Rising Tide: Bear Bryant, Joe Namath, and Dixie's Last Quarter
Roberts and Krzemienski, each a sports historian in his own fashion, focus here on the hugely successful, sometimes contentious partnership of legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant and quarterback Joe Namath, who led the Crimson Tide to the 1964 national championship. The authors deliver three-dimensional portraits of both men—Bryant, a coach so relentlessly demanding of his players that he was universally dreaded, and Namath, laid-back and nonconforming to ’Bama’s hidebound ways but also blessed with preternatural skills and a will to win equal to that of his coach—while giving accounts of virtually all the games Namath played there. If the segregationist Alabama football program was a stain on the university during that racially turbulent era—and the authors pay special attention to the issue—neither Bryant nor Namath seemed all that bothered by it. Perhaps a secondary book, since so much has been written about both Bryant and Namath, but one can rarely overestimate the public’s demand for all things football. --Alan Moores