A broad brush look at Coach Hayes | A Fire to Win: The Life and Times of Woody Hayes

GOOD AND INTERESTING | A Fire to Win: The Life and Times of Woody Hayes | John Lombardo

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	• A Fire to Win: The Life and Times of Woody Hayes John Lombardo St. Martin's Griffin, 2006 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Good book but not great

I am an Ohio State Buckeye Football fan and found the book to be interesting, but not in the top 20% of books that I've read. There are a few other books about Woody, but I have not read them. The author could have interviewed more former players and colleagues of Woody. Most interesting is how Woody originally got the Buckeye head coaching job and the discussion of his life immediately after his firing.

A broad brush look at Coach Hayes

Mr. Lombardo seems intent on being overly objective in his book by always finding a way to knock Woody even when paying him compliments. Some examples:
1. Woody was no racist and had black players on the team...but no black QB came aboard until well after other Big 10 teams. (So what? Does that dismiss the civil rights work he supported? Why does that need to be mentioned multiple times?)
2. Woody was well read and very knowledgable about topics but was not a scholar because he didn't deeply explore areas that did not fit his political/cultural beliefs. (So he wanted Woody to read Marx and Mao? Give me a break with this.)

I scatched my head at these and related passages. The book ends strong with Lombardo quoting from various players and coaches about the legacy of this great man and coach.

However if you are a true Buckeye fan I caution you against expecting too much here. The author has consolidated information from various sources but has not effectively added enough of his own input to truly paint a vivid picture of the coach (for my taste).

Perhaps I'm too spoiled by McCullough and Kearns-Goodwin biographies. While Woody doesn't merit their attention, Mr. Lombardo's effort does not reach their standards of taking the primary sources and writing a text that leaves you thinking you've met the man in the flesh. I wish I had.

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GOOD AND INTERESTING

A FIRE TO WIN IS A NICE READ, BUT DON'T REALLY EXPECT TO KNOW WOODY THE PERSON. IN MY OPINION THIS BOOK DOES A GREAT JOB GOING THRU EACH OF THE SEASONS THAT WOODY COACHED. BUT I DON'T REALLY HAVE A GOOD IDEA WHAT WOODY WAS LIKE EXCEPT FOR BEING A SLAVE DRIVER OF A COACH, DISCIPLINARIAN, ABSENT FAMILY MAN, AND OBSESSED WITH WINNING. I PICTURE HIM AS BEING VERY SELF CENTERED, EGO TRIP, BRASH AND VERY ABRASIVE. HIS WIFE GOT HER OWN LIFE. HE IS VERY MUCH LIKE VINCE LOMBARDI IN HIS COACHING STYLE. I REALLY WANTED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE SOFT SIDE OF WOODY AND MORE ABOUT WHAT HE DID AFTER FOOTBALL. LIKE HIM OR HATE HIM, HE WAS A HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL COACH AND DID A LOT FOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL. I RECOMMEND THIS FOR ALL COLLEGE FOOTBALL FANS FOR A SOLID AND INTERESTING READ.

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Very Good Story "Poor Editing"

This was a book I looked forward to reading from the moment I heard about it. I received it for Christmas and read it immediately. The book is very hard to put down and could easily be read in one or two very long sittings. What took away from the very pleasant story line and delivery was the extremely poor editing. Many times in the book I had to suffer through either double or missing articles or dates that contradicted each other. Often times words were mixed up such as "the of" instead of "of the". These were minor annoyances but still distracted from my reading pleasure.

I was confused about the writers real intent. If everything the writer said is true, than the "Ohio State Football Program" was even greater than history will recognize it for. It seems that many if not most of the games and titles lost were directly related to the coach which would lead us to believe that the team should have many more titles to it's credit.

Overall I want to believe that the writer was fair and balanced in his praise and critique of Woody Hayes. Growing up in Ohio, many of the things I knew to be true and had heard rumors of most of the rest of it.

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Woody Hayes was one of the greatest football coaches in history---and one of the most fascinating. More than a brilliant coach, he was a complicated, contradictory man. The former history teacher ran his football empire as an absolute monarchy, but had a surprisingly altruistic side, hidden from the public,. and author John Lombardo uses his extensive sports-writing experience to craft an accurate portrait of one of the most complex and fascinating figures in football.
      First and foremost, Woody Hayes was a coach---and his achievements are stunning. While at Ohio State, he won five national titles, and thirteen Big Ten Conference championships, made eight Rose Bowl appearances, and earned two national Coach of the Year awards. Moreover, Hayes?s lifetime coaching record, 238--72--10, puts him in the first rank of college coaching immortals. No other coach won more games in a shorter period.
      Countless interviews of former players, assistant coaches, and friends shape the image of Hayes and his career, which spanned the mid-1940s to the late 1970s during a tremendous period of change in American society. A Fire to Win is an honest and revealing biography of Hayes, a man who ranks in the pantheon of football coaches. ?An easy-to-read, objective look at one of Ohio?s most powerful, complex, admired, feared, and contradictory figures.?
---The Columbus Dispatch

?A sympathetic yet evenhanded examination of a modern coaching giant.?
---Booklist

?Insightful and comprehensive biography.?
---The New York Sun

?Contradictions, of course, are what make Hayes fascinating. And Lombardo delves into those contradictions with a cell biologist?s eye for detail and a landscape painter?s eye for perspective.?
---Chicago Tribune

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