Sports Biblio Reader, 9.26.21
Also in This Issue: Joe Nuxhall; Roger Angell; Bo Jackson; Herschel Walker; NFL’s Forgotten Firsts; A Requiem for the Big 12; Kyle Rote; Earl Monroe; 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates; The Big East; Lionel Messi’s Boots; A Sportswriter’s Lost Son; From Princeton LAX to Broadway; Remembering Gerd Müller and Rod Gilbert
The early reviews are in for the new Ken Burns film about Muhammad Ali that he’s done for PBS in conjunction with The Undefeated.
Mostly, they’re positive, but for a ubiquitous figure who’s been the subject of many books, articles and films, how much more about Ali can be uncovered by even an exhaustive documentarian?
This is the fourth sports-related film by Burns, following Jack Johnson in 2005, Jackie Robinson in 2016 and his lengthy film “Baseball” in 1994.
The seven-hour, four-part Ali film aired from last Sunday through Wednesday (and can be seen at this link, with plenty of related behind-the scenes information).
For younger audiences or those who don’t want to go digging around the vast Ali archives, Burns’s film figures to be a must-see.
Narrated by actor Keith David (who narrated “Unforgivable Blackness” about Jack Johnson and Burns’ “The War” about World War II), the Ali film covers all of the boxer’s key biographical moments in Burns’ inimitable style—deep storytelling backed by vivid documentary footage.
At Salon, Melanie McFarland thought one of the film’s strongest points was “where the filmmakers allow the fight footage to run with the lightest of editing, and a sound boost enabling us to hear Ali taunt his rivals and land his blows. This brings the ferocity to life like nothing else.”
More review-ish takes at CNN, Tampa Bay Times, Variety, Indiewire and TV Insider; interviews with Burns at Vox, NPR and CBS.
Esquire rounds up some of its iconic pieces of the iconic champ, with bylines including TomWolfe, Bob Green and Mark Kram.
Not all the critics have been fully enamored. At the AV Club, Noel Murray writes that despite his skill and thoroughness, Burns hasn’t managed to eclipse other Ali films:
“It’s impossible to make a documentary about Ali without running smack into many of Burns’ recurring themes. But there’s the problem: Muhammad Ali’s story is so ripe for the telling that it’s actually already been told—over and over, in print and onscreen, for decades.”
A Few Good Reads
Longtime Cincinnati-area media writer John Kiesewetter is the author of the newly published “Joe Nuxhall: The Old Lefthander & Me—My Conversations with Joe Nuxhall About the Reds, Baseball & Broadcasting,” and talks about his book and his relationship with the legendary Reds pitcher and announcer here, here and here;
A half-century ago the Pittsburgh Pirates won the World Series in what became a bittersweet event, as Roberto Clemente was tragically killed in an airplane crash a few months later. But it was during that 1971 season that Clemente and teammates made history, as the Bucs fielded the first all-black and Latino starting lineup in Major League Baseball history;
It’s been 40 years since Bo Jackson starred in football and baseball at Auburn University, where journalism students have put together an oral history about his time on The Plains that’s been published at The Sporting News;
Herschel Walker, who like Jackson was a Heisman Trophy winner, has announced his candidacy as a Republican for the U. S. Senate in Georgia. The former UGA star is a close friend of ex-president Donald Trump and is campaigning on a stalwart conservative platform. Forty years ago this fall, Walker and Clemson’s Homer Jordan turned in memorable performances in a UGA-Clemson classic; from 2011, Steve Oney penned “Herschel Walker Doesn’t Tap Out” for Playboy, detailing a short-lived MMA stint that followed his disappointing pro football career;
The impending departure of Texas and Oklahoma to the Southeastern Conference has left the Big 12 scrambling again. Before BYU, Cincinnati, Central Florida and and Houston were added to the Big 12 fold, Bryan Curtis wrote about how the conference has never developed an identity as much as it’s been an aspirational host for ambitious programs from non-power conferences;
Back when the SWC was one of the powerhouse conferences, Kyle Rote Sr. was among its legendary players. In 1951, he took his stardom from SMU to the New York Giants, where he was the top pick in the NFL draft and switched from quarterback to wide receiver and won an NFL title. His son, Kyle Rote, Jr., was one of the first Americans to earn name recognition in the North American Soccer League, mostly through his appearances on the “Superstars” TV series;
Former NFL wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson and Newsday football writer Bob Glauber are the latest authors to explore the full integration of the NFL. “The Forgotten First” details how Kenny Washington, Woody Strode, Marion Motley and Bill Willis ended a 12-year ban on black players in 1946, a year before Jackie Robinson’s debut in Major League Baseball. At NPR, Johnson discussed the “gentleman’s agreement” among owners that kept the NFL all-white for most of its formative, fledgling years; more on the subject from Los Angeles Times columnist LZ Granderson;
Former New York Knicks star Earl “The Pearl” Monroe is the namesake of a new charter school in the Big Apple that blends a traditional academic background with hands-on learning for non-playing careers in sports;
From Dance Magazine, how college gymnastics programs are incorporating the art form into their routines in sophisticated fashion, with former UCLA coach Valorie Kondos as a trailblazing figure. She was a professional dancer with the Sacramento and Washington ballet companies before starting her sports career as a choreographer for the Los Angeles Laker Girls;
Lionel Messi has left FC Barcelona for Paris-St Germain, and a pair of shoes he wore during his days for Spain have landed at the Design Museum in London. They’re to be included in an exhibit, “Football: Designing the Beautiful Game,” set to open next spring;
Roger Angell, the longtime baseball writer for The New Yorker, has been named the 2021 Lifetime Achievement recipient by the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting at the University of Texas. He and Mitchell S. Jackson of Runner’s World magazine, is the recipient of the Best Sportswriting Award for his story about Ahmaud Arberry, a black man who was killed while jogging in a Brunswick, Ga., neighborhood in 2019. Three white men are facing trial in what is being alleged as a racially-motivated murder. Jackson’s story explores the largely-white world of recreational distance running in the United States;
Veteran sportswriter Ivan Maisel writes gracefully about his late son Max, who committed suicide in 2015 as a college student. It’s an excerpt from “I Keep Trying to Catch His Eye,” a forthcoming memoir of his lost son;
From The Athletic, Dana O’Neill writes about Sam Gravitte, a lacrosse standout at Princeton University who’s trying to dust off the rust to his budding acting career on Broadway during the COVID-19 pandemic; in November, O’Neill’s latest book, about the revitalized The Big East, will be published in the fall, but this is a full history about the league that did revolutionize college basketball in many ways;
In Britain, spectators are being allowed back into sports stadiums, and at FourFourTwo, Paul Brown reckons that soccer will enjoy a post-pandemic boom not unlike what took place after World War II;
Passings
Gerd Müller, 75, was known globally as “Der Bomber,” Germany’s goal-scoring machine in the mid-1970s who led Der Mannschaft to World Cup glory and Bayern Munich to three European Cup crowns. His Bundesliga record of 365 goals remains, and only last year was his single-season mark of 40 goals eclipsed by Robert Lewandowski of Bayern Munich. On Friday, Lewandowski missed surpassing another Müller record of scoring in 16 consecutive league matches. A legendary poacher, Müller came to the North American Soccer League in the late 1970s, like many top global stars, and daftly demonstrated his touch even in his mid-30s;
Rod Gilbert, 80, was known as “Mr. Ranger” scoring more than 400 goals in a Hockey Hall of Fame career that included a 1,021 career points for the New York Rangers and being the first player in franchise history to have his jersey (No. 7) retired at Madison Square Garden. He gave what had been a flagging NHL franchise an identity and popularity during a Golden Age in New York sports, as Joe Namath recalled after his death.
The Sports Biblio Reader e-mail newsletter is delivered on Sunday. You can subscribe here and search recent archives. The full archives for Sports Biblio Digest can be found here. This is issue No. 248, published Sept. 26, 2021.
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