[.ca] The Undefeated: The Oklahoma Sooners and the Greatest ... (ISBN 0312303262)

From Amazon.com:
In The Undefeated: The Oklahoma Sooners and the Greatest Winning Streak in College Football, The Junction Boys author Jim Dent chronicles how Charles "Bud" Wilkinson helped the dust-bowl-depressed state of Oklahoma regain self-respect by building a program that became one of the most dominant in college sports history. From 1948 to 1957, an era when players played both sides of the ball--170-pounders played tackle, and some players smoked three packs a day--the Oklahoma Sooners dominated college football in incredible fashion: they tied twice and lost four times, and amid their 94 wins they compiled winning streaks of 31 and 47 games. Dent has an eye for detail, and the book is equally the story of coach Wilkinson and his eccentricities, with halftime speeches and an innovative coaching style that implemented schemes not found in the NFL for decades. Also of interest are the plight of Prentice Gautt, the first black OU player during a time of racial intolerance; the hardscrabble backgrounds of the tough-as-nails players; and how preparation for big games included espionage and decoy playbooks. Most of all, Dent retells game highlights in dramatic fashion, including how an opposing receiver, after potentially ending one of OU's streaks by scoring in the final seconds, confessed he had trapped, not caught, the ball. The refs discussed the matter, and "\ow\chile the man in the gray flannel suit waited, watched and paced, a crowd of 50,878 held its collective breath, and prayed." As the wins accumulated, it became increasingly difficult for Wilkinson to motivate players and fend off all comers. In like fashion, Dent loses steam, but not before making the heartfelt case that Wilkinson's Sooners fielded some of the greatest teams in history. --Michael Ferch

Poorly Written:
I try to read every college football book that I can get my hands on. I can honestly say that I have read few books written as poorly as this one. I was expecting much more considering the potential story lines involved in this subject. I simply did not enjoy this book because of the way it was written.

OU:
A great great football story, but disappointingly written. For starters, Jim Dent misses his audience. Recreated quotes reminisce made-for-grade school stories, yet hollow and stereotypical characters go on big-time drinking binges and grow 'harder than Chinese arithmetic' over the ladies. More disappointing is that one must read between the lines to discover what's most fascinating about 1940s/50s-era football - that the national champion was chosen BEFORE the bowl games (imagine THAT before BCS), that players played on both sides of the ball, that there were no designated field goal kickers, and heaps of other subtleties that have faded away as college football has 'grown.' Perhaps there was a rush to get this out while the 2000 Sooners team was STILL undefeated and national champions. It takes time to make a winner, I guess.

Not Likely to Happen Again...:
As a fan of the history of college football I found Dent's book to be a breath of fresh air in a genre that is often peppered with statistics, numbers and facts & figures. Dent goes beyond the numbers to present a living work about the Golden Program of the Golden Era of college football. Many books about the history of a team give just that, a history of the team but overlook the individuals that comprise the whole. Not Dent. He relishes in crawling in the dirt or sailing into the clouds with the players, coaches, supporters and fans who made the story of the OU 47-game winning streak possible. For all the glory and fame, it is well remembered that the Sooners, perhaps the greatest college football team of all-time, was made up of the same stuff as the worst college football team of all-time...a coaching staff of chain-smoking, hard drinking, middle aged coaches and stiff-legged college boys often more interested in getting laid than getting playing time. From desk drawers full of cash, to skirt-chasing, to fist-a-cuffs, to race relations, to sweaty lockerrooms to game day, Dent captures the aura of the greatest winning streak of all-time and the crushing pressure of winning and gut-wrenching fear of losing like few sports writers can. Careful in his details and persistent with his research Dent writes a classic tale of college football while weaving a great yarn of story-telling. Combine this book with Dent's "The Junction Boys", gift wrap them both and you will have the perfect gift for not only the football fan on your gift list but the overall sports fan as well. Hell, my wife actually read and liked the book and she doesn't know squat about football... Great job, Mr. Dent.

A great read, but how accurate is it?:
This is a difficult book to review for me. On one hand, being a rabid Oklahoma Sooner fan, I found this book a totally fascinating account of the 47-game winning streak of Bud Wilkinson's Sooners in the mid-50's. On the other hand, being in contact with many other Sooner fans, some who personally know players from that era, they say this book is a crock. For example, Tommy McDonald is portrayed in this book as a selfish player who was not well-liked by his teammates. But talk to those who know Tommy and they'll tell you just the opposite is true: he was a total team player who brought a huge dose of infectious enthusiasm toward the game. For the first time anywhere, Bud Wilkinson, perhaps the greatest college football coach in history, is portrayed as a split personality: conservative and aloof in public, and a hard-drinking, womanizing party animal in private. Only someone from outside the family (the Sooner family and the Wilkinson family) would have the guts to show Bud in this rather dubious light. This is quite entertaining to the reader, but is it accurate? Some of the things that occurred later in Bud's life (like dumping his wife for a much younger woman) would make this portrayal seem not so far-fetched. The inaccuracies of this book have been documented elsewhere (repeat after me Mr. Dent: Kansas U. is in Lawrence, Kansas State is in Manhattan!) But beyond the minor inaccuracies lies the question: how much of this is actually true? Barry Switzer has been quoted as saying he never would have written the Foreword for this book if he had read it first. Although "The Undefeated" has great entertainment value, it's sort of like an Oliver Stone film. It leaves you wondering, "Is this the way it really was?"

A Great Historical Football Story:
If you like college football, you'll like this book even if you have no ties to OU or the Big 8 Conference. This is a great story of a well-run college football team in a depressed part of the country still struggling to overcome the Depression and Dust Bowl, and how much this team meant to the people of this state. This story also gives you insight into a totally different era where players were tougher from growing up in a frugal environment and played without facemasks. But it does have a lot in common with today's athlete, as there is open talk of OU paying their players to the particular chagrin of Texas boosters. After a brief background set-up of the coaches and how Bud Wilkinson became coach (a unique story in itself) the book quickly dives into the record winning streak after briefly touching on the first shorter streak. Bud Wilkinson clearly comes off as a tremendous college coach respected by all. There are in-depth portrayals of the players including their strengths and weaknesses. One of the stars, Tommy McDonald comes across as a prima donna while quarterback Jimmy Harris is the ultimate team player. But maybe the most interesting story is of the first black player to play for OU and the problems from hotels, restaurants and even other teammates. I strongly recommend this book for college football fans with interests in OU or wanting to broaden your horizons on what it was like to play in a previous era without faceguards and developed passing and kicking games. This of course will be of interest to anyone with Oklahoma ties as it is such a significant part of the history of the state.