They raise cattle and football players in Texas. The cattle are treated better. MEAT ON THE HOOF is a startling look at big-time college football. The University of Texas Longhorns under Coach Darrell Royal have long been a major football power. How did they get there? Gary Shaw says by juggling the approved limit of athletic scholarships. By placing the players in psychological bondage through a complex series of physical and mental maneuvers. And by running off all the "meat" which had "quitter" in it or couldn't take it. And by setting up an elaborate caste system that had the surviving players clawing to get to the top.
MEAT ON THE HOOF is a weekday look at Saturday's heroes in which Gary Shaw debunks the myth of American college football's Super-male. He examines in detail the real motivations behind these machismo efforts at glory.
Gary Shaw was a high-school football star in Denton, Texas, recruited by Darrell Royal as a lineman. He was one of the few who made the team. But all along the line he had a vague uneasy feeling that something was wrong. Now he tells what the transformation from high-school star to "just another body" at Texas was like for him and his teammates.
He tells of the "education" coach whose job it was to help athletes get the most out of their Texas days but in fact did little more than steer mighty Longhorns into gut course after gut course.
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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Search out the used paperbacks for this one,
By A Customer
This review is from: Meat on the Hoof: The Hidden World of Texas Football (Hardcover)
If, like most big-time football fans, the ends justifies the means for you, then you're sure to hate this book, which is written from the point of view of someone who refused to be used in this way.If, on the other hand, you want a serious look behind the scorelines and hero-worshipping, Shaw gives it to you straight. A squad filler at the University of Texas in the 1960s whose battle with injuries resulted in humiliating drills and occasional bullying from the coaching staff (presumably in an effort to get him to quit school and give up his scholarship), Shaw details the chew-em-up and spit-em-out approach which ultimately forced him off the team. It is a sensitive, poignant and indicting representation of college sports, one which should have debunked the "student-athlete" myth once and for all. A sad footnote: the author, who passed away recently, spent much of his life living on the streets, suffering from a mental illness which, some argue, the last chapter hinted at. It's a great tragedy - the arrogant, greedy, ultra-macho world of big-time football lost an eloquent critic - of the type in profoundly short supply these days as everybody switches on the TV and rallies around the university flag.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Molding Of The Major College Football Player,
This review is from: Meat on the Hoof: The Hidden World of Texas Football (Hardcover)
Initially published in 1972, Gary Shaw chronicles his early-1960s career as a football player at the University of Texas, a perennial national power under the iron-fist rule and fiefdom of coach Darrell Royal.The elements of players as commodities to feed the university coffers, while not being integrated within the student body; assistant coaches with the goal of victory at any cost for their own survival and advancement; a head coach with the type of political connections that money can't buy and an utter lack of institutional oversight or control by university officials are as timeless by degree as spring practice and bowl games. This is not a coming of age for Shaw, but a search for his soul after walking out of a machine that has nothing to do with student-athletes or intercollegiate athletics. It remains a disturbing read which explores the truth and consequences within major college football.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
My recollections,
This review is from: Meat on the Hoof: The Hidden World of Texas Football (Hardcover)
I lived in Moore-Hill Hall during the time Gary Shaw wrote about his experiences with UT football. Gary and his roommate lived down the hall from me when I lived in the dorm. Much of what I read dealing with the arrival of the freshmen to Moore-Hill and dorm l found to be pretty accurate based on my experiences there. I happened to be there because my father had been assigned to Japan, and I had to return to the States at the Air Force's choosing rather than my own. Therefore, I was on campus earlier than the rest of the student body. I remember Gary as a friendly guy. Because there were no scholarship limits at the time, I don't doubt that life was hard on players who were not counted on to ultimately play. I also believe that academics resulted in a number of players also leaving UT in their freshman and sophmore years.
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