A Cowboy's Life [Hardcover]

Bob Lilly (Author), Kristine Setting Clark (Author), Roger Staubach (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 2008

Bob Lilly is Mr. Cowboy. The humble man from Throckmorton, Texas, often called "the greatest defensive tackle in NFL history," shares his life's journey for the first time in A Cowboy's Life. Lilly recounts his humble beginnings in Texas, being the first player ever drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in 1961, his induction into the Ring of Honor, and his passion for photography. It's all here: Lilly's innumerable successes, his injuries, the stories of what he did after he retired from the Cowboys, and what he is doing today. Well supplemented with many never-before-published photographs taken by Lilly himself, A Cowboy's Life is the real story of Mr. Cowboy, straight from the man who lived it all.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"A man like that comes along once in a lifetime. He is something a little more than great. Nobody is better than Bob Lilly."
--Tom Landry

"Regardless of whether Bob was double-teamed or even triple-teamed, he'd still beat you. There were times when he didn't even confront the opposition at all. He would either jump over them, go around them, or strategically outsmart them by making the play."
--Roger Staubach, from the foreword

From the Inside Flap

Young, spindly Bob Lilly of Throckmorton, Texas, did not aspire to play professional football. In fact, he almost didn't play football at all after his junior high coach knocked him silly while demonstrating a forearm block. But Lilly picked himself up off the ground and decided to give it one more try, a move that changed his life, and arguably the game of professional football, forever.

Upon graduating from Texas Christian University, Lilly was the number one draft pick of the brand-new Dallas Cowboys organization in 1961. In A Cowboy's Life, Lilly talks for the first time about his long journey from poverty in Throckmorton to his rise to fame as Mr. Cowboy. His insights about the Cowboys could only come from one who was there at the beginning, at the dawning of this new franchise that enchanted football fans across the country and became "America's Team." He breaks down the players, year-by-year, offering interesting and sometimes amusing anecdotes about many of the Cowboys' most famous, and infamous, players from his days on the gridiron.

But to distill Lilly's talent down to just professional football is to do him a disservice. He is also a gentle soul and an artist. A year before joining the Cowboys, Lilly was given a 35mm camera and a year's supply of film as part of his appointment to the Kodak Coaches' All-American Team. Thus began Lilly's lifelong obsession with the art of photography. He photographed Cowboys players and coaches, old sports stadiums, nostalgic Americana, and, most famously, natural settings. Lilly pursues photography to this day and has garnered much attention for his work.

Written in collaboration with Dr. Kristine Setting Clark, A Cowboy's Life gives insight into the life of a legend. Lilly shares with humble candidness the tribulations, the triumphs, and the glory of his life on and off the field.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Triumph Books; First Edition edition (September 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1600781012
• ISBN-13: 978-1600781018
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #531,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth the Wait, February 2, 2009

By 

Steve Ryser (Lacey, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Cowboy's Life (Hardcover)

It was nearly 24 years after he played his last game for the Dallas Cowboys when the autobiography of Mr. Cowboy himself, Bob Lilly, was released. For fans of Cowboy history like me, this is good news. And the book does not disappoint.

Bob Lilly was a class individual as a player. He was a destructive force at defensive tackle and yet a very clean player of great sportsmanship. He was unselfish and team-oriented. He comes across the same way as an author- all class and very positive. The chapter "Battle Scars" of the various injuries he endured is particularly insightful of what he went through and the sacrifices he made.

My only complaints with the book are that several photos and a lot of the player anecdotes are lifted from Bob Lilly's fine book "Reflections." (this is only a bad thing if one already owns "Reflections"). Also at times the narrative is a bit generic and has the feel that it is coming from the co-author's research from other published sources rather than insights from Bob Lilly. And there are some factual errors. The Cowboys were never 2-4 in the 1970 season, and the Cowboys didn't lose the home game to the Giants in 1971.

In summary, this is a book I would highly recommend to any fan of Dallas Cowboys history. Of course, such a fan just knowing it was a book on Bob Lilly probably would snatch it up anyway without caring what anyone else who read the book thought of it as Bob Lilly is that large and respected a figure in Cowboy history.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Cowboy's Life by Bob Lilly, January 9, 2009

By 

Di G. "Di G." (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Cowboy's Life (Hardcover)

My husband received this as a Christmas gift and has thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Even though he has lived in Steeler country all his life, he became a fan of the Cowboys in the early 1960s and has remained so all this time. It's a great read for a Cowboy's fan.

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, April 14, 2009

By 

Wally - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Cowboy's Life (Hardcover)

After reading several great sports books (particularly the fantastic "Quiet Strength - Tony Dungy"), this was a big disappointment. The "action" segments of the book are little more than tired play-by-play summaries of key Cowboy games, with only sporadic insights from Bob's perspective.

I picked up this book knowing very little about the person of Bob Lilly, and came away still knowing very little. It serves much more as a summary of the glory years of the Cowboys (with detailed descriptions about players and coaches) than it seems a book about Bob Lilly or even a player's background perspective on the game. I would have liked to hear more about Mr. Lilly's Christian and personal convictions alluded to throughout but never explained.

I can see the draw for nostalgic Cowboy fans, but for the average unbiased reader there are better choices. Take the first and last few chapters out and the book is essentially game after game of play-by-play narration and short biographies of Cowboy personnel with a few anecdotes from Mr. Lilly sprinkled throughout.

The brightest spot in the book comes at the end, "Battle Scars," an eye-opening perspective into what football players go through year after year for our entertainment on television. Unfortunately, it's too little, too late.

As a book about the glory years of the Cowboys, a 4/5 rating. As a book about Bob Lilly, I'm afraid my 2/5 stands firm.