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Title details for The Game by George Howe Colt - Available

The Game

Harvard, Yale, and America in 1968

by George Howe Colt
George Newbern
Audiobook
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1 of 1 copy available
*A New York Times Notable Book*
*A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year*

From the bestselling National Book Award finalist and author of The Big House comes "a well-blended narrative packed with top-notch reporting and relevance for our own time" (The Boston Globe) about the young athletes who battled in the legendary Harvard-Yale football game of 1968 amidst the sweeping currents of one of the most transformative years in American history.
On November 23, 1968, there was a turbulent and memorable football game: the season-ending clash between Harvard and Yale. The final score was 29-29. To some of the players, it was a triumph; to others a tragedy. And to many, the reasons had as much to do with one side's miraculous comeback in the game's final forty-two seconds as it did with the months that preceded it, months that witnessed the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy, police brutality at the Democratic National Convention, inner-city riots, campus takeovers, and, looming over everything, the war in Vietnam.

George Howe Colt's The Game is the story of that iconic American year, as seen through the young men who lived it and were changed by it. One player had recently returned from Vietnam. Two were members of the radical antiwar group SDS. There was one NFL prospect who quit to devote his time to black altruism; another who went on to be Pro-Bowler Calvin Hill. There was a guard named Tommy Lee Jones, and fullback who dated a young Meryl Streep. They played side by side and together forged a moment of startling grace in the midst of the storm.

"Vibrant, energetic, and beautifully structured" (NPR), this magnificent and intimate work of history is the story of ordinary people in an extraordinary time, and of a country facing issues that we continue to wrestle with to this day. "The Game is the rare sports book that lives up to the claim of so many entrants in this genre: It is the portrait of an era" (The Wall Street Journal).

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 9, 2018

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781508265979
      • File size: 315147 KB
      • Duration: 10:56:33

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      George Newbern does a fantastic job narrating this wonderful dive into a college athletic rivalry set amid the political unrest of the 1960s. It's been more than 50 years since the famed 1968 Harvard-Yale football game, an Ivy League match that caught both schools having great seasons. Newbern narrates with the tone of a storyteller and shapes each sentence with the perfect emphasis. The author has created fascinating portraits of many of the players involved, and Newbern delivers them in a voice that sounds fully engaged. Those who are not sports fans will enjoy this audiobook as much as avid followers of football. Newbern's high-quality narration pairs well with the author's exceptional research and clear writing. M.B. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 27, 2018
      Chronicling one of college football’s most tumultuous games during one of America’s most turbulent years, Colt brings together sports and history in profound fashion. A Harvard grad who attended football games in the 1960s (including this one) with his alumnus father, Colt gives the story an intimate feel as he covers a wide swath of topics beyond Harvard Stadium, the Yale Bowl, and the two undefeated football teams that met in “the Game” on the last day of the ’68 season. Colt demonstrates the changing nature of these historic universities as well as the country in general by interweaving such topics as civil rights, religious freedom, class struggle, white privilege, and the Vietnam War with anecdotes of players from the game who are African-American, Jewish, poor, rich, military veterans, or conscientious objectors. The result gives the heavy political and social discourse a personal touch. By humanizing the players, the accounts of each team’s amazing season and the four-chapter recap of their final, unbelievable game are elevated above entertaining sports reporting to thoughtful, emotional storytelling. This excellent history illustrates sport’s powerful role in American society. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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