Description

Atheneum [Published Date: 1974]. Hard cover, xviii, 333 pp; 22 cm ; with 16 pages of black and white illustrations. First Edition. Acceptable+ in acceptable dust jacket. Brown paper over boards with dark brown cloth and gold lettering on spine. Light bumping, scuffing and soiling to edges of covers. Binding tight. Light soiling to edges of text block. Previous owner's name and address written on rear free endpaper upside down and in ink. Otherwise pages are lightly aged but unmarked. Dust jacket has a 1" triangular chip to the top edge of the front of the jacket and several other small chips and tears and creasing along edges. Light overall scuffing, fading and soiling to jacket as well with a bit of the color scuffed off around edges and spine. Price clipped. Now in an archival quality (removable) Brodart cover. NOT Ex-Library. A good reading copy. [From jacket flaps] Wind tore at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana, and the sellout crowd was as ugly as the weather. USC Head Coach John McKay felt the electric atmosphere on the sidelines as he watched his Trojans line up to receive. Notre Dame was about to get even for an upset the previous year that knocked the Irish out of a national championship. Mike Hunter caught Notre Dame's kickoff on the goal line and ran out to his own seven, where he pitched forward on his face and didn't move. No player was within twenty yards of him. McKay glanced at one of his assistants. "Christ," said McKay, "they shot him." McKay's black humor in adversity is only one of the many facets that summarize the man. Ara Parseghian admires McKay's coaching genius and salutes the new dimension he gave football with his Power I-formation. To O. J. Simpson, his former coach is not only the smartest man he's ever known, he's "as cool as a gin 'n tonic." Paul "Bear" Bryant of Alabama, McKay's nemesis on the sidelines, values the Trojan coach off the field as a bourbon-sipping, duck-hunting companion. At 51, McKay is at the peak of his career, and he tells his story with characteristic wit and style. Former Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty's appraisal of the man and his life says it best: "McKay's desire to share his great experiences with the rest of us should make the book a best seller." Jim Perry, a newspaper reporter, has followed Coach McKay's career for years. He is now Sports Information Director at USC.