From Publishers Weekly
This chronicle of the 2001 football season's battle between the University of Texas Longhorns and the Texas A&M Aggies is a capsule history of America's biggest, baddest state and its obsession with America's biggest, baddest sport. Each year, the schools' football teams look forward to their annual showdown, which always takes place on Thanksgiving weekend. As Stratton makes clear, UT is on top of the Texas hierarchy: the Longhorns, benefiting from the largess of one of the most economically and politically powerful constituencies in the country, are symbolic of privileged, liberal entitlement, while 90 miles up the highway, the A&M Aggies are proud of their past as a former military school and look to tradition and hard work as their guides through life. With neither team boasting a spectacular 2001 record and the September 11 attacks overshadowing the season, Stratton's attention periodically wanders up into the stands, where he uncovers telling anecdotes that explain how each school got its reputation. He also has a lot of fun traveling across the state week to week, from tailgate parties in Austin to midnight "yells" at A&M, and from the Texas State Fair in Dallas to the excitement of all those ball games. Like B.H. Bissinger's seminal look at Texas high school football, Friday Night Lights, Stratton's volume is a must read for any serious fan of Texas football. For everyone else, it's entertaining and engaging look at the minutiae of football-mad America.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Library Journal
Many college football teams have intense, and much-examined, rivalries. The rivalry between the University of Texas and Texas A&M University is no exception, but Stratton offers a new perspective. These two great football programs have been intense rivals since they took up the game in the 1890s, with Texas seen as the effete, liberal school by A&M adherents and A&M as conservative farmers by Texas supporters. The author, who writes for the Dallas Morning News, traveled between the two schools to get a sense of the atmosphere before the big game now played on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. This book is not a history of the contests but a look at what makes the rivalry so intense, mixed with large doses of the history of this "feud," which turns this annual game into an almost religious experience for fans. While someone not from Texas might not find this interesting, there is enough history, pomp, and pageantry to keep football fans interested. Recommended for school and public libraries where there is interest in college football.
William O. Scheeren, Hempfield Area H.S., Greenburg, PACopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
