Tales From The Miami Hurricanes Sideline

University of Miami football is more than national championships, thirty-game winning streaks, and being a pipeline to the NFL. It’s the Gator Flop, defeating Tulane on a fifth down, and playing three games in eight days. It’s converting third and 44 against Notre Dame, Michael Irvin talking smack with Florida State’s Deion Sanders, and Vinny Testaverde being sacked by hamburgers. It’s the Jet Lag Kids playing seven road games in one season, including one in Tokyo, and it’s the Ibis mascot being arrested on the field in Tallahassee and being nicked by a bullet on Bourbon Street. Tales from the Miami Hurricanes Sideline is a collection of the greatest anecdotes and stories ever told about ’Canes football. In this newly updated edition, Jim Martz, who has covered the team for more than three decades, chronicles the ups, downs, and sideways of this spirited program that has produced five national championship teams under four different coaches since 1983. They have won under charismatic coaches and under low-key coaches. More than anything, they have won with colorful players. In an age of parity and just a few years removed from the program nearly being dropped, the Hurricanes have defied the odds and become a dynasty of modern college football.

The numbers appear to be incongruous. The University of Michigan has won more football games than any other Division I-A school, yet the program has only produced three Heisman Trophy winners and precious few winners of other individual awards. The numbers are understandable, however. The focus of Michigan football has always been on the team rather than the individual. The Team, The Team, The Team has for decades been one of the program's best known mantras. No one player, not even someone worthy of the Heisman, is considered greater than anyone else. Team goals come first. Still, the storied history of the Michigan football program is composed mostly of the exploits of its players. While that history might start with the likes of Tom Harmon, Desmond Howard, and Charles Woodson, it does not end there. For every Heisman Trophy winner, there are hundreds of other players who helped to make the Michigan winged helmet the most recognized symbol in college football. Michigan: Where Have You Gone? offers a look at 50 of those other players. Some had a singular moment that would forever define their careers. Others played an exceptional game, in many cases against the Wolverines' biggest rivals. Still others are remembered for a marvelous season. All of them helped Michigan become, as the words to the school's fight song suggest The leaders and best and the champions of the west.

Many Texas A&M fans can tell you exactly where they were when Branndon Stewart hit Sirr Parker for a 32-yard touchdown pass that stunned the college football world and propelled the Aggies to the 1998 Big 12 championship. In Texas A&M: Where Have You Gone? 31 former football greats at A&M recall their fondest memories and finest moments in an Aggies uniform. Author Rusty Burson goes one step further to deliver the rest of the story. He catches up with the former collegians and describes how their experiences in Aggieland shaped their lives after their final down had been played. As a bonus, Texas A&M: Where Have You Gone? also catches up with 10 non-football Aggies, including one woman.

Readers have the opportunity to enter the world of college football and follow one player through his experiences on the gridiron of the Southeastern Conference for the Auburn Tigers. A Tiger's Walk observes him as he battles the highs and lows of championship and losing seasons, coaching hirings and firings, and personal success and tragedy. Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, the self-proclaimed football capital of the South, Rob Pate grew up well aware of the significance of college football in his home state. At the age of five he embarked on a journey in football that carried him from a proud youth league ballpark in small-town Alabama to the splendor of SEC football, as well as to the National Football League. Readers can gain an understanding of daily life in college football and what today's game is genuinely like, not from the perspective of someone who never touched the gridiron a day in his life, but rather from someone who recently stepped off the field for the very last time. Pate talk about facing some of the issues that have been buried for too long by college football's big business bureaucracies. This is one Tiger's walk in the world of today's student athlete, helping fans watch from the sidelines and become one of the team.

With five AP National Championships since 1983, Miami Hurricanes football ranks among the nation's elite collegiate programs. Use any standard you want for greatness—winning streaks, Heisman winners, Hall of Famers, NFL draft picks, All-Americans, rivalries and Bowl victories—Miami is an indisputable powerhouse. And if you live in the realm of Canes Fandom then this book of history and trivia is for you. It's a celebration of the legendary teams, coaches, players and moments that have made the U such an iconic program—but it's also a test of your fandom, your opportunity to show how much you really know about Hurricanes football. So step up to the challenge. Test your skills. Wrack your brain. It's your Canes IQ, the ultimate test of true fandom.

Miami Hurricanes is a beginner's history of the University of Miami football team. Beginning with the program's early years, readers will experience the team's highest and lowest moments and meet the key players and legendary coaches who made it happen. Short biographies, fun facts, informative sidebars, and revealing quotes and anecdotes combine with action-packed photographs to enhance the Hurricanes' story, allowing your readers Inside College Football! Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. SportsZone is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

Take a journey from the infant stages of football in Minnesota up through the Vikings’ four Super Bowl appearances in Bill Williamson and Eric Thompson’s Tales from the Minnesota Vikings Sideline. For more than fifty years the Vikings have established themselves as one of the premier teams in the NFL. Perhaps the most successful team to never win a Super Bowl, the Vikings have nevertheless harbored a rich tradition of winning football. Now fans of this Midwest powerhouse will relive all the history, all the passion, and all the tantalizingly glory of Vikings football within these pages. Remember the bone-chilling days of old Metropolitan Stadium? Or the no-nonsense, in-your-face coaching style of Bud Grant? From Cris Carter to Fran Tarkenton, Randy Moss, Brett Favre, Adrian Peterson, Teddy Bridgewater and more, this newly revised edition of Tales from the Minnesota Vikings Sideline has it all!

Plenty of sports franchises have stories that flow from hopelessness to prosperity. That was the backdrop when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers became world champions, but how many others had to perform with an accompanying laugh track? How many used the number one overall draft pick on a player (Bo Jackson) who surveyed the scene, shrugged his shoulders, and decided to play baseball? How many essentially gave away their battered and star-crossed quarterback (Steve Young), suddenly jump-starting his route to the Hall of Fame? How many had a coach (John McKay), who, when asked what he thought of his team's execution, wryly replied, I'm in favor of it? How many work in an antiquated training facility (One Buc Place) that hosts exterminators more often than the owners? For nearly a generation, they were the Yucks. Then they transformed themselves from frogs into princes. Tales from the Bucs Sideline is their story, warts and all. From winless wonders to world champions, from hapless players too embarrassed to show their faces in public to superstars who are constantly in your face. One and off the field, this is the story of how a franchise can transform from woeful to wonderful, complete with all the unforgettable (and forgettable) moments and characters.