Turnaround: The Untold Story of Bear Bryant's First Year As Head Coach at Alabama [Hardcover]

Tom Stoddard (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Turnaround is the heretofore untold story of Bear Bryant's first year as head coach at Alabama in 1958. Through comprehensive interviews with players and coaches, detailed accounts of practice sessions, play-by-play recountings of the games from Bear's inaugural year, and numerous photographs from the 1958 season, Tom Stoddard takes the reader back in time to that critical point in Alabama football history and those players' lives. Turnaround is more than a football book -- it is about the culture of the fifties, Alabama's love affair with football, and about the relentless quest of a fascinating man for the keys to victory on the playing field. Turnaround will be deeply enjoyed by all football fans, but especially those that remember Bear Bryant's astounding achievements. -- Midwest Book Review

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: River City Pub; First Edition edition (August 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1881320707
• ISBN-13: 978-1881320708
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,439,589 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better editing would have fetched 5 stars..., July 5, 2001

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"hydrophonic" (the Capitol View section of Little Rock Arkansas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Turnaround: The Untold Story of Bear Bryant's First Year As Head Coach at Alabama (Hardcover)

`Turnaround' is a very detailed account of the foundation Coach Bryant used to rebuild the Alabama football program. Tom Stoddard is wise to let this book be mostly oral history, as the players can tell this story far better than anybody else.

There are some tedious moments. My patience was severely tested by paragraphs of depth charts, including where the player was from. This kind of text became even more unbearable when I turned the page to find an actual depth chart. My first attempt to read `Turnaround' was thwarted by this poor editing decision.

The players' stories about the coaching staff, Coach Bryant in particular, are the real attraction of this book. These stories make up the majority of the book, and make this book an overall enjoyable read.

Just skip over the long lists of names.