cover image Starr: My Life in Football

Starr: My Life in Football

Bart Starr, Murray Olderman. William Morrow & Company, $17.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-688-06752-6

Starr was an undistinguished quarterback at the University of Alabama and with the Green Bay Packers until Vince Lombardi arrived in Wisconsin. Even then, it seemed as if the new coach accepted Starr only with reluctance, but the gamble paid off and the outstanding play of the young man helped lead the Packers to five championships in seven years plus several other winning seasons. Starr and Olderman (The Pro Quarterback) present a picture of Lombardi at variance with the general image; they show a man driven to push his players to the level of excellence he was sure each of them could achieve, certainly not a tyrant or a monster. The second part of the book, about Starr's disappointing years as the Green Bay coach, is less absorbing and comes as something of an anticlimax, particularly in its detailing of the games he masterminded. Photos not seen by PW. (November 23)