The Opening Kickoff

The Tumultuous Birth of a Football Nation

Dave Revsine

Now in paperback, the New York Times Bestseller and Boston Globe Bestseller!

It’s America’s most popular sport, played by thousands, watched by millions, and generating billions in revenues every year. It’s also America’s most controversial sport, haunted by the specter of life-threatening injuries and plagued by scandal, even among its most venerable personalities and institutions. At the college level, we often tie football’s tales of corruption and greed to its current popularity and revenue potential, and we have vague notions of a halcyon time—before the new College Football Playoff, power conferences, and huge TV contracts. Perhaps we conjure images of young Ivy Leaguers playing a gentleman’s game, exemplifying the collegial in collegiate. What we don’t imagine is a game described in 1905 as “a social obsession—this boy-killing, man-mutilating, education-prostituting, gladiatorial sport.”

In The Opening Kickoff, Dave Revsine tells the riveting story of the formative period of American football between 1890 and 1915. In just a quarter century football spread across the nation, captivating people from coast to coast. It was a time that saw the game’s meteoric rise, fueled by overflow crowds, breathless newspaper coverage, and newfound superstars—including one of the most thrilling and mysterious the sport has ever seen. But it was also a period racked by controversy in academics, recruiting, and physical brutality that, in combination, threatened football’s very existence. A vivid storyteller, Revsine brings it all to life in this captivating narrative. « less more »

Globe Pequot Press / Lyons Press

Pages: 328 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-7627-9177-4 • Hardback • July 2014 • $25.95 • (£17.95)

978-1-4930-0952-7 • Paperback • September 2015 • $16.95 • (£10.95)

978-1-4930-1292-3 • eBook • July 2014 • $15.99 • (£10.95)

Subjects: Sports & Recreation / Football, History / United States / General

The Opening Kickoff

The Tumultuous Birth of a Football Nation

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

Now in paperback, the New York Times Bestseller and Boston Globe Bestseller!

It’s America’s most popular sport, played by thousands, watched by millions, and generating billions in revenues every year. It’s also America’s most controversial sport, haunted by the specter of life-threatening injuries and plagued by scandal, even among its most venerable personalities and institutions. At the college level, we often tie football’s tales of corruption and greed to its current popularity and revenue potential, and we have vague notions of a halcyon time—before the new College Football Playoff, power conferences, and huge TV contracts. Perhaps we conjure images of young Ivy Leaguers playing a gentleman’s game, exemplifying the collegial in collegiate. What we don’t imagine is a game described in 1905 as “a social obsession—this boy-killing, man-mutilating, education-prostituting, gladiatorial sport.”

In The Opening Kickoff, Dave Revsine tells the riveting story of the formative period of American football between 1890 and 1915. In just a quarter century football spread across the nation, captivating people from coast to coast. It was a time that saw the game’s meteoric rise, fueled by overflow crowds, breathless newspaper coverage, and newfound superstars—including one of the most thrilling and mysterious the sport has ever seen. But it was also a period racked by controversy in academics, recruiting, and physical brutality that, in combination, threatened football’s very existence. A vivid storyteller, Revsine brings it all to life in this captivating narrative.

Book Details

Globe Pequot Press / Lyons Press

Pages: 328 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-7627-9177-4 • Hardback • July 2014 • $25.95 • (£17.95)

978-1-4930-0952-7 • Paperback • September 2015 • $16.95 • (£10.95)

978-1-4930-1292-3 • eBook • July 2014 • $15.99 • (£10.95)

Subjects: Sports & Recreation / Football, History / United States / General

Author

Dave Revsine has been the lead studio host of the Big Ten Network since its inception in 2007. Before that, he spent more than a decade as a studio anchor at ESPN. He lives in suburban Chicago with his wife and three daughters.

Reviews

[A] stirring survey of malfeasance, meticulously brought to life by Mr. Revsine.... The Opening Kickoff is a first-class account of football's turbulent origins, one that helps explain how a collision sport became the most conspicuous part of American higher education.
— The Wall Street Journal

A new must-read book for fans of college football...[a] fascinating look at the origins of the game.
— Forbes

[A]n eye-opening and compelling lesson for those looking for the complete story of the game.
— Chicago Tribune

[A] fascinating, well-researched college history [that] shows how money, eligibility, powerful coaches and bad actors corrupt.
— Sports Illustrated

Revsine has written a rich and thorough book, backed by ample research. But he’s also a college football fan, who’s served up a tale laced with humor and suspense.
— Boston Globe

[I give] the strongest recommendation possible to The Opening Kickoff: The Tumultuous Birth of a Football Nation.... It is fascinating - the best book [I have] read this summer... Revsine is a wonderful storyteller... If you like football and want to know how to first began its rise to become a national preoccupation, this is a must-read.
— Pat Forde, national columnist for Yahoo Sports

Features

[Setting] -
1890--1915, Ivy League and Midwest colleges like Wisconsin and Michigan

By the lead studio host of The Big Ten Network, the story of college football from 1890 to 1915--the intense media coverage, new sports superstars, fraud, scandals, violence, and how an Ivy League sport went west to form a college football nation

The Opening Kickoff

The Tumultuous Birth of a Football Nation

Dave Revsine

The Opening Kickoff

The Tumultuous Birth of a Football Nation

ALSO AVAILABLE