Customer Reviews

'63: The Story of the 1963 World Championship Chicago Bears

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It has become fashionable in the last several years to write books about a particular year in sports whether it is baseball, or in this case, football. David Halberstan wrote "October '64", and "Summer of '49", both of which do justice to the subject at hand. Unfortunately, this effort on the Chicago Bears' 1963 championship season is a short read, and certainly not an in depth study of the topic at hand. At times the authors seem to fill in space on matters that have nothing to do with the Bears' season. An example is when we are told about ex Baltimore Colt and Pittsburgh Steeler Eugene "Big Daddy" Lipscomb's death which took place after he was not only out of football, but after the Bears' championship. Short anecdotes are told by various players on a variety of subjects throughout the book and appear to act as a filler. I had a local bookstore order the book for me. If I had a chance to leaf through the book in a bookstore to see the format of comments jumping from one individual to another I probably would have put it back on the shelf. The subject matter of the Bears 1963 season is a worthy subject of a book, but we need someone else to tell the story. This book appears to have been hastily put together.

"'63: The Story of the 1963 World Champion Chicago Bears," is brought to us by the Youmans brothers, Gary and Maury. Maury was a member of the Bears during that season, unfortunately missing the whole season due to a knee injury. However, to the reader's benefit, we receive an insider's look at the team and personalities that comprised the Bears that year. In several ways, it was a year of highlights for the NFL: the AFL was beginning to show that it would be a major force in football, the assassination of Kennedy and subsequent playing of games only two days later had a major affect on players, the commissioner and the league; the suspension of two major stars undoubtably helped the Bears achieve their championship; and the active players of that time are the players of legend today (i.e., Unitas, Tarkenton, Nitschke, etc. - even Lombardi and Halas coaching). This was pre-union, pre-free agency, work-in-the-offseason-for-the-players football, a long way away from where players are in franchise status today, but still the same great game. The Youumans work through the highlights of every game, give stories about may of the players, and if the book lacks for depth in any way, it is not distracted by the other stories of the year which are not part of the Bears championship. Chapters could be written about other related (or even somewhat related) stories of the year (playing the league schedule after Kennedy was killed, for example, or the death of Big Daddy Lipscomb), but I believe that if you want a look at the 1963 Bears, who played, how they played, what they were like, what it was like to be with the Bears during that season, the Youmans brothers have done a fine job of presenting this picture of this team at this year to you in this book.