

3 Using the Enemy's Tactics 55

4 Napoleon; or, The Man of the World 81

5 Only the Good Ones 105

6 Books 131

7 Television 163

8 Roses 203

9 Independence 227

10 The Ultra Secret 247

11 The Final Days 271

12 Football, History, and Bo Schembechler 307

Acknowledgments 327

Notes 337

Index 359