Rites of Autumn: The Story of College Football

by Richard Whittingham

The well-respected sportswriter serves up a compelling, beautifully written, and lavishly illustrated portrait of college football, retracing its glorious history on campuses across the country. 100,000 first printing.

Genres: Sports, History, Nonfiction

312 pages, Hardcover

First published September 25, 2001

About the author

Richard Whittingham (1 Jan. 1939-21 Feb. 2005), was the author of 28 books including Boy wonder of Wall Street, Skokie, and The Chicago Bears.

Whittingham also wrote as:
Dick Whittingham
David Paige
Andrew David

Reviews

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 5 out of 5]

Better written than the coffee-table book this appears to be by weight and shape, and better written than a television-series companion, which this is, needs to be.

Great pictures, quotes from college football giants, enough information to be informative, enough stories and pictures of big games to be fun.

Sure, worlds not made and lives not changed, but this book is just fun.

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rites of Autumn: The Story of College Football by Richard Whittingham (Free Press 2001)(796.33263). This is the companion volume to a ten-hour PBS miniseries of the same name. It covers college football from 1820 forward (1820? The game hadn't even been invented in 1820!!). I'd like to own a copy of this. My rating: 7/10, finished 2002.

[Dick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Terrific pictoral book on college football. History covered starts in 1820 and goes forward. Great photos of the UM/OSU rivalry as well as many other such rivalaries.