Remembering the Stars of the NFL Glory Years

An Inside Look at the Golden Age of Football

Wayne Stewart

The 1950s and 60s was a golden age for professional football. It was perhaps the toughest and roughest era for the sport, before rules were created to better protect the players, but it was also a time when legends were born. To many football fans this era remains the Glory Years of the NFL, when the stars that roamed the gridiron included the likes of Johnny Unitas, Bart Starr, Jim Brown, and Raymond Berry.

In Remembering the Stars of the NFL Glory Years: An Inside Look at the Golden Age of Football, Wayne Stewart tells the story of professional football in the ‘50s and ‘60s through the words of the players themselves. Chapters cover Hall of Famers on both sides of the ball, players who made a lasting impression on the game, and the toughest players on the gridiron. Stewart intertwines profiles of these iconic players with the athletes’ own memories, observations, and anecdotes, including their impressions of teammates and opponents. Two additional chapters consist of humorous quotes and the players’ thoughts on how the game has changed since their heyday.

Featuring exclusive interviews with players from the 1950s and ‘60s, Remembering the Stars of the NFL Glory Years provides an inside look at this distinct time in professional football. With a wide range of topics and insights included throughout, this book will both entertain and inform football fans and historians alike.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 238 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-1-4422-7423-5 • Hardback • July 2017 • $42.00 • (£32.00)

978-1-4422-7424-2 • eBook • July 2017 • $39.50 • (£30.00)

Subjects: Sports & Recreation / Football, Sports & Recreation / History, History / Oral History

Remembering the Stars of the NFL Glory Years

An Inside Look at the Golden Age of Football

Hardback

eBook

Summary

The 1950s and 60s was a golden age for professional football. It was perhaps the toughest and roughest era for the sport, before rules were created to better protect the players, but it was also a time when legends were born. To many football fans this era remains the Glory Years of the NFL, when the stars that roamed the gridiron included the likes of Johnny Unitas, Bart Starr, Jim Brown, and Raymond Berry.

In Remembering the Stars of the NFL Glory Years: An Inside Look at the Golden Age of Football, Wayne Stewart tells the story of professional football in the ‘50s and ‘60s through the words of the players themselves. Chapters cover Hall of Famers on both sides of the ball, players who made a lasting impression on the game, and the toughest players on the gridiron. Stewart intertwines profiles of these iconic players with the athletes’ own memories, observations, and anecdotes, including their impressions of teammates and opponents. Two additional chapters consist of humorous quotes and the players’ thoughts on how the game has changed since their heyday.

Featuring exclusive interviews with players from the 1950s and ‘60s, Remembering the Stars of the NFL Glory Years provides an inside look at this distinct time in professional football. With a wide range of topics and insights included throughout, this book will both entertain and inform football fans and historians alike.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 238 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-1-4422-7423-5 • Hardback • July 2017 • $42.00 • (£32.00)

978-1-4422-7424-2 • eBook • July 2017 • $39.50 • (£30.00)

Subjects: Sports & Recreation / Football, Sports & Recreation / History, History / Oral History

Author

Wayne Stewart is a professional writer and sports historian. He has written numerous articles for publications such as Baseball Digest, USA Today/Baseball Weekly, and the SABR Research Journal. He is the author of thirty-two books, the latest of which are Stan the Man: The Life and Times of Stan Musial (2010), Baseball Dads: The Game’s Greatest Players Reflect on Their Fathers and the Game They Loved (2012), America’s Cradle of Quarterbacks: Western Pennsylvania’s Football Factory (2015), and All the Moves I Had: A Football Life (2016), written with Raymond Berry.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Chapter 1: The Best Offensive Players
Chapter 2: Hall of Fame Defenders . . . and More
Chapter 3: Funniest Quotes and Tales
Chapter 4: The Toughest Players
Chapter 5: The Best of the Rest
Chapter 6: The NFL Then and Now

Notes
Bibliography
About the Author

Reviews

In this book, Stewart, a sports historian and the author of Stan the Man, puts a spotlight on the Hall of Famers who made the 1950s and a’60s the NFL’s glory years. The best of the offensive and defensive players from those decades are showcased here. As the author notes, more than half of the 260 players in the Football Hall of Fame, in Canton, Ohio, come from that era. Offensive stars of those years—among them such talents as fullback Jim Brown and quarterbacks Joe Namath, Bart Starr, Fran Tarkenton, Y.A. Tittle, and Johnny Unitas—get extensive coverage from Stewart. He doesn’t ignore the great defensive players of the era or the gritty types on both sides of the ball. In addition to these portraits, Stewart includes a laugh reel of quotations from key players and coaches. With a sharp eye for the game’s contradictions and contrasts, Stewart concludes that the sport has improved drastically in style and quality, but along the way has lost the rough-and-tumble element of the glory years.
— Publishers Weekly

Stewart's book is a crisp, clean and quick read of a great time period in professional football history. I recommend this book for any football library.
— Gridiron Greats

In all chapters, the reading is easy, quick and flows well.... [This is a] book that football fans who watched the game during that time will enjoy reading. It is like a time machine, taking the reader back to a time when professional football was played in a much different manner than it is today.
— The Guy Who Reviews Sports Books

I consider my era to be the glory days of the NFL, a true Golden Age, and this book provides a detailed inside look at many of the greatest players of that time period—of all-time, actually. Wayne Stewart, who co-wrote my autobiography, gives readers the opportunity to go behind the scenes and learn so much about the game, and in so many cases, through the words of the greats themselves—men such as Lenny Moore, Gino Marchetti, Mike Ditka, and many, many others. It’s a must read for any pro football fan.
— Raymond Berry, Hall of Fame receiver, Baltimore Colts (1955-1967)

Remembering the Stars of the NFL Glory Years recalls the 1950s and 1960s, covering everything from many Hall of Famers of the day to the way the league has changed from that era to now. Fans of superstars such as Gale Sayers, Jim Brown, Johnny Unitas, and many more will enjoy reliving the Golden Age of football.
— Mike Ditka, Hall of Fame tight end

Wayne Stewart dug deep, conducting exclusive interviews with a slew of NFL players from the Golden Age of the NFL to come up with Remembering the Stars of the NFL Glory Years. I was glad to contribute some of my memories, including those of stars such as Dick Butkus, Sam Huff, and Paul Hornung. As a running back for the New York Giants, Green Bay Packers and New York Jets, I played with and against many of the greats featured in this excellent, nostalgic book that provides some laughs along with a ton of facts, stats, and inside stories. It’s a must-read for any football fan.
— Chuck Mercein, NFL running back, member of Super Bowl II champion Green Bay Packers

Wayne Stewart has done a fine job of capturing the glory days of the NFL, back when I played for the Baltimore Colts with stars such as Raymond Berry and Johnny Unitas. The book is packed with anecdotes and a ton of inside information gained through many exclusive interviews with many of us players from that era. Anyone who watched the NFL in the 1950s and the 1960s will want to read this book!
— Tom Matte, All-Pro running back, Baltimore Colts

I really enjoyed talking football with Wayne Stewart. He’s an All-Pro, as they say, a class act—and so is his book.
— Don Maynard, Hall of Fame wide receiver, New York Jets