Turning of the Tide: How One Game Changed the South

by Don Yaeger, Sam Cunningham, John Papadakis

New York Times bestselling author Yaeger tells the electrifying story of the game that broke down the last racial division in college football.

Genres: Sports, Football

273 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Don Yaeger is an acclaimed American author, journalist, and keynote speaker based in Tallahassee, Florida. A graduate of Ball State University, he began his journalism career at The San Antonio Light and The Dallas Morning News before joining Sports Illustrated as Associate Editor. He has authored or co-authored 30 books, including 12 New York Times best-sellers. Yaeger collaborated with sports legends such as Walter Payton, John Wooden, Michael Oher, and Bubba Watson, as well as political figures like Brian Kilmeade on historical bestsellers. He hosts the Corporate Competitor Podcast.

Reviews

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book takes you inside the coaches and players of an important milestone football game. The game is credited with changing the face of the football teams in the Southeast Conference.

[Tom Gase · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to say, this book was a little bit of a dissapointment. Don Yaeger has written a good book on Walter Payton (no not the one in the news now) called Never Die Easy, so I was more than willing to give Yaeger a shot with this book. It's about an important college football game between Alabama and U.S.C. in which U.S.C. kicked Alabama's butt and turned the "tide" in how Alabama recruited. Up until 1971, Alabama never had a black player play for them. Which is pretty much ridiculous. That's a good 24 years after Jackie Robinson had broken the color barrier in baseball. I don't really like to put Alabama in this as a landmark game, they were just two decades (at least) behind everyone else. No, U.S.C. just kicked their butt in a game and Alabama finally realized how dumb they were. This book really had potential. The first few chapters are great. But then it gets repetive. Okay, we get it, this game is important because it helped Alabama integrate. But we never actually hear much about the actual game and what players were thinking during the actual game. We only hear from sources before and after the game. Halfway through the book I was asking myself, "When is Yaeger going to tell me something he hasn't explained in the first 9 chapters already." It almost felt like one of those essays in which you were in fifth grade and had to write 2 pages on a subject, but only had enough material for about three paragraphs, so you sssssstretch it out. I am going to read a book on Warren Moon by this author soon, and I hope it's better. I know Yaeger gave it his best, and I don't want to slam him too much, especially since you can tell he did an okay job with the research. But the editing needs to be be better and the book would have been better more than likely as a long magazine article. Not enough stuff in here for a book. I only recommend this to huge football fans.

[Steve Fox · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, not a fantastic piece of literature. But as a USC fan since childhood - thanks Dad - the book is historically interesting and a source of pride. The Trojans were an integrated football team early on and took a team coached by legendary coach John McKay to play at Alabama in 1970 that showcased that well: An all-black backfield. And the Trojans dominated the game. It was an eye-opener for legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant.

It is astonishing to me that a game played one year before I was born was even controversial. But it gives some historical perspective to current-day Alabama. If this high-profile public college football team was still all-white in 1970, then it is not surprising that old white men in Alabama still exhibit racist behavior. The good news: They are getting very old at this point. Good riddance.

Thanks for leaving this book after your visit, Dad. It was a quick and fun read and reminded me of what you did for me and my family by visiting during my neck surgery. You're the best!

[Ronald Morton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whoo! College Football!

No, I’m serious.

Whoo! College Football!

This is a well-timed read as the season has (finally, after I’ve counted down the last 100 days) started!

Now, as to the book itself: It’s good. It didn’t blow me away or anything, but it’s a good read. It’s well researched, well written, and provides good background to a historic (and important) game.

To me the stand out chapter was the brief one that related to the mythologizing that has occurred around the game – both through newspaper reports immediately following it, as well as stories that have cropped up in the years following. I’ve always been fascinated by how events grow and change in their re-tellings, and it’s interesting to see it happen in fairly recent history.

All in all this was a good read if you’re interested in either team, or about one of the main driving forces that changed the face of southern college football.

[Mario Hernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book about a year and a half ago and I loved it. I am a big USC football fan and this book just made me like USC football even more. Coach McKay was such a great coach and the importance of this one game was amazing.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished reading this book around thirteen years ago so my memory is kind of fuzzy on the text. I do remember that this book discussed the 1970 meeting between the USC Trojans and the Alabama Crimson Tide.

That Tide team was coached by the legendary Bear Bryant, who took his precious time integrating his Tide football pre-1970. The game in which this book described ended in a 42-21 win for the Trojans. It was that game and the way the Tide were beaten that helped make Bryant decide to integrate his teams.

This book did its job in describing that memorable game (mainly for the Trojans that is) and some other interesting college football history that had nothing to do with that 1970 game.

I would recommend this book to those who like college football history, and for those who want to know what it felt like to be a Black college football player during a time when their main choices for higher education were Historically Black Colleges (such as Howard, Grambling, Texas Southern, and etc.).