This is B1G: How the Big Ten Set the Standard in College Sports

Sportswriter Sherman delivers a celebratory, but balanced, look at the history of Big Ten sports in this photo-packed volume. Sherman starts with the 1895 gathering of representatives of seven Midwestern colleges that took place in Chicago, which paved the way for establishing uniform rules to “relieve intercollegiate athletics of some of their more objectionable features”—such as ensuring that participants were all full-time students. Interspersed throughout are colorful photos of athletes, coaches, and fans, and while famous athletes such as football player Red Grange (University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign), basketball star Magic Johnson (Michigan State), and golfer Jack Nicklaus (Ohio State), are covered, Sherman highlights lesser-known figures, such as coach Kelly Amonte Hiller, who arrived at Northwestern University in 2000 and guaranteed its first recruiting class of women lacrosse players they’d win a championship, kicking off a streak of seven national titles in eight years. Uglier moments—such as Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes’s assaults on players during the 1970s—get their due as well. This official history will be red meat to devoted college sports fans. (Self-published)