The Best Game Ever: Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bowden (Black Hawk Down; Guests of the Ayatollah) tells the story of the 1958 National Football League championship game between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants, a legendary game that proved to be a harbinger of the enormous popularity of pro football over the next 50 years. Bowden writes that the game featured the greatest assemblage of talent ever on one field, including 17 future Hall of Fame inductees. He frames the picture with a wide lens, but then focuses on the roles and lives of a few key players, particularly the Colts' obsessive and methodical wide receiver Raymond Berry and the iconic quarterback Johnny Unitas, as well as the Giants' powerful linebacker Sam Huff. The game, played in frigid Yankee Stadium three days after Christmas, stretched into the evening, garnering the largest television audience in the history of the sport to that time. Bowden begins his entertaining and informative narration in the third quarter, and then delves into backstory on the league, players and the buildup, before returning to the gridiron to conclude with a detailed account of the final plays and an epilogue. (June)
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From Booklist

It’s hard to believe, in this era of Super Bowl overkill, but once upon a time, professional football was considered a minor sport. But one game changed all that. It was the 1958 NFL championship between the New York Giants and the Baltimore Colts, which began three days after Christmas on a gloomy afternoon and ended early in the evening under the lights at Yankee Stadium. Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down (1999), provides context for the game, along with a perceptive overview of the socioeconomic forces at work in America at the time, but he tells the story of what happened on the field primarily through the testimony of key players: Raymond Berry, Gino Marchetti, and Art Donovan of the Colts and Sam Huff and Frank Gifford of the Giants. His skill in transferring these interviews to the page, capturing the dynamic personalities of his subjects, provides an immediacy and electricity missing from so many sports histories. These were tough, intelligent men who loved competing, cared for their teammates and coaches, and who recall their roles in the birth of pro football proudly. No tapes of the original broadcast exist, but in many ways, Bowden’s book is better than any tape could be. --Wes Lukowsky

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press (May 5, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087113988X
• ISBN-13: 978-0871139887
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #209,550 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a magnificent book!, May 14, 2008

By	John Kendall (Leander, Texas USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Mark Bowden has a proven record as an exciting writer of history. The Best Game Ever is his best book ever. He makes the 1958 NFL title game come alive. I have memories as a high school senior of watching this game on television. The game's black-and-white starkness is imbedded in my memory. Mr. Bowden makes this memory come alive in all its vivid character. His lively style is more that of an analytical journalist than an academic historian, and he offers insights that I have not read elsewhere. The photos of this cold-weather game offered in the book made me want to bundle up in spite of the fact that it is 90 degrees in San Antonio (my home) today. Every football fan should be grateful for this book.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lightweight treatment of a great game, June 16, 2008

By	Barry Sparks "freelance writer" (York, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

December 28, 1958 marks one of the most classic moments in NFL history. That's the date the Baltimore Colts defeated the New York Giants in sudden death overtime to win the NFL title as 45 million fans watched on television. It marked the birth of the modern NFL as football began to step out of the shadows of baseball.

The match up featured the greatest concentration of football talent for one game as 17 future Hall of Famers were involved. It pitted a team of self-made men and the league's best offense (Colts) versus a team of glamour boys and the best defense (Giants).

Author Mark Bowden tells the story of the 1958 championship game through a handful of players and coaches such as Raymond Berry, Weeb Ewbank, Sam Huff, Tom Landry (Giants' defensive coordinator) and Vince Lombardi (Giants' offensive coordinator). Bowden's exceptional study of Berry is the cornerstone of the book.

Bowden recounts how Johnny Unitas and Berry teamed up to take the Colts 86 yards in two minutes to tie the game. And, how Unitas engineered the 13-play drive in overtime to secure the thrilling victory. Unitas' greatness and leadership in the game elevated him to the highest echelon of NFL quarterbacks.

Interestingly, many of the players didn't realize that the game would continue into sudden death overtime after it was tied in regulation.

As a writer, Bowden makes the reader feel like he's in the middle of the game. He makes you wish you had been able to witness this great game. You envy those who did. NFL Commissioner Bert Bell called the Colts-Giants sudden death overtime game, "The greatest day in the history of professional football."

While I thoroughly enjoyed the book, it's definitely a lightweight treatment of the subject. The book is 239, easy-to-read pages. When I finished the book, I wanted to read more about the game and its impact. I suspect many other readers will feel the same way.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an evocative and gripping journalistic description of a pivotal sports moment, January 20, 2009

By	Bruce J. Wasser (Lake Bluff, IL) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Best Game Ever: Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL (Hardcover)

Appropriately dedicated to David Halberstam, "The Best Game Ever: Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL" seamlessly blends a gripping journalistic description of the thrilling National Football League championship game with riveting personal stories of participants and witnesses. Author Mark Bowen clearly outlines the background and significance of the contest; he does so with both admiration and considerable affection for the men who fought on the semi-frozen Yankee Stadium turf that late December afternoon and evening. If Bowen extols the performance of the favored Giants, he reserves his greatest warmth for the underdog Baltimore Colts. Seventeen members of the NFL Hall of Fame participated in the contest, "the greatest concentration of football talent ever assembled for a single game."

Bowen provides compelling portraits of some of the sport's iconic figures: Vince Lombardi, Sam Huff, Tom Landry, Frank Gifford, Art "Fatso" Donovan, Lenny Moore and Johnny Unitas. However, Raymond Berry, the self-made wide receiver for the Colts holds a special place in Bowen's heart. Undersized and undervalued, Berry quietly revolutionized the sport with his meticulous preparation and unceasing quest for information. As the Colts marched down the field for the winning touchdown, the public address announcer's repetitious statement, "Unitas to Berry," exemplified two emerging stars summoning peak performances during moments of unbearable pressure.

"The Best Game Ever" contains marvelous anecdotes about the game and its witnesses. Bowen informs us that some of the players did not know about the "sudden death" rule, designed to produce a winner in a championship game. He gives life to the most famous photograph of the day, one taken by a teenager who gained access to an end-zone perspective by pushing wheelchair-bound veterans to one end of the field. As well, Bowen expertly analyzes the nascent confluence of television and football, a relationship nurtured by prescient NFL commissioner Bert Bell.

Ardent fans of professional football and students of American culture will find something to cherish in "The Best Game Ever."