The Ice Bowl: The Cold Truth About Football's Most Unforgettable Game [Paperback]

Ed Gruver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2005

The day of the Ice Bowl game was so cold, the referees' whistles wouldn't work; so cold, the reporters' coffee froze in the press booth; so cold, fans built small fires in the concrete and metal stands; so cold, TV cables froze and photographers didn't dare touch the metal of their equipment; so cold, the game was as much about survival as it was about skill and strategy. On New Year's Eve, 1967, the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers met for a classic NFL championship game, played on a frozen field in sub-zero weather. The "Ice Bowl" challenged every skill of these two great teams. Here's the whole story, based on dozens of interviews with people who were there—on the field and off—told by author Ed Gruver with passion, suspense, wit, and accuracy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A hundred misconceptions about the Ice Bowl have been answered. This book captures the essence of Lombardi’s finest hour." -- Bob McGinn, Packers beat, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"An insightful, bone-chilling replay of pro football's greatest game." -- Gordon Forbes, pro football editor, USA Today

From the Publisher

Movie Premieres on ESPN December 13th, 2003

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 255 pages
• Publisher: McBooks Press (October 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590130804
• ISBN-13: 978-1590130803
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #123,899 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for fans of football played outdoors in winter., November 28, 1997

By 

Erik Arneson (Harrisburg, PA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Ice Bowl: The Cold Truth About Football's Most Unforgettable Game (Hardcover)

This book is a tremendous recap of The Ice Bowl and the game's participants. Tons of interviews, plenty of graphics and photos, and a great sportwriter to pull it all together. It's obvious Gruver loves the subject matter. As a lifelong Packers fan, I found this to be a fantastic book -- and so did my Dad, another lifelong Packers fan. Highly recommended!

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Essence of Football, January 16, 2000

By 

Chuck Turley (Lewiston, Idaho) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ice Bowl: The Cold Truth About Football's Most Unforgettable Game (Hardcover)

A wonderful book. Ed Gruver recaps this game with thirty years of perspective, and he does it right. It's well written, with comprehensive background information and game detail. The appendix has all the pertinent statistics you could want, including a play-by-play compilation.

Gruver is not biased toward the Packers. He pays richly deserved respect to the Cowboy players and coaches. The Cowboys were a "warm weather" team that might have been expected to fold their tent when faced with the severe cold, but, like the Packers, they gave everything they had on that day.

I don't see much to criticize in this book. Maybe Phil Bengtson's family would like to have seen his name spelled correctly. I'd prefer to see more discussion of the historical significance of the game, but Gruver probably thinks of himself as a reporter and not as a historian.

Not being bound by such modesty, I'll do it for him.

The greatest games in modern NFL history are:

(5) 1998 Bronco-Packer Super Bowl. (4) 1982 49er-Cowboy NFC Title Game. (3) 1969 Jet-Colt Super Bowl. (2) 1958 Giant-Colt NFL Title Game. (1) The Ice Bowl.

An epic game should have three qualities: it should effectively decide a championship, it should be historically significant (usually by signifying a changing of the guard or a change in the way the game is played), and the game action should be unforgettable. The Ice Bowl combines these qualities better than any other game.

It marked an end to the dominance of the "old" NFL and provided a glimpse of the complex offensive and defensive schemes to come. It matched two of the five greatest coaches in NFL history. No game was more dramatic; the cold weather and frozen field gave it a sense of primeval struggle. I feel that the title "Greatest Game Ever" as applied to the '58 Championship Game has been inflated by the well-known power of eastern media. The Ice Bowl deserves that title.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Real Deal, February 6, 2002

By 

Daniel (Dallas, TX, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ice Bowl: The Cold Truth About Football's Most Unforgettable Game (Hardcover)

The year 1997 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the 1967 NFL Championship game between the Packers and the Cowboys. Two book were published around that time. One was by Mike Shropshire and the other was by Ed Gruver. Of the two books, Gruver's is superior. It looks briefly at the coaches, the organizations, the seasons, and then devotes the lion's share of the book to the actual game. Especially helpful were the diagrams of key plays that occurred during the game. The book devotes a chapter to each quarter. In addition to the players and coaches, the author looks at the game from sportscasters and referees. The author also covers issues that Shropshire ignored. For example: was Jerry Kramer offsides on the winning TD and did Donny Anderson score on the previous play. The author also does a good job on covering the discussion of possible plays that could be called on the final play. The Shropshire book was not bad, but this one wins hands down.