Year of the Cat [Hardcover]

Scott Fowler (Author), Charles Chandler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 8, 1997

From two award-winning sportswriters comes the amazing story of the meteoric rise of the NFL's second-year Carolina Panthers--a Cinderella story that will enthrall the team's wildly devoted followers and capture the hearts of football fans everywhere.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Year of the Cat is a must-read for Panthers fans. Since I now live in Charlotte, I've had the opportunity to watch Dom Capers bring this young football team to the top of their game. Scott Fowler and Charles Chandler do a great job providing a detailed, behind-the-scenes look at Carolina's success." -- Joe Gibbs, three-time Super Bowl winner and current NBC-TV NFL analyst

"If you like pro football, if you like the Carolina Panthers, and if you like good reporting, you'll like this book very much." -- John Feinstein, author of A Civil War and A Good Walk Spoiled

"Even the most rabid Panthers fan will find things he didn't know. From team-meeting revelations to Dom Capers's pre-playoff game speech to a key player's hidden problem, Year of the Cat gives a terrific inside look at one of the NFL's rising-star teams." -- Peter King, Sports Illustrated and CNNSI

"The overnight success of the Carolina Panthers is one of the NFL's most compelling stories of the last ten years. Scott Fowler and Charles Chandler give us a real insider's look at how it was done." -- Chris Mortensen, ESPN --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Author

"Year of the Cat" was my first book and I co-authored it with Charles Chandler. It tells the story of the Carolina Panthers' first two seasons -- 1995 and 1996 -- when they were one of the darlings of the NFL for their quick rise to the NFC championship game in only their second season. There's a scene we wrote in the book -- about a secret team meeting held when the 1996 Panthers had lost several games in a row and were in trouble -- that remains one of the favorite chapters I've ever been a part of in any book I have written. -- Scott Fowler

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1St Edition edition (September 8, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684844486
• ISBN-13: 978-0684844480
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,504,593 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Scott Fowler is an author as well as a national award-winning sports columnist for The Charlotte Observer, the largest newspaper in the Carolinas. He has written for The Observer since 1994. You can also visit his personal website at www.ScottFowlerSports.com -- information about all six of his books can be found there -- or e-mail him at [e-mail].

Scott's newest book -- "Lost on the Road to Nowhere," published in 2012 -- is the fictional adventure of four children stranded in the North Carolina woods in the aftermath of a car wreck. It is family-friendly and recommended for ages 8 and up (adults seem to enjoy it too).

Scott's newest nonfiction book -- "What It Means to be a Tar Heel" -- is an affectionate oral history of UNC basketball, told through the eyes of 42 of the program's greatest players. It is available from Amazon.com and was named one of the "Top 20 New Sports Books" by bleacherreport.com.

A native of Spartanburg, S.C., Scott graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a journalism degree from the University of North Carolina in 1987.

He worked for three years from 1987-90 covering the University of Kentucky sports teams - primarily UK basketball - for The Louisville Courier-Journal. He then took a job with The Miami Herald and covered the NFL's Miami Dolphins for most of three seasons, writing about teams led by head coach Don Shula and quarterback Dan Marino.

In 1994, Scott moved back closer to home to write for The Charlotte Observer's sports section. Scott and his colleague Charles Chandler combined to cover the Carolina Panthers on a day-to-day basis during their early seasons. They also co-wrote a regional bestseller called "Year of the Cat" (1997, Simon & Schuster).

He followed it with "Tales from the Carolina Panthers Sideline" (2004); "North Carolina Tar Heels: Where Have You Gone?" (2005); and "Jimmy Black's Tales from the Tar Heels" (2006), which was a story of the 1982 UNC title team that Scott wrote in collaboration with Black, the squad's senior point guard.

Scott has been a Charlotte Observer sports columnist since 1999. He writes mostly about the Carolina Panthers, college basketball, NASCAR and the Olympics. He has interviewed a number of sports celebrities (that picture with him in the orange shirt is a shot of Scott interviewing Michael Jordan).

Scott's newspaper work has won more than a half-dozen national awards and has been published in numerous magazines and newspapers around the country. He has made several appearances on ESPN and was on camera as part of HBO's 2009 "Tobacco Road" documentary on the UNC-Duke basketball rivalry.

Scott and his wife Elise live with their four rambunctious children in North Carolina. He welcomes your e-mails at [e-mail] or your visit to his personal website at www.ScottFowlerSports.com.