Blocking Back

by B.J. Chute

Things were going well for Mike Blair and Ducky Wilson at Washburn Prep. For one thing, they were good-natured and enjoyed being roommates. And they liked the school: Ducky was an avid reporter for the school newspaper, and Mike, already a valuable player in his sophomore year, was looking forward to a big year on the football team.
Then the first week of their junior year, the dean quietly told them that they were getting a new roommate, Jerry Le Van, a transfer student from a nearby school. Jerry arrived sullen and conceited, and, after several unpleasant encounters, Ducky simply ignored him. Mike, however, became more determined to be a friend and persuaded Jerry to come out for football practice.
During the fall afternoons that followed, Jerry performed brilliantly—so brilliantly, in fact, that he soon was a fierce competitor for Mike's position as left halfback. Mike, faced with the knowledge of Jerry's value to the squad, miserably considered giving up football entirely, until Ducky ingeniously devised a scheme to mend the rift in the team.
With her usual skill at capturing the vitality and fascination of sports, B. J. Chute has written an engrossing story of two boys, each facing his separate challenge on the football field.

189 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1938

About the author

B.J. Chute was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and lived there until she came to New York in 1940. A professional writer since 1931, Miss Chute has written hundreds of stories, which have appeared in Boys' Life, the Boy Scout magazine, and numerous anthologies of outstanding sports stories for young people. Her adult stories have appeared in nearly every major magazine, including The Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping, McCall's, and Redbook. She has written four adult novels—The Fields Are White, The End of Loving, Greenswillow, Moon and the Thorn—and a collection of short stories, The Blue Cup.
- taken from the dust jacket of Blocking Back

aka Beatrice Joy Chute