Season of Saturdays: A History of College Football in 14 Games

Veteran college football writer Weinreb (Bigger than the Game) grew up in State College, Pa., adoring Joe Paterno and the Nittany Lions. The elegance and dexterity with which he explains his emotional attachment since childhood %E2%80%94 even after Penn State's football program was rocked by a damning sexual child abuse scandal in 2011 %E2%80%94 is only one reason why this cultural history of the game belongs on the shelf of every hardcore college football fan. His candor and passion are displayed on every page as he traces the sport's official beginning to Nov. 6, 1869, when Rutgers defeated Princeton by the baseball-like score of 6-4, and concludes with the 2013 Iron Bowl, when Auburn's Chris Davis caught Alabama's missed field goal attempt and ran the ball back 109 yards for a most unlikely touchdown and a berth in the SEC Championship Game. Weinreb assigns each chapter a so-called "game of the century" title and allows himself plenty of latitude to explain why "college football is fundamentally different than any other sport." By evoking sympathy for larger-than-life coaches Woody Hayes and Nick Saban, poking fun at Notre Dame and Michigan, and tackling "the incongruous notion of marrying amateurism with big business," Weinreb convinces readers he's right. (Aug.)