50 Years of College Football: A Modern History of America's Most Colorful Sport [Paperback]

Bob Boyles (Author), Paul Guido (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2007

This is a must have for any serious fan of college football. Thoroughly documenting every key moment and statistic from the 1955 season to the 2007 NFL draft, it is simply the most comprehensive encyclopedia of the sport ever written. It’s perfect for fans looking for in-depth information like starting lineups, career statistics, AP Polls, NFL draft lists, and award winners, and has stats organized both by season and team. But, with expert facts and opinions on the game, this guide goes beyond mere number-crunching to get at the heart of collegiate competition. With profiles of the more than 100 stars and coaches, and more than 6,500 recaps of key games, it is a fun read as well as an essential reference.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This book really takes me back to ‘Between the Hedges’ at Georgia, my Bulldog teammates, and our 1960 Orange Bowl victory.”  —Fran Tarkenton, College and Pro Football Hall of Famer

About the Author

Bob Boyles is the president and CEO of Sideline Communications. He has worked in sports marketing and publicity since 1972. He currently manages publicity and entertainment for the motorsports program of MBNA America Bank. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona.

Paul Guido is the chief operating officer of Sideline Communications. He has worked in sports journalism and marketing for more than fifteen years, holding editorial, research, and directorship positions for numerous national companies. He is the co-author of The USA Today College Football Encyclopedia. He lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1312 pages
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing (August 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1602390908
• ISBN-13: 978-1602390904
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #940,023 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Second Edition Still Not Perfect, But Remains The Best Resource For College Football, November 9, 2007

By 

S. Switzer (Anderson, SC, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 50 Years of College Football: A Modern History of America's Most Colorful Sport (Paperback)

From the first page, 50 Years of College Football bombards you with just about everything you'd want to know about the sport from 1953 through 2006. From thousands of season and game capsules to yearly records, rosters, and the greatest players lists of 70 major football schools, the data is immense, useful, and fun to peruse.

The problems are minor, but glaring. The book suffers from a bit of a consistency problem. For instance, among Georgia Tech players, names are spelled correctly in one part of the book and misspelled in another, like "Eddie Lee Ivory" and "Keith Brookings". Joey Hamilton (once referred to as "Joe" and "Joey" the rest of the time) is even listed as being drafted from "Georgia" in the 1999 NFL draft list.

The other problem is more of a personal caveat: none of the yearly rosters have any kickers or punters listed in any year, even though they're referenced aplenty in the rest of the book. Some may not particularly care about that, but it's a shame that they were excluded.

Despite these flaws, 50 Years is the best college football resource on the market today. No college football fan should be without it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have reference that trounces ESPN, January 6, 2008

By 

T. Cheche (MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 50 Years of College Football: A Modern History of America's Most Colorful Sport (Paperback)

Fifty Years of College Football is a little-known giant of a book that blows away the competition like the ESPN College Football Encyclopedia. Fifty Years even has a bonus...it actually chronicles 54 football seasons of all the important college teams, and does it in an amazingly detailed style. It supplies information on the top 70 football programs that can be found in very few books of this type.

For example, ESPN's book offers scores of games but otherwise all but ignores the exciting action that took place on the field. For its part, Fifty Years chronicles every important moment in more than 7,000 important college games. ESPN spoons up inconsistent "teams of the century" for each school while Fifty Years taps each major school's best 54 players, arranged as a squad ready to take on the world. Very cool!

ESPN provides a chart of each team's season leader in stats while Fifty Years lists each starting player and many reserves on offense and defense and supplies all the important stats in each season during the modern era since the early 1950s.

Boyles and Guido make football history come alive, and their amazing effort is massive, and an incredible bargain.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars college football fans, buy this book, August 18, 2008

By 

R. L. Beegle (Charleston, W.Va.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 50 Years of College Football: A Modern History of America's Most Colorful Sport (Paperback)

If you are a college football fan, this is a must have. This book has stats and scores and standings so in a way it is similar to the ESPN College Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Game(which I own and reviewed) but what sets this book apart from that one, and what makes it far more itneresting, are the game (for major games for every week during the season, plus bowls) and season recaps. Essentially the game recaps are the same as what you would read in the newspaper the day after the game, and the season recaps give a one page description of the stories and trends in each of the seasons from 1953 to 2006.

The second half of the book lists the 70 (arguably) most notable college football playing schools since 1953 with scores and school records, as well as starting lineups for each school for these years. This section isn't any better than the similar section in the ESPN book, a lot of the info here is the same but this book does have the above mentioned starting lineups.

The product information describes this book as getting "to the heart of college football competition" and being a "fun read". I agree whole heartedly with those statements. If you want one book to cover college football history, this is the book to get. If you read the reviews and the ESPN College Football Encyclopedia seems a better fit for you, I still recomend buying this book alongside that one.