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Literary Fiction
From 1892 until the 1930s the legendary Monsters of the Midway dominated college football. However, in 1939 the University of Chicago dropped out of the Big Ten and killed off its varsity football program.
But now, it's 1969 and football is back. The resurrection of Chicago football hasn't brought the Monsters fully back to life. The team plays more like the lab mice of the Midway. The new Maroons are called "the worst team in college ball" by People Magazine. Players refuse to attend mandatory practices and flout NCAA rules. They lose game after game. Their old coach, Wally Hass, is the rare football coach that truly believes student-athletes should be scholars first and athletes for fun. Wally also desperately wants his players to experience winning one game before he retires.
Sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, the Draft Lottery, the anti-war movement, and student rebellion on college campuses in 1969 -- the University of Chicago is swimming against the cultural tide by resurrecting its football program. Jack Blair is a small town Hoosier kid who joins the football team for ulterior reasons. In Chicago he encounters characters as diverse as Muhammad Ali, Milton Friedman, and Papa Bear George Halas. And, he falls in love.
Alice hates football, but she is attracted to Jack. She wears a beret. He wears a helmet. She is a radical feminist from Chicago. He is a Hoosier farm boy.
Jack must learn to cope with a bewildering cultural milieu of intellectual nerds, frats, hippies, jocks, stoners, and Marxist radicals. But his greatest challenge is whether he can learn to love and make an authentic commitment to his team, his girl friend, or anyone. Jack's coach, philosophy professor, and Alice each ask for a commitment. They are pulling Jack in three different directions.
The book is inspired by the author's experience of playing on the resurrected University of Chicago Maroons a/k/a the Monsters of the Midway. Jeff Rasley is the author of eight other books.