Old-school football RULES: brilliant bios of Bart Starr, Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry
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Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi (far right) -
Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry.
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Considering how many books on pro football are released every year, it's eye-opening that a definitive biography of the best man ever to take a snap from center has never been published. That man, of course, is Bart Starr, and if you didn't know that, then it is especially important that you read "America's Quarterback" by Keith Dunnavant, the most important book on pro football this season.
If you thought the No. 1 quarterback was Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana, Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, then you are overlooking the only passer of the modern era to win five championships. Mr. Starr was, to quote myself (as cited by Mr. Dunnavant from a piece in The Wall Street Journal), "The greatest big-game quarterback in NFL history." He was also, in Mr. Dunnavant's words, "One man who long ago learned to accept being overlooked and underrated."
St. Martin's Press ($25.99).
Skyhorse Publishing, $24.95.
Born in Montgomery, Ala., to a military family, Bryan Bartlett Starr, a standout high school athlete, had the misfortune of playing at the University of Alabama in the years before Bear Bryant returned to coach football at his alma mater. J.B. "Ears" Whitworth was so clueless he let Mr. Starr ride the bench in his senior year as the Crimson Tide finished 0-10. Nonetheless, Mr. Starr was drafted into the NFL -- just barely, in the 17th round -- by the Green Bay Packers. His first pro coach, Ray "Scooter" McLean, in the words of teammate Paul Hornung, "had no business being a head coach in the NFL" and proved it by posting a 1-10-1 record Mr. Starr's first season.
The following year, things would change forever when Vince Lombardi, previously the offensive coordinator of the New York Giants, was named head coach of the Packers. They would begin a professional relationship which, starting in 1960, would see Green Bay play in six championship games in eight years, winning five of them. The forceful and charismatic Lombardi overshadowed his quarterback -- as, indeed, did the Packers All-Pro running backs, Hornung and Jim Taylor --but as Mr. Dunnavant artfully phrases it, "Bart Starr needed Vince Lombardi, but Vince Lombardi also needed Bart Starr."
First Published February 5, 2012 12:00 am
