Fight Songs: A Story of Love and Sports in a Complicated South

by Ed Southern

A wry and witty commentary on college sports and identity in the complicated social landscape of the South.

Ed Southern, lifelong fan of the Wake Forest University Demon Deacons, the smallest school in the NCAA's Power 5, set out to tell the story of how he got tangled, in vines of history and happenstance, with the two giants of his favorite the Crimson Tide and the Clemson Tigers. He set out to tell how a North Carolina native crossed the shifty, unmarked border between Tobacco Road and the Deep South. He set out to tell how the legendary Paul “Bear” Bryant, from beyond the grave, introduced him to his wife, a Birmingham native and die-hard Alabama fan.

While he was writing that story, though, 2020 came along.

Suddenly his questions had a new and urgent Why do sports mean so much that so many will play and watch them in the face of a global pandemic? How have the South’s histories shaped its fervor for college sports? How have college sports shaped how southerners construct their identities, priorities, and allegiances? Why is North Carolina passionate about college basketball when its neighbors to the South live and die by college football? Does this have anything to do with North Carolina’s reputation as the most “progressive” southern state, a state many in the Deep South don't think is “really” southern? If college sports really do mean so much in the South, then why didn’t everyone down south wear masks or recognize that Black Lives Matter, even after the coaches told us to?

Fight Songs explores the connections and contradictions between the teams we root for and the places we plant our roots; between the virtues that sports are supposed to teach and the cutthroat business they've become; between the hopes of fans and the demands of the past, present, and future.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Football, Southern

295 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 7, 2021

Reviews

[Mary Pope · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fabulous book! In FIGHT SONGS: A STORY OF LOVE AND SPORTS IN A COMPLICATED SOUTH, Ed Southern uses football as an unsparing lens through which to examine the various incarnations of the American South, and by extension, the United States as a whole. Written during the COVID-19 pandemic, this thoughtful and nuanced look at sports asks us to consider the ways regional and national histories and cultures bring us together and tear us apart, and raises the question of when, whether and why sports matter. Throughout, it is clear that Southern loves his home soil the way you love a complicated person who often drives you absolutely nuts, but who you can’t stop rooting for just the same.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who...
- went to Wake Forest
- was a politics minor
- interned with Wake athletics
- now works in collegiate sports
...I think I was the ideal audience for this book.

Really, really enjoyed this because of all of the above! Tries to tackle a lot, especially at the beginning, but I do feel like it got stronger and tighter as it went along.

And as always, go Deacs.

[Kari · Rating 4 out of 5]

On page two of this book, Ed Southern, talking about the 2020 ACC men’s basketball Tournament, says, “The Tournament began on a Tuesday, with my team, my lifelong loyalty, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, losing as a 12-seed to 13-seed Pitt, the second straight year the Deacons’ season had ended in the first and least Tournament matchup. That sentence has at least five things wrong with it, none of them facts, grammar, or spelling.” Yes! I was hooked immediately. My goodness, so many things that are so different than the ACC Tournaments of my childhood (the ones where the teachers would roll the TV in on a cart so we could watch on that Friday). Every year, like clockwork, my husband listens to me complain about the tournament starting so early in the week, and I lament that there are all these interlopers in our conference.

This is a book about loving sports in the South, and the complicated feelings that we have about sports and identity and where we all might go from here. I’m not a football fan - in truth I barely know who Nick Saban is and even attending Wake Div hasn’t inspired me to watch a single football game this year - but I still enjoyed this very much as a college basketball fan and recommend it to people who care about sports and what they mean in the South. As a Greensboro resident, I especially enjoyed knowing the Greensboro/Winston landmarks and connections.

If you liked the author’s piece in The Bitter Southerner about the Braves, you will like this. Actually, if you like The Bitter Southerner and have any interest in sports, you will like this book.

[Nick DiColandrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a mixed review of the read. On one hand the author does a great job of incorporating a personal style of writing, experience and breadth of southern sports knowledge. On the other hand the two later of his positive traits in the book woefully under represent any sports culture outside of Alabama and Wake Forest Universities.

The book was a great read for someone like myself, a transplanted Yankee turned permanent southerner who attended two land grant southern schools, one in the ACC and SEC. So i was hoping for something that have been more holistic encompassing more to and my shared experience of being a fan of two schools from different conferences and different fan bases. There’s not a lot of meat here for those looking for more shared culture and love of southern college sports or say even professional (the NFL has a half a page, NBA, NHL, barely referenced).

If you are looking for a book about college football and all of our intensity about it from one point of view (to be fair sprinkled with some others), it’s a good read. But not a must read.

3 stars for content, 3.5 stars overall as it was enjoyable distraction and easy to read (much like college football Saturdays!).

[Denisele · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I was not the target audience for this book, so not sure my review is even relevant. I've never read so much about Alabama, football, sports in general. I more so appreciated the parts on history, race, social "stuff" - but at times they left me wondering what in the heck this book was actually supposed to be about because there was so much variety and so many topics. I appreciated his writing style half the time and the other half of the time was a little annoyed with the questions, the stories offset in sections, and the parts that at times even felt a little random. I also wasn't a fan in the physical book - the font was much too tiny with not enough space between the lines and the pages were long and stiff- it made every page feel extra long.

[David Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fight Songs: A Story of Love and Sports in a Complicated South by Ed Southern (Blair 2021) (796.04) (4052).

I picked this book up from my local used book seller. I had never heard of the book, but the title and the dust jacket indicated that this was right in my wheelhouse, so I spent $6.50 on a like-new used HB copy on 4/30/26.

I wanted to like this, and I expected to REALLY like it. All indications were that I was going to love the book: it’s about college football (I love college football); it’s about living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (I used to live in Winston-Salem, North Carolina); the author is a Wake Forest graduate (I am a graduate of the Wake Forest Law School (GO DEACS!)); and the book spends many pages on the author’s love-hate relationship with Alabama Crimson Tide football (I detest the Alabama Crimson Tide). What could possibly go wrong?

As things turned out, I didn’t care for this book at all. Granted, author Ed Southern writes well and eloquently, and the book was devoid of any egregious typos.

In the eyes of this reader, the problem with the book was that there was no discernible flow to be found - at least not one that the author pursued for more than a few pages before abruptly dropping one topic and jumping to a completely different subject. I found it difficult to follow the author’s thread when a new topic entered the narrative without warning or introduction, especially since the new topics to which the author leapt were generally unrelated to whatever he had been earnestly writing about in the preceding passage.

Indeed, the author writes like my adult children tell me that I talk: I jump from tangent to tangent, often connected only by the phrase “And another thing…”. However, unlike the way I talk, the author never inserted the words “And another thing” to indicate to readers that he had commenced riffing about a wholly different topic. He simply made the leap between sentences, and it was up to the reader to figure out that a change in subject had been made and what the subject had become.

I enjoyed portions of this book, and I recognize and appreciate the author’s writing skill. Nevertheless, this volume could have benefitted from some tough editing. I suspect that had such an editor been available for this project, the book would have been much shorter.

My rating: 6/10, finished 6/2/26 (4052).

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[CHIP MILLER · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ed Southern's "Fight Songs: A Story of Love and Sports in a Complicated South" explores the Civil War's cultural legacy and its intricate connection to college sports, particularly football. Southern skillfully delves into the historical backdrop, highlighting how the region's tumultuous past has shaped its fervor for college athletics. Drawing parallels between football and battle, the author compares the regimented structure of the two, shedding light on how the South's obsession with college sports mirrors its proud military tradition. Southern's insightful analysis of this phenomenon adds depth to the narrative, offering readers a thought-provoking perspective on how sports and society intersect in the complex tapestry of the Southern experience.

[Merrill C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ed Southern's "Fight Songs: A Story of Love and Sports in a Complicated South" explores the Civil War's cultural legacy and its intricate connection to college sports, particularly football. Southern skillfully delves into the historical backdrop, highlighting how the region's tumultuous past has shaped its fervor for college athletics. Drawing parallels between football and battle, the author compares the regimented structure of the two, shedding light on how the South's obsession with college sports mirrors its proud military tradition. Southern's insightful analysis of this phenomenon adds depth to the narrative, offering readers a thought-provoking perspective on how sports and society intersect in the complex tapestry of the Southern experience.

[Timothy Reinhardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

During my years standing behind a bar serving drinks, I came to realize that only a small segment of patrons possessed the talent of telling stories with an authentic and engaging voice. When these individuals spoke, I didn’t have to labor to focus my attention, but I easily got caught up in a given tale. Ed Southern had this gift of storytelling. Through outlining about his love of sports, the author weaves a diverse number of personal elements into this history to create a beautiful tapestry of life experiences. The book is written in such a real way, a reader doesn’t even need to be a sports fan to enjoy the human aspects of the stories. I highly recommend.

[Kat Gebauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating history of the deep roots college football and basketball hold in the culture of the American south, and how the story of college sports is inextricable from the region’s history of racial violence and separatism. I loved learning this history through the eyes of a Winston-Salemite, and proud Wake Forest Demon Deacon. Shout out to David for helping me with all the references to famous coaches, players, and games.

[Artie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts slow but gets better. A challenging book since so much has already been written about the subject.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrifically smart and intricately braided book on sports, the South, history, and culture. Southern’s voice sings across the page.

[Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.