Amos Alonzo Stagg: College Football's Greatest Pioneer

Abstract

The stated goal of Amos Alonzo Stagg: College Football's Greatest Pioneer is to be a definitive biography from birth to death. The picture Summer paints is of an honest and highly competitive man. Longevity is the theme, both in Stagg's career and life. The challenge of the book is that Amos Alonzo Stagg lived for 102 years and had a major impact on college football, the University of Chicago, and to a lesser extent, baseball, basketball, and other schools. How can the definitive biography be written of such a man in a mere 220 pages?The book is mostly organized chronologically, with some diversions to talk about interesting and impactful players Stagg had and the sports besides football that he coached. The story of Stagg's early life, including the poverty he came from and the time he grew up in, is compelling. The humble beginnings of Amos Alonzo Stagg clearly kept him competitive throughout his long life. Growing up in an era of the late 1800s when sports were just beginning to become organized, a man such as himself proved the right person for the right time. The meat of the book is chapters five through nine, which chronicle the rise and fall of football at the University of Chicago. The thinnest chapters deal with Stagg's life outside of football.The most enjoyable parts of this book are the stories of the man that place him at the center of the evolving game of football. Some of these anecdotes seem relevant today, such as Stagg holding high school athletic competitions as a way to evaluate talent. Stag invented something eerily similar to high school football camps that are so popular today. Others bear little resemblance to the present. For example, Stagg pinching pennies to keep the football team from going under at Chicago. A great deal of this book is dedicated to ways he cut corners to save, including sending the University of Chicago team riding in a dilapidated train car on a trip to play out west.Another highlight of the book is the issues of Stagg's day that are still relevant in the present. For example, the University of Chicago initially hired Stagg to coach football as a way to promote the school. Additionally, player safety is talked about at length. While the game today does not include the mortality rates it did in Stagg's time, both eras share a concern for the health of the players. The research done to report on the number of deaths in football across high school, college, and the pros, is impressive. This data is indicative of the type of original research done by Summer.A choice made by Summers is spending pages speculating why Stagg lived for so long. A vegetarian diet, abstaining from alcohol, and a reason to live certainly contribute to a healthy lifestyle, but if that was all it took, there should be a lot more centenarians. These three characteristics of Stagg may seem more strange in his era than in ours. While the book might not unlock the key to long life, this level of detail gives us a deeper insight into the kind of person he was.Ultimately, this book is a great read. College football fans will learn a lot and hopefully wonder what the sport of college football would be like if there were more honest men like Amos Alonzo Stagg in it.