Twelve Mighty Orphans: The Inspiring True Story of the Mighty Mites Who Ruled Texas Football (Hardcover)

by Jim Dent (Author)
Key Phrases: city guys, blue baby, milk slimes, Mighty Mites, Fort Worth, Hardy Brown (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Dent, who told the story of Bear Bryant's brutal preseason training of the 1954 Aggies in The Junction Boys, turns to the incredible story of Rusty Russell and his undersized team of orphans who dominated the gridiron of Texas high school football for the better part of the 1930s. True underdogs, most boys from the Masonic Home never held a real football; they used two socks stuffed together as footballs and, when Russell first took over, used Clabber Girl baking cans during practice. But the lean, scrappy Mighty Mites—as they were later dubbed—achieved an 8-2 record their first season of play in Class B. A few years later, in 1932, they moved up to Class A, the big leagues of high school football at the time. There, the Mites would face teams that outweighed them by as much as 50 pounds per man and fielded 47 players to their 12, and the orphans would win. Dent's strength is his play-by-play accounts of key games, but descriptions of personal interactions are often forced and lifeless. Also, many characters and events that are introduced at length don't factor significantly into the larger story line. Dent does more to mythologize the team and its players than to give them flesh and blood. (Sept.)
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From Booklist
The Masonic Home, an orphanage outside Fort Worth, became a high-school football dynasty in Depression-era Texas. Despite having virtually no equipment or uniforms, and despite their linemen often being outweighed by 50 pounds, the Mighty Mites, as they came to be known, reached the Texas state semifinals three times and the championship game once. Dent, author of The Junction Boys (1999), another inspirational story of Texas football, produces a riveting narrative from the saga of the Mites and their innovative coach, Rusty Russell, who compensated for his team's physical shortcomings with imaginative formations and trick plays. Using extensive first-person research and, when that wasn't possible, interviews with the immediate descendants of the principals, Dent builds a sense of drama and immediacy by placing readers in the heart of the Depression and a Texas that still had a bit of the Wild West in it. This is Seabiscuit for football fans, sure to attract narrative nonfiction fans who like to mix sports, inspiration, and popular history. Lukowsky, Wes

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1st edition (September 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312308728
• ISBN-13: 978-0312308728
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #308,084 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Inspiring Story During Depressing Times, September 16, 2007

By	A. N. Turner (Texas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm a native Texan and an avid football fan who played football in the southern panhandle area between Odessa and Lubbock and I had never heard this story. I'm thankful that Jim Dent wrote this book and you will be, too.

This is a story of struggle and perseverance during terrible times. The facts are how a rag-tag football team from an orphans home in the 1930's competed and won against the "big dogs" of Texas high school football. The heart of the story, though, is how this orphans home, Masonic Home, it's coach, Rusty Russell, and the players, usually only 12 on the team during any season, overcame harsh times and even harsher lives.

That these boys, who found themselves in this home after the deaths of one or both parents and who sometimes witnessed these deaths first-hand, played football at all is nothing short of fantastic. That they grew as young men under the mentorship of a caring coach is a testament to perseverance in the face of enormous odds...in other words, almost miraculous.

Throughout the book, the author sprinkles stories away from the football field to bring life at the Masonic Home into focus. The oil boom, depression, poverty, Texas football politics, Jack Dempsey, and even Seabiscuit all come together to relate the life and times of this school and football team.

If you're a native Texan, love football, or cheer for the underdog, you will thoroughly enjoy this book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Mighty Mites Rule, November 10, 2007

By	Beverly Rigsby (Richardson, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In my opinion Twelve Mighty Orphans is absolutely the best sports nonfiction book to come along since Seabiscuit, An American Legend. And they both have a similar theme throughout - that of America's love for the underdog. You don't have to be a football expert to be rooting for the boys at the Home. The editorial review from Publisher's Weekly on this page that said "Dent's strength is his play-by-play accounts of key games, but descriptions of personal interactions are often forced and lifeless" is completely off the mark. The play-by-play is great, of course, and exciting. However, it's the back story of the underdogs that grew up at the Masonic Home and scrapped their way to winning while being transported to games on the bed of a wheezing old truck that brings it all together and makes the reader care passionately for the Mighty Mites. Without stories of what shaped the orphans before and after their coming to the Home it could very well have been like reading descriptions of games that were straight off the sports pages of a newspaper. My congrats to Jim Dent for making this story a feel-good winner.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful story of human nature, March 20, 2008

By	Melissa Jersild - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I purchased this book for my father for Christmas--he's a huge football fan, played high school ball in Texas years after the depression. He'd never heard of the Mighty Mites, and, were it not for a review I heard on the radio, we may never have. Turns out, he has a lot of ties to the people in the book.

The book itself is well-written, easy to read historical and personal account of the coach, the home and the boys who lived there. We get background on some families, a real history of the coach and the real-life look at the way life was in the home. IT was not pretty, it was hard indeed, but these boys were given a chance to do something beyond the school's fence. Their coach taught them how to play football, but more importantly, how to be a team and how to be men. His love for the game and the boys jumps off the page and you can feel it in every move he makes, every sacrifice he makes for the school. It follows several years of the "Mighty Mites" team, from their inception to their ultimate conclusion.

This is a wonderful story of the human condition, of overcoming odds and expectations, and how one person can make a huge difference in the lives of others when he is truly committed. Football fan or not, this is a wonderful telling of the lives of some special kids and the man who led them.