The Return of RBR Reading Room

by kleph on Apr 18, 2011 9:00 AM CDT in Reading Room

What a desolate place this is...

With the conclusion of the A-Day game the long horrid off season stretches out interminably before us once again. It's going to be a hard slog this year given the outcome of 2010 and the promise 2011 holds for our beloved Crimson Tide.

Yet never fear! The Roll Bama Roll Reading Room is set to return this week to help you survive the ordeal. We've got 19 books on tap to be reviewed and plan on posting a new one each and every Tuesday morning from now until the week the season begins. The primary focus will remain on books about the Crimson Tide but this year will also see the inclusion of a few books that look at college football in a historical context.

Over the past two off seasons we've amassed reviews of 30 books that mostly concentrate on Alabama football but there are a handful that look at the wider sport as well. So if you can't wait for this year's offerings we urge you to check out the Reading Room archives (available here or in handy graph form after the jump).

Title	Author	Date Posted	Reviewer
100 Things Crimson Tide Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die	Christopher Walsh	July 6, 2010	kleph
A Damn Good Yankee	Gregory Kordic	Aug. 11, 2009	kleph
A Time of Champions	Steve Townsend	Aug. 17, 2010	kleph
Ain't Nothin' But A Winner	Barry Krauss & Joe M. Moore	Aug. 17, 2010	kleph
Alabama Football: Stallings to Saban	Donald Staffo	April 20, 2010	kleph
Another Season	Gene Stallings & Sally Cook	Aug. 25, 2009	kleph
Bama After Bear	Donald Staffo	Aug. 4, 2009	kleph
Bear	Paul W. Bryant & John Underwood	Sept. 1, 2009	kleph
Blue Collar Mentality	Tom Barbour	June 8, 2010	Nico2.0
Braggin' Rights	Bill Cromartie	May 25, 2010	JCCW Jerry
Bragging Rights	Richard Ernsberger	July 13, 2010	CocknFire
Building A Championship Football Team	Paul W. Bryant & Gene Stallings	July 20, 2010	OTS
Coach	Keith Dunnavant	Aug. 31, 2010	kleph
Coach Tommy of the Crimson Tide	Naylor Stone	June 30, 2009	kleph
Crimson Nation	Eli Gold	Aug. 18, 2009	kleph
Crimson Tide Madness	Wilton Sharpe	June 1, 2010	kleph
Fumble	James Kirby	April 27, 2010	T Kyle King
How Good Do You Want to Be?	Nick Saban & Brian Curtis	June 23, 2009	kleph
I Can't Wait Until Tomorrow…	Joe Namath & Dick Schapp	May 5, 2010	Todd
Namath	Mark Kriegel	May 5, 2010	Todd
Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer	Warren St. John	July 14, 2009	kleph
Snake	Ken Stabler & Berry Stainback	July 27, 2010	Todd
Tales of the Tide	ed. Clint Lovette & Jarrod Bazemore	Aug. 4, 2010	kleph
The Junction Boys	Jim Dent	July 6, 2009	kleph
The Last Coach	Allen Barra	June 9, 2009	kleph
The Missing Ring	Keith Dunnavant	May 11, 2010	kleph
Turnaround	Tom Stoddard	July 21, 2009	kleph
Twelve and Counting	ed. Kenneth Gaddy	June 16, 2009	kleph
Varsity Green	Mark Yost	Aug. 10, 2010	Nico2.0
Wallace Wade	Lewis Bowling	July 28, 2009	kleph

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Kleph

I will review this one if you want me too
http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Alabama-Football-1978-79-Champions/dp/1582614253
Read it before, it’s a good read, can hit it up again.
Let me know on twitter if you want me too. @trexmorris

"I'm trashed like Oscar the Grouch. Quote That"- Shankapotomous

by morri029 on Apr 18, 2011 9:14 AM CDT reply actions

i did that one last year

it’s listed as “A Time for Champions” in the list above though. but always feel free to do one of your own as a fanpost.

Remember the Rose Bowl: The Story of the Alabama Crimson Tide & the Grandaddy of Them All

by kleph on Apr 18, 2011 9:17 AM CDT up reply actions

Dammit. My bad

I overlooked it.
Trying to think of any more I have read that might be a good review for RBR. I have read part of Hurricanes, about Port Sulphur HS Post-Katrina, might be a good one to pick back up since we have a Port Sulphur alum joining the Tide this year.

"I'm trashed like Oscar the Grouch. Quote That"- Shankapotomous

by morri029 on Apr 18, 2011 2:37 PM CDT up reply actions

Kleph,

I’m currently reading “Bowled Over” and would be willing to review it. It’s not specifically about Alabama, but there’s an entire chapter dedicated to the desegregation of the SEC.

by rugman11 on Apr 18, 2011 9:22 AM CDT reply actions

does it mention the '59 Liberty Bowl?

Remember the Rose Bowl: The Story of the Alabama Crimson Tide & the Grandaddy of Them All

by kleph on Apr 18, 2011 5:52 PM CDT up reply actions

No,

his narrative doesn’t begin until the 60s. His contention (as far as I can tell so far) is that the social and political upheavals of the 1960s and early 1970s filtered into college football and led to the one-year scholarship rule, which then accelerated the de-amateurization of the sport.

by rugman11 on Apr 18, 2011 7:06 PM CDT up reply actions

oriard has done a number of books on this theme...

they are in my ever-growing stack of research materials for my project.

i appreciate the offer to do one of these for us but i’ve actually finished all of them for this off season. like i noted above, we’re more than happy to see fanposts of this kind of stuff anytime but certainly during the doldrums of the off season.

Remember the Rose Bowl: The Story of the Alabama Crimson Tide & the Grandaddy of Them All

by kleph on Apr 18, 2011 7:26 PM CDT up reply actions

The one-year scholarship rule?

You mean the rule that scholarships are only for one year? Were they previously 4 year schollies before that?

How much longer till kickoff?

by CarrotTop4 on Apr 19, 2011 10:19 AM CDT up reply actions

Apparently the NCAA wanted to keep the idea

that “scholar athletes” were “scholars” first and “athletes” second. So athletes were given scholarships based on their academic merit rather than their athletic abilities, in theory anyway. This led to a problem where athletes could quit the team but keep their scholarship. Coaches and ADs wanted to wrestle control over scholarships away from the athletes, so in 1973 the NCAA made scholarships one-year, renewable commitments.

by rugman11 on Apr 19, 2011 11:33 AM CDT up reply actions