Customer Reviews

The Ice Bowl: The Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers Season

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Mike Shropshire needs to do a better job doing his homework! On p. 37 he notes Tony Canadeo as the Packer president in 1967. Canadeo never was. Dominic Oleniczyk was from 1958 through 1982. Name mispellings, such as referring to Packer OT Bob Skoronski as "Skronski" (p. 46) hurt the author's credibility. He refers to "St. Thomas Hospital" on Webster St. in Green Bay on p. 6. I am sure he meant to refer to it as either Bellin or St. Vincent, which are the only two hospitals on that street. He also listed the "Tropic" (actually "Tropics") on p. 81 as a common Packer haunt in the '60s. This was a strip joint in town at the time. Did the editors care enough to check out facts before this book went to print?

Author trashes the present-day Cowboys in first chapter and paints Green Bay as a town full of drunken slobs as he searches for a bar to watch the Super Bowl.

Slow developing, but still worth a read for those fans interested in the glorious '60s. I just wish the author would have done a little more research when compiling the facts.

Basically a good account of the seasons of the Packers and the Cowboys leading up to the 1967 NFL Championship Game. However the author throws in a lot of unrelated information that appears to filler material. It was if the author decided that the 1967 season and the "Ice Bowl" would not be enough material for a book. That is not the case because the author focuses on the recollections of a few key players. There were many other players, fans, coaches, sportcasters that the author did not consult, or referenced with little detail. For example, he notes that Don Meredith complained about the game not being a fair test of football because of the weather. He could have noted that Meredith also stated that the icy field took away ninety percent of the Cowboys offense (Dallas Times Herald) You hear a lot from Pete Gent, but nothing from other more notable figures. He also uses stereotypes to describe the cities of Dallas and Green Bay. In his description, Dallas was a place full of ultra right-wing millionaires rolling in their own money and Green Bay was a place where people live wretched lives only brightened by their beloved Packers. The author often uses awkward references to events like the Vietnam War to start his chapters. It was like he was couldn't decide whether to write a football book or a David Halberstam-like account of the era. He should have stuck to football.

In the early years of "Saturday Night Live," Dan Ackroyd played a character named Leonard Pinth-Garnell, who would host a show called "Bad Ballet" or "Bad Theater" or whatever. They'd present a truly awful play or whatever, then cut to Leonard Pinth-Garnell applauding and saying "Awful! Dreadful! Simply terrible!" and roll the credits over footage of someone dropping the script into a trash can.

Well, if Leonard Pinth-Garnell ever wants to do "Bad Book" he can start with this one!

After learning of Ed Gruver's highly-rated book about the Ice Bowl, I looked for it at my local library, forgetting Gruver's name. That's how I picked this book up. Big mistake.

By the time I'd gotten into just the prologue, I felt like the kid in "The Emperor's New Clothes," wondering how anyone could like this book. So I came to Amazon, looked the book up, saw the existing reviews, and realized I'd gotten the wrong one.

Here are the things, JUST FROM THE PROLOGUE AND FIRST CHAPTER, that made me hate this book:

1. "All about me" - Author Mike Shropshire just keeps sticking himself into things. "Here's what I did... so and so told me..." I'm much less interested in reading about the author than I am reading about the game.

2. Lame jokes - for example, two jokes about pot smoking. Tony Kornheiser and often Jerry Izenberg, citing just two examples, show that one can write informatively about sports while being funny. Shropshire manages neither while attempting both.

3. Getting the facts wrong - Page 15: He says that the Cowboys and Packers played for the 1966 NFL title on December 30, 1966. Actual date was January 1, 1967. Page 18: Packers beat the Chiefs 34-10 in first Super Bowl. Actual score was 35-10. This is nitpicky stuff, but when, again and again, Shropshire messes up information readily available, I take what he says with an increasingly-larger grain of salt.

I will now look for the Gruver book, and I expect to enjoy it. I can also recommend "Instant Replay" by Jerry Kramer and Dick Schaap, which also covers the game and the 1967 season, just much better than Shropshire's book; and "When Pride Still Mattered" by Dave Maraniss, which has an amazingly detailed and riveting chapter about the game.

To write such an awful book about such a compelling topic must have been hard work, but Shropshire managed it.

The previous reviewer stole much of my thunder, but I'll throw in my two cents' worth anyway.
"The Ice Bowl" is a magazine article stretched into book length. The actual game is covered in a couple dozen pages near the end. The rest of the book is, as the previous reviewer noted, filler. Examples: Several pages are devoted to Bubbles Cash, a forgotten, top-heavy Dallas stripper. What did she have to do with the Ice Bowl? Nothing. Midway through the book, the reader learns about Texas Stadium, and about overly privileged children from the affluent Dallas suburb of Highland Park. What do these have to do with the Ice Bowl? Nothing. The author drops names of Texas towns that (unless you're from the Dallas area) you've never heard of: Waxahachie, Wills Point, etc. What do they have to do with the Ice Bowl? Nothing. The book is absolutely crammed with extraneous material such as this. Also, the author's style is grating. Try this introduction to the account of the second half of the game: "The players were not certain whether the winners would be claiming the NFL championship or the Stanley Cup [reader can insert mental rim-shot here -- Bada-bing!]. Between periods, they [who -- the players?] should have brought out the Zamboni machine ...Instead of blowing that $80,000 on his underground dirt-warmer, Vince Lombardi probably should have intalled guardrails [Bada-bing!]. Any activity beyond the middle of the gridiron resembled the practice runs by the Jamaican bobsled team at the Calgary Olympics" [Bada-bing! Hey! I got a million of 'em! You folks from out of town?]. This sort of "I'm a humorous sportswriter" shtick is very tiresome. Especially if -- as in this book -- it's not even funny.
If you can find the book at a library, pick it up and read the couple of short chapters on the game. You might pick up a little new information. Otherwise, find a copy of the Dick Schaap/Jerry Kramer classic "Instant Replay". Now THAT book is a 5-star.

Review: "The Ice Bowl"

"The Ice Bowl" by Mike Shropshire. New York: Donald I. Fine Books, 1997. 218 pages with illustrations. Lists for $24.95

Make no mistake, Cowboy fans: this book was written by a Packer-fan (Mike Shropshire) about the Packers, and for Packer-fans. When Shropshire does mention Dallas or the Cowboys, it is almost always in a disparaging way.

E.g., the first 14 pages of the book are a paen to the '96 NFL Championship Packer team (just what exactly that has to do with the Ice Bowl I never quite figured out -- but it certainly helps sell books to today's Cheeseheads [many of whom haven't a clue of football history prior to 1991] to mention Favre a few times).

In his prologue, the author goes to great lengths to contrast the good-guy-in-white-hat Packers to the bad-guy-in-black-hat Cowboys. Throughout the book, he disses the city of Dallas at every opportunity, and even manages to trash the state of Texas a few times as well (this coming from a guy who worked as a reporter for the Fort Worth Star Telegram!).

Of course, while extolling the virtues of today's Packers, he completely ignores Favre's vicodin problems, Tyrone Williams, Wayne Simmons, etc. Yet he finds space to opine on Michael Irvin's appearance at a grand-jury hearing!

Of course, this has nothing to do with the '67 season and the Ice Bowl, other than to fan the flames of the current Packer-Cowboy rivalry, which has been decidedly one-sided since 1989 (another fact that escapes mention in his book). Well, it *is* Shropshire's book, and he can darn well write whatever he pleases, as can I in reviewing it.

When he finally gets into the topic, his writing style is very irritating: he constantly overuses metaphor and simile taken straight out of 50s sports pages. E.g., referring to a RB thrown for a loss (p. 132), he describes the RB as "trapped in his own backfield like a bug in a matchbox".

On p. 98 he describes the Saints field as "better suited for alligator poachers than football players". And those are some of the *better* examples. But after the fourth or fifth one, the literary device gets tiresome.

Also, either Shropshire doesn't remember some of his "facts" or the editors at Donald Fine Books didn't care enough to check them out (probably thinking Cheeseheads will buy the book regardless of the number of inaccuracies).

Just a sample: on p. 15, he says the 1966 NFL Championship Game was played on December 30, 1966, when it was actually played on Janury 1, 1967. On p. 18, he lists the score of Super Bowl I as 34-10, when it was actually 35-10.

On p. 74, he refers to LA Ram Ed Meador as "Meaders". On p. 84, he writes of Richie "Pettiebone" which s/b Petitbon. He alleges on p. 95 that Don Meredith retired after the '69 season, when in fact Meredith retired after the '68 season.

In the space of five paragraphs in pp. 132-133, seven times he writes "Osburn" in reference to Minnesota Viking RB Dave Osborn. At p. 157, he changes the position of Cleveland QB Frank Ryan to a cornerback!

And at p. 161 he refers to a specific piece of equipment as a "tight" pad, when he obviously meant to write thigh pad.

I point out these errors not simply to criticize the man's inability to spell or to check simple, published facts. But since his editors apparently don't care enough about the reader to check them, one is left to wonder about the credibility and believability of the rest of Shropshire's story.

The author takes 14 chapters to build up to the fateful event, the fourth-and-goal from the Dallas one yard line. Yet for the all the build up, the author's description of the fateful play, and it's consequences in the fortunes of both teams, was sadly lacking.

After reading the climactic chapter 15 and the afterword, I had the feeling "Is that all there is?" After an emotional investment of fourteen lead-in chapters, I certainly expected (and had the right to, even knowing the outcome) much more.

Interesting note about the bookcover: the dominant color theme of the dust-jacket is green and gold (understandably), yet the actual hard cover is in blue and silver (OK, light grey)!! The publisher is clearly trying to appeal to both sets of fans.

Bottom line: Cheeseheads will love the book and will overlook its many creative faults and errors of fact. Cowboy fans can better spend their money on "Cotton Bowl Days" by John Eisenberg.

Copyright 1997 Fred Goodwin (originally submitted in 1997)