Grit and Glory: Six-Man Football [Hardcover]

Laura Wilson (Author), Reed Underwood (Afterword), Troy Aikman (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2003

On fall Friday nights, as the sun descends below the Western horizon, bleachers fill in cities and small towns across the nation. A ritual played out under bright lights will help define the lives of those gathered and will teach the boys who play about competition, honor, hard work, defeat, and victory. Laura Wilson, photographer and author, documents six-man football with forty black-and-white photographs.

Editorial Reviews

Review

". . . the big picture on small town football." -- Dallas Morning News

About the Author

Laura Wilson is the author of Hutterites of Montana and Watt Matthews of Lambshead. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Washington Post Magazine, Talk magazine, and London's Sunday Times Magazine.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Bright Sky Press (November 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931721289
• ISBN-13: 978-1931721288
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 8.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,243,177 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:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book of photography, August 6, 2008

By 

C. Hudson "CLH" (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Grit and Glory: Six-Man Football (Hardcover)

Photographer Laura Wilson does a superb job of capturing the emotion and heart of small-town Texas football. In no way a novel, this book is a photographic album.

A lovely description form Bright Sky Press:
On fall Friday nights, as the sun descends below the Western horizon, bleachers fill in cities and small towns across the nation. A ritual played out under bright lights will help define the lives of those gathered and will teach the boys who play about competition, honor, hard work, defeat and victory. Communities are galvanized by the struggle for victory on playing fields throughout the American heartland. Football is the number one topic of conversation. Community spirit and pride are strong. The game is a contest among players, but it also symbolizes the fans' desires to cling to their own youthful enthusiasms.

Six-Man Football is the exotic variant for towns too sparsely populated to field an 11-man team. In this fast-moving game, with fewer players who play offense and defense, six-man football becomes a wide open game full of razzle-dazzle plays. The rules are slightly different. Each player is eligible to catch passes. The teams compete on a field a little shorter at 80 yards and a little narrower at 40 yards than that of conventional football. With 12 players, fans can easily see the hard-hitting action and the tremendous effort of boys who often play both offense and defense. Mercy is built into the game. There is a "slaughter rule," which stops the game the moment one team's lead extends to 45 or more points, during the second half. Pride in the team's fortunes unites the entire community. One can see the support in store windows, on car windshields and on the local hamburger marquee. The six boys on the field and their eager back-ups on the bench know that with each snap of the ball their school, their families and their town are willing them to victory. Such is the import -- and joy! -- of Six-Man Football.

Laura Wilson, photographer and author, documents Six-Man Football with 90 black and white photographs. Troy Aikman contributes the foreword.

Previous award-winning books by Wilson include Hutterites of Montana, Watt Matthews of Lambshead, and Avedon at Work. Wilson's work has appeared in The New York Times.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your money by purchasing, December 14, 2007

By 

James T. White "White Line Fever" (Ottawa, KS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Grit and Glory: Six-Man Football (Hardcover)

It was with disappointment that I purchased GRIT AND GLORY. After I thorougly enjoyed reading WHERE DREAMS DIE HARD, I selected a tangent on six-man football. Therefore, I purchased GRIT AND GLORY. If I wanted a picture book I would have gone to the Children's section of a local library! This work did not enlighten me one bit! Keep your money and do not purchase this book!