Spurrier: How The Ball Coach Taught the South to Play Football

“We all like to prove people wrong who say we’re no good,” says the eternally driven Steve Spurrier, the 1966 Heisman Trophy winner and NFL quarterback who took off his helmet, put on his coaching visor, and turned three downtrodden universities into winners. Spurrier’s Fun ’N’ Gun offense at the University of Florida flummoxed defenses and rewrote playbooks across the Southeastern Conference, transforming SEC football into a modern phenomena. Spurrier tells the story of a preacher’s son from the Tennessee hills who has been overwhelming opponents with “ball plays” for nearly six decades.

The climax of his storied career is uplifting the University of South Carolina, a school that lost more football games than it won between 1892 and 2005, and was believed for over a century to be cursed. The only Heisman Trophy winner ever to coach another Heisman Trophy Winner, Spurrier dared to enter the “graveyard of coaches” at South Carolina, confront his destiny, and turned the USC Gamecocks into an unlikely winner. Spurrier is the biography of the Ball Coach who has forever changed college football—and its impact on our culture.
 

"1118901731"
Spurrier: How The Ball Coach Taught the South to Play Football

“We all like to prove people wrong who say we’re no good,” says the eternally driven Steve Spurrier, the 1966 Heisman Trophy winner and NFL quarterback who took off his helmet, put on his coaching visor, and turned three downtrodden universities into winners. Spurrier’s Fun ’N’ Gun offense at the University of Florida flummoxed defenses and rewrote playbooks across the Southeastern Conference, transforming SEC football into a modern phenomena. Spurrier tells the story of a preacher’s son from the Tennessee hills who has been overwhelming opponents with “ball plays” for nearly six decades.

The climax of his storied career is uplifting the University of South Carolina, a school that lost more football games than it won between 1892 and 2005, and was believed for over a century to be cursed. The only Heisman Trophy winner ever to coach another Heisman Trophy Winner, Spurrier dared to enter the “graveyard of coaches” at South Carolina, confront his destiny, and turned the USC Gamecocks into an unlikely winner. Spurrier is the biography of the Ball Coach who has forever changed college football—and its impact on our culture.
 

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Spurrier: How The Ball Coach Taught the South to Play Football

Spurrier: How The Ball Coach Taught the South to Play Football

by Ran Henry
Spurrier: How The Ball Coach Taught the South to Play Football

Spurrier: How The Ball Coach Taught the South to Play Football

by Ran Henry

eBook

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Overview

“We all like to prove people wrong who say we’re no good,” says the eternally driven Steve Spurrier, the 1966 Heisman Trophy winner and NFL quarterback who took off his helmet, put on his coaching visor, and turned three downtrodden universities into winners. Spurrier’s Fun ’N’ Gun offense at the University of Florida flummoxed defenses and rewrote playbooks across the Southeastern Conference, transforming SEC football into a modern phenomena. Spurrier tells the story of a preacher’s son from the Tennessee hills who has been overwhelming opponents with “ball plays” for nearly six decades.

The climax of his storied career is uplifting the University of South Carolina, a school that lost more football games than it won between 1892 and 2005, and was believed for over a century to be cursed. The only Heisman Trophy winner ever to coach another Heisman Trophy Winner, Spurrier dared to enter the “graveyard of coaches” at South Carolina, confront his destiny, and turned the USC Gamecocks into an unlikely winner. Spurrier is the biography of the Ball Coach who has forever changed college football—and its impact on our culture.
 


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781493015450
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date: 11/14/2014
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 336
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

 Ran Henry is an author, photographer, and writing professor. A Ralph McGill Scholar at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, he earned an MFA in creative writing from Florida International University and wrote for the Florida Times-Union, the St. Petersburg Times, and Tropic, the Miami Herald Sunday magazine. He has taught writing at FIU and Virginia Commonwealth University. He currently teaches at the University of Virginia and teaches football writing for the nation’s number-one Honors College at the University of South Carolina. He first interviewed Steve Spurrier in 1986 and began writing Spurrier when the coach led the Florida Gators to their first-ever national championship in 1997. Henry divides his time between Charlottesville, Virginia; Columbia, South Carolina; and a home in the mountains of West Virginia


Table of Contents

Prologue: Gainesville, Florida ix

Part 1 A Game of Catch

Chapter 1 The Home Team 2

Chapter 2 Out of the Blue 13

Chapter 3 Walk to the Park 21

Chapter 4 Stevie's Ball 34

Chapter 5 Backyard Rules 53

Chapter 6 Keeping Score 73

Chapter 7 The Mission 89

Chapter 8 Preordained 101

Part 2 Greener Fields

Chapter 9 Florida Starr 125

Chapter 10 Sitting Out Sunday 146

Chapter 11 Air Ball 163

Chapter 12 Delivery 175

Chapter 13 In His Father's House 187

Part 3 March to Atlanta

Chapter 14 South of Leesburg 196

Chapter 15 Proving Ground 210

Chapter 16 At the Gates of the Swamp 223

Chapter 17 The Fifth Child 238

Chapter 18 Home Field 254

Chapter 19 To the Top 267

Chapter 20 Death Valley 281

Chapter 21 What Spurrier Would Do 313

Epilogue: The Ladies Clinic 321

Acknowledgments 326

About the Author 330

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