Wednesday, January 01, 2014

A Football Christmas

A Happy New Year to all in Packerville! We thought we’d put up a post about one of our Christmas presents this year. We love books and we love books about football. This one isn’t specifically about the Packers, but they are represented quite well throughout this book. Guts and Glory: The Golden Age of American Football is (from Amazon): 

“The most memorable moments since the birth of pro football in America. If you are a sports fan, you have to be a Neil Leifer admirer, for you have been seeing his pictures and they've been shaping your impressions and memories for five decades." 
— Bob Costas

In 1958, journalist Neil Leifer took the picture that remains one of his most famous to this day. The day he got the shot — Alan Ameche’s game-winning "Sudden Death" touchdown — was Leifer’s 16th birthday. This game, called "The Greatest Ever Played," signaled football’s emergence as America’s new national pastime; formerly half-empty stadiums welcomed sold-out crowds seemingly overnight, while football surpassed baseball in national television ratings. Starting then, on any given Sunday Leifer was most likely shooting a football game somewhere in America…

“While best known for his iconic photograph of Muhammad Ali towering over a fallen Sonny Liston, it is his football pictures Leifer considers his best. This collection represents the best of his best, culled from over 10,000 rolls of film on the sport. With an introduction assembled from the best football columns of the era by famed sports columnist Jim Murray, and incisive captions detailing the legendary players, coaches, and games, this volume carries the guts and glory of the game into the end zone.”

Here are a few sample spreads to show how great this book is:

A great image of the Packers’ defense against the 49ers offense (timely, huh?) at Kezar Stadium in 1962. 

The Packers vs. the Eagles at Philadelphia’s Franklin Field in the 1960 NFL Championship game. 

Packers vs. Colts, 1968. 

QB Bart Starr in the same game at Kezar Stadium as seen above, 1962.

Another view of Starr’s touchdown sneak in the 1967 NFL Championship game — the “Ice Bowl.”

Find your copy here.

Guts and Glory: The Golden Age of American Football
By by Jim Murray (Author), Gabriel Schechter (Author), and Neil Leifer (Photographer)
Taschen (2011)
296 pages