A Colorful Book

I have been away from blogging for what seems like a long time. While it has been 13 days, that is still enough time to draw concern in the comments section of the last post.

When I was at the library six weeks ago, a book in the new book section caught my attention. The cover had a blue background with the title Golden Bears in gold lettering. The subtitle of the book was A Celebration of Cal Football's Triumphs, Heartbreaks, Last-Second Miracles, Legendary Blunders and the Extraordinary People who Made It All Possible. I immediately grabbed this book written by Ron Fimrite and checked it out. You can find it on Amazon if you like. As an aside for the one reader who might not know, all the teams of the University of California, Berkeley play under the title California. It was the first and for a while the only public university in the state.

At first I was less than excited about the book; it was 517 pages long. I decided I would read the parts that were interesting, but not feel compelled to read the entire book. I started reading it one day. At the end of that day, I had read over 100 pages. The book was well paced and did not become bogged down in retelling every detail.

The book is more than a history of the football team of the University of California, it touches on many other areas. It covers the history of the school itself and talks about Wheeler, a new place called Memorial Stadium, and the game of football being classified as too dangerous to be played. I enjoyed learning about Andy Smith and the Wonder Teams. I have heard them spoken of with admiration and awe, but I did not know about their original exploits or how Smith was recruited to be their coach.

Below are a few words from the book (23-24) that might inspire you to pick up a copy.

...the flights of fancy of Lawrence 'Pete' Kaarsberg, a back with another apt sobriquet-'Kangaroo.' When confronted with a tightly bunched defensive line, the agile Kaarsberg simply jumped over it. When greater altitudes were indicated, his teammates took hold of special straps he had sewn into his uniform trousers and hurled his 145-pound frame over the line. It goes without saying that Kangaroo Kaarsberg's antics led to several rule changes.

Through characters like this, the book brought me into the times it described. Pick up Golden Bears, read a few parts, and enjoy the trip.