Title/Author:
“The
President’s Team: The 1963 Army-Navy Game & the Assassination of JFK” by
Michael Connelly
Tags:
Football
(American), college, history, military, politics
Published:
January
13, 2009
Length:
306
pages
Rating:
4
of 5 stars – very good
Review:
November
22, 1963 is a date that is etched in every American’s memory. Whether or not a person was alive to say
where he or she was when the news was announced, the date always brings a sad
thought or memory at the thought of John F. Kennedy dying in the presidential limousine
in Dallas. Kennedy was a Navy veteran
and a huge fan of the Naval Academy football team. The two are interwoven in Michael Connelly’s
book about both the man and the football team.
Connelly
interweaves biological information about Kennedy and analysis of the football
teams of the Naval Academy of the early 1960’s.
The latter is an important point because while most of the football
portion of the book is about Navy’s 1963 season, the information Connelly
shares about the team illustrates the bond between the President and the football
team.
The
information shared on President Kennedy is not too detailed, but for a book of
this nature, with football as the main bond between the two main subjects, it
is more than adequate to describe the highlights of his time in office and also
of his love for football. Of course, the
famous Kennedy touch football games are given their proper due in this book.
If
the reader is more interested in the football than the history or politics,
then consider this an excellent source of information about the 1963 Navy
football team and its Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Roger Staubach. The
previous two years were the buildup to this season in which ironically, the two
losses they suffered were in Dallas. The
connection between that fact and that it was where the assassination took place
is made by Connelly in a wonder manner. Each
game of Navy’s 1963 season has its own chapter and recap. Just like with the Kennedy pieces, the
writing is detailed enough for a football fan to enjoy, but not so much so that
even non-football fans will enjoy these passages as well.
The
book will bring back memories for those readers who were around for the events
of that time. For those who were not
(or too young to remember them), readers will get to experience a glimpse of
not only a nation in deep mourning for the loss of its leader, but also will
get to experience a glimpse of what it was like to be a football player for the
Naval Academy at the time. A very good
book that should appeal to readers of many topics.
Did I skim?
No
Did I learn something
new?
Yes. I did learn a little more about Kennedy’s
military career and his heroics, but the bulk of new information I learned was
about the Navy football teams of that time.
I knew about Staubach and his fantastic junior year, but I did not
realize just how good a complete football team this group of Midshipmen was.
Pace of the book:
Good
– switching between the football and the politics of the time kept the reader
involved in both sections.
Positives:
There
are many of them. The writing style is
very good – technical enough to show that the writer was very knowledgeable of
the topic, yet in a style that was easy to read. Those who may not know much about football or
Presidential history will be able to read and understand these topics just
fine.
I
also liked the format of the game-by-game recap of the 1963 Navy season. It felt like being a fan who was lucky enough
to attend every game of that season in which the last two months darkened an
otherwise bright year for the program.
Negatives:
While
the book was about Kennedy, I would have liked to have read more about the Army
team of 1963 as well. While yes, Kennedy
was first and foremost a Navy fan, he was the commander-in-chief of all the
armed forces, so the Cadets at West Point also lost their leader as well and
felt the loss as much as the Midshipmen.
Do I recommend?
Yes,
for college football fans and historians as there is good information on both the
Army-Navy game and on John F. Kennedy
Book Format Read:
Ebook
(EPUB version on Nook)
Buying
Links:
Great review Lance! :) I'm a big fan of history, so this book sounds like it would be interesting to at least skim through.
ReplyDeleteYou would like the chapters on Kennedy. If you do read it, at least skim some of the chapters on the Navy players. You will learn some interesting stuff on the Naval Academy. You can skip the chapters on the actual games!
ReplyDeleteI actually sold souvenirs at one of those games in the very early 60's and frankly I thought I saw Staubach but memories tend to get shaped by other perceptions that many years ago. Sounds interesting Lance.
ReplyDelete