The 100-Yard Journey: A Life in Coaching and Battling for the Win

by Gary Pinkel, Dave Matter

Very few college football coaches earn the distinction of becoming their programs' winningest, but Gary Pinkel has done it twice. From his nine-year tenure at the University of Toledo to his career at the University of Missouri from 2001 to 2015, Pinkel has shown he has the talent and meddle to take his teams to the top. These remarkable achievements have been met by challenges along the way in Pinkel's personal and professional life, including a DUI and a divorce, a threatened team boycott at Mizzou which dominated national news headlines, and ultimately, a decision to step away from it all following a diagnosis of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. In The 100-Yard Journey , Pinkel offers a glimpse into the mind of a winner as well as an honest reflection on meeting and overcoming the unexpected. Follow along from the start of Pinkel's coaching career at Kent State, the same program for which he played as a tight end, through stops at Washington and Toledo, and finally, taking over at the helm of Missouri, a program he guided to 10 bowl games in 15 years, a No. 1 AP ranking at the end of the 2007 season, and SEC Coach of the Year honors in 2014. Whether you're a Tigers fan or just interested in what makes a successful head coach tick, anyone can find something to relate to in Pinkel's personal memoirs.

289 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 15, 2017

Reviews

[Andrew Scherping · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, talk about a trip down memory lane! If you’re a Mizzou fan, especially if you watched Mizzou during the Pinkel era, this was a fantastic book. Getting to know Pinkel’s back story and his grounds for how he ran his program was very interesting. Reliving the exciting seasons from Brad Smith to Maty Mauk brought huge smiles to my face! It’s exciting to read how the success of Mizzou football came together and remembering all of those great seasons!

I know Pinkel has his fair share of personal issues (and I know he had another issue just recently), so I did read this book with that in mind. But I did enjoy hearing his side of the story. I especially loved reading his perspective on the events that broke national news (Michael Sam and the hunger strike). It’s nice to know how the team really did handle/react to those situations. I was on campus for both of those events, which I kinda forgot how big of a deal they were for the whole country.

Also, as someone who was born in 1994 and didn’t really start watching football until he became head coach, I learned from this book that Mizzou used to be bad?! Not just bad, but terrible before he go there?! 😅 My uncle had me convinced they were the greatest school to ever play football!

[Beth Steffens · Rating 3 out of 5]

While reading his book, I was excited to relive some of those memories through Coach Gary Pinkel’s perspective. I also loved reading about his personal journey long before he moved to Columbia, Mo. and became the winningest coach in university history. However, I couldn’t help wondering if I enjoyed his book simply because of the nostalgia it gave me. On deeper reflection, "The 100-Yard Journey" didn’t contain the best writing; it certainly won’t win any awards. Maybe this is a book only Mizzou and/or football fans can truly enjoy. Well so be it.

To read more, check out my review at http://biglittlelit.com/2019/06/24/th....