Customer Reviews

Meat on the Hoof: The Hidden World of Texas Football

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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.

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.

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.

This is a very frank look at high school and college football. If only 10 % of this book were true it would be significant, but I suspect the percentage of truth is much higher than 10%. I have read similar account in other books. When millions of dollars are at stake you can be sure that people will be used like chattel. The author did not realize he was being used until half way through college. It would be good to warn prospective athletes that the glory they are striving for is a very shallow variety and very temporary at that.

As both a "Pop Warner" and high school football player in the 1970's, I can--personally--attest to both the generally dehumanising aspects and milieu (life-style) of said game of football as depicted in Mr. Shaw's work, "Meat on the Hoof." Consequently, I'm sympathetic with Mr. Shaw's plight and, inasmuch as--even in "Pop Warner"--I was subjected to many of the same pernicious drills as Mr. Shaw (qua "Longhorn"), I question little, if anything, of that detailed in his disabusing work.

Relative, however, to Mr. Shaw, I deem my fortune greater in that: 1) I was raised on the East Coast, and 2) my formative years comprised "the 60's," whereas Shaw's "the 50's." Gary Shaw was reared in a relative backwater--in an era wherein "backwaterness" was, by all accounts, the norm. In contrast, my background engaged a liberalising/questioning/radicalising "Sixties" in close proximity to many a hotbed of rebellion and dissension. Additionally, I attended (initially) a liberal arts college wherein I was straightway exposed to K. Marx (and his "worldview"). Hence, it was but a simple step to deduce that American football--in all its destructive and insalubrious glory--was (and self-evidently) but a subdivision of an overarching destructive and insalubrious socio-economic paradigm, namely: the present (and ubiquitous) capitalist(ic) modus operandi--a modus operandi, moreover, impervious to a humane modus vivendi. (It goes without saying that subdivision and paradigm mutually reenforce one another).

Yeah, I was--and remain--dehumanised. Hence, to a degree, disabled (and disenabled). Oh, and yeah, it was "one hell of a ride" to extricate myself from self-same (dehumanising) "box." Yet, be that as it may, I'm here in the now. And, insofar as my humanity has not been wholly stripped from my person, I've dedicated my life/existence--henceforth, and amongst other pro-human causes--to the positive disillusionment of others relative to our present, inhumane, reality ("system"). The one-and-the-same system that induced Gary Shaw to self-destruct.

A Texan? Writing such an iconoclastic and blasphemous work? And in that time? True grit, indeed! A work that compelled America to introspect upon--generally and by extrapolation--its principles, motives, and desires. And--furthermore--to the validity of the same, if any. A gutsy, existential production.

I knew Gary Shaw personally while attending the University of Texas, and I have read his book. It is obviously intended to relate the sensitive, nuanced story of a young man who, when confronted by the harsh behind-the-scenes realities of "Daddy D's" (Darrell Royal's) football program, engaged in a Promethean internal moral struggle. What a clever farce!

Shaw, as I understand it, died a homeless schizophrenic. The disease, in Ernest Becker's psychoanalytic terms, represents "a ballooning of the self in fantasy, the complete megalomanic self-inflation as a last defense, as an attempt at utter symbolic power in the absence of lived physical power." Indeed, as I remember Shaw, the word "megalomania" offers the most apt insight into and description of his personality. He unceasingly attempted to exert his will over others, whether in the sophomoric evangelical fervor he brought to atheism, or in his obdurate insistence that the Vietnam War amounted to a civil conflict between North and South in which the U.S. had no moral right to intervene, or in his crude sexual exploitation of co-eds. All these activities struck me as little more than a veiled outlet for his narcissism and aggression.

Michael Walzer once wrote, "A man doesn't lose his soul one day and find it the next." No, and he usually doesn't lose it in a single day either. Gary Shaw impressed me as one who entered the university and its football program with an already seriously eroded character. It was as if he were an accident going someplace to happen. It is not pleasant to cast an old acquaintance in such a pejorative light, but does his book, with its effusion of moral outrage, not open the door to such a discussion?

The issue concerning the book that I think should be underscored is whether collegiate football, with its admitted savageries, did not well suit Shaw and serve as a mere catalyst, if that, for the inevitable outcome of his life. Blaming Darrell Royal's football program for this young man's spiritual and moral chaos and demise strikes me as a superficial indictment only a fool could make. As an inexplicable irony of life, the player and the coach found each other, as often they do, and the resulting confrontation tells us as much about the one as the other. Neither commentary is morally edifying.

The book was in good condition with just a few scribbles that had been erased. The seller got it to me quickly and even e-mailed to double check that I didn't need it sooner so it would arrive in time for Christmas.

Having played football at the University of Texas I came to read this book with much anticipation to see how the author's experience was similiar or different from mine. I found myself thinking that the author came across as somewhat of a whiner and complainer. Yes, I realize things were different in the 60s than in the 80s when I played, but many of the experiences that were outlined in the book as torturous, matched the experiences we went through when I was there, and we didn't think much about them. Football is a rough sport, therefore you must develop tough people who are able to withstand rough experiences. This is what UT Coach Darrell Royal did. He did what it took to win football games, that was his job. While reading the book, I found myself asking the question, "If it was so hard, and you hated it and football so much, why didn't you leave immediately?" The answer is simple, football paid for an extremely valuable education. The blood, sweat and tears paid for the education that would direct the rest of your life. It was not worth jeapordizing this.

The author is quick to criticize the UT Football program, and coaches as caring only about themselves and their success, and giving no credit to the players. I disagree. The credit was given to the players in National and SWC Championships. What more credit do you want or feel you deserve? Championship rings and a top notch/free education. In addition, I have always felt that many of the strong values I have obtained in my life were due to my time playing football. It taught me to overcome, adapt, and to fight hard to reach your goals. I am confident that these values were learned by the author, and these are the values that have made him successful in life, and this is probably much more valuable than any football championship or college degree.

I believe that the way things were handled back then probably built stronger individuals. In fact, I have often found myself wishing that the "old-school" way of doing things did not go out of style. There is a general "softening" of our society that has been going on for at least a decade now, that could possibly be a major downfall to American society. It is all related. Yes football players were treated harder in the 60s, but did you see as many crimes committed or general dereliction of responsibilities? No, because these methods developed disciplined people.

At the time you are going through the hard practices, spring trainings, and off-season programs that he explains, they are painful and monotonous, and very much dreaded. But the funny thing about it is that these are also the moments that define a person. Do you persevere, overcome, and make it through, or do you pack up your tent and go home with your tail between your legs? The author does a good job of explaining his ability to "psyche" himself up to make it through practices, etc. which is a good thing. But the fact that the self-doubt, the animosity towards the football program and the coaching staff ruled his life are disappointing. He should have come to realize that those were golden moments of his life that would affect his success in the future. In fact, it would be expected to write a book like this as you are going through it, rather than later after it occurs. By the time it is over, you start appreciating these experiences as character building.

To make a long story short, I believe the author should have focused on the positive aspects and opportunities that he gained by being a part of the UT Football tradition, rather than describe some difficult instances and mock the entire UT Football program. But we all know that controversial topics are what sell books.

Topical criticisms aside, the book is well written and quick and easy to read.