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No Experience Required: Jackie Sherrill and Texas A&M's 12th Man Kickoff Team
The story of the 12th man kickoff team is one of personal triumph and occasional tragedy. Some memories and recollections have dimmed with the years. Others remain as vibrant as the day they occurred. And the complexity of the truth lies deep within the woven layers of fact. Perception so often is founded on truth that has been colored by layers of high anxiety and high excitement that people recall or choose to recall. For them, life was at its pinnacle. They were playing football, college football, big-time football, Texas A&M football. The truth for others may have suffered from the dismay of a few bad days, hard times, bruises, and disappointment. Neither is necessarily right, and neither is necessarily wrong. It just happens to be the way it is - and the way it was. Jackie Sherrill reached into a bunch of unknowns and plucked a few who would forever form the backbone of a legacy. The story of the 12th man kickoff team is one of personal triumph and occasional tragedy. Some memories and recollections have dimmed with the years. Others remain as vibrant as the day they occurred. And the complexity of the truth lies deep within the woven layers of fact. Perception so often is founded on truth that has been colored by layers of high anxiety and high excitement that people recall or choose to recall. For them, life was at its pinnacle. They were playing football, college football, big-time football, Texas A&M football. The truth for others may have suffered from the dismay of a few bad days, hard times, bruises, and disappointment. Neither is necessarily right, and neither is necessarily wrong. It just happens to be the way it is - and the way it was. He gave them a chance when no one else would. And they were forever indebted. None of them ever really knew Sherrill. None of them ever had many if any conversations with Sherrill. As one said, I can count every word I ever spoke to Coach Sherrill on one finger. They feared him. They respected him. They became his disciples. He taught them the game. He taught them about life. He taught them how to be better than any of them thought they could be. He made a difference. Then. And now. Their day in the sun was a magical time. They were the little engine that could in a world that said they couldn t. They were the student body. They were Texas A&M. They were the 12th Man.
252 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
1 person is currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
Caleb Pirtle III
75 books47 followersCaleb Pirtle III is the author of more than seventy-five books. His novel, Back Side of a Blue Moon, received both the Beverly Hills Book Award and Best of Texas Book Award for Historical Fiction.
He has written four noir thrillers in the Ambrose Lincoln series: Secrets of the Dead, Conspiracy of Lies, Night Side of Dark, and Place of Skulls. . Secrets and Conspiracy are also audiobooks on audible.com. His most recent releases are Back Side of a Blue Moon, Friday Nights Don't Last Forever, Last Deadly Lie, and The Man Who Talks to Strangers. His short stories are featured in three anthologies: Run, Scream, and Bridges.
Pirtle is a graduate of The University of Texas in Austin and became the first student at the university to win the National William Randolph Hearst Award for feature writing. Several of his books and his magazine writing have received national and regional awards.
Pirtle has written two teleplays: Gambler V: Playing for Keeps, a mini-series for CBS television starring Kenny Rogers, Loni Anderson, Dixie Carter, and Mariska Hargitay, and The Texas Rangers, a TV movie for John Milius and TNT television. He wrote two novels for Berkeley based on the Gambler series: Dead Man’s Hand and Jokers Are Wild. He wrote the screenplay for one motion picture, Hot Wire, starring George Kennedy, and John Terry.
Pirtle’s narrative nonfiction, Gamble in the Devil’s Chalk is a true-life book about the fights and feuds during the founding of the controversial Giddings oilfield and From the Dark Side of the Rainbow, the story of a woman’s escape from the Nazis in Poland during World War II. His coffee-table quality book, XIT: The American Cowboy, became the publishing industry’s third best selling art book of all time.
Pirtle was a newspaper reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and served ten years as travel editor for Southern Living Magazine. He was editorial director for a Dallas custom publisher for more than twenty-five years.
He has written four noir thrillers in the Ambrose Lincoln series: Secrets of the Dead, Conspiracy of Lies, Night Side of Dark, and Place of Skulls. . Secrets and Conspiracy are also audiobooks on audible.com. His most recent releases are Back Side of a Blue Moon, Friday Nights Don't Last Forever, Last Deadly Lie, and The Man Who Talks to Strangers. His short stories are featured in three anthologies: Run, Scream, and Bridges.
Pirtle is a graduate of The University of Texas in Austin and became the first student at the university to win the National William Randolph Hearst Award for feature writing. Several of his books and his magazine writing have received national and regional awards.
Pirtle has written two teleplays: Gambler V: Playing for Keeps, a mini-series for CBS television starring Kenny Rogers, Loni Anderson, Dixie Carter, and Mariska Hargitay, and The Texas Rangers, a TV movie for John Milius and TNT television. He wrote two novels for Berkeley based on the Gambler series: Dead Man’s Hand and Jokers Are Wild. He wrote the screenplay for one motion picture, Hot Wire, starring George Kennedy, and John Terry.
Pirtle’s narrative nonfiction, Gamble in the Devil’s Chalk is a true-life book about the fights and feuds during the founding of the controversial Giddings oilfield and From the Dark Side of the Rainbow, the story of a woman’s escape from the Nazis in Poland during World War II. His coffee-table quality book, XIT: The American Cowboy, became the publishing industry’s third best selling art book of all time.
Pirtle was a newspaper reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and served ten years as travel editor for Southern Living Magazine. He was editorial director for a Dallas custom publisher for more than twenty-five years.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 6, 2021
I'm giving this 3 stars mainly for the nostalgia of this book as I'm a '88 Aggie grad. I was proud of the 12th man kickoff team when I was a student and was sad to see it changed to just the single walk-on player it is today. But there were lots of things I really didn't enjoy in this book.
This book needed better editing. There were many grammatical or typographical errors sprinkled throughout. The structure of the book was also a bit disjointed for me. It was basically chronological and seemed to be based on interviews from different 12th man team members. But this structure seemed to jump back and forth in time as there was not a single narrator line through the book.
I also did not like the many references to "girls" throughout the book when referencing college-age women. Sad that 40+ year old men still reference women as girls.
This book needed better editing. There were many grammatical or typographical errors sprinkled throughout. The structure of the book was also a bit disjointed for me. It was basically chronological and seemed to be based on interviews from different 12th man team members. But this structure seemed to jump back and forth in time as there was not a single narrator line through the book.
I also did not like the many references to "girls" throughout the book when referencing college-age women. Sad that 40+ year old men still reference women as girls.
January 3, 2025
Good book. But should have been the size of a normal book not a coffee table bool
December 26, 2011
Amazing stories. If you lived through those years as an Aggie fan, you'll relive them all over again. If you didn't, you'll wish you had.
Editing of the book was very poor. In addition to lots of typos, probably 20% of the book could have been shaved off. But you'll love Coach Sherrill all over again; and have even more dislike for Slocum after remembering his dislike and ultimate dismantling of the 12th Man Kickoff Team.
Editing of the book was very poor. In addition to lots of typos, probably 20% of the book could have been shaved off. But you'll love Coach Sherrill all over again; and have even more dislike for Slocum after remembering his dislike and ultimate dismantling of the 12th Man Kickoff Team.
January 19, 2015
A very in depth look at the lives and times of the 12th Man Kickoff Team at Texas A&M University. As an Aggie, I really enjoyed the stories and the history of the 12th Man. Gig'um!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews