University of Wisconsin
Football (Images of Sports Series)
Dave
Anderson
Arcadia Publishing,
2005
Reviewed
by Jim
Melcher
While the name Arcadia Publishing may not
be a household word, many readers are familiar with their style without
realizing it. Arcadia Publishing is the company which has put out a
prodigious
collection of local history books since the early 1990s about all parts
of the
country. They are particularly well
known for their Images of America series, which each focus on a
particular
city, town or region and include numerous vintage black and white
photographs
with small amounts of commentary to accompany them. Arcadia now has a
number of
other similar lines following the same basic vintage photos with
slender
commentary on a variety of special or localized interests, including
postcard
histories of a particular place and corporate histories, among others.
Arcadia now has a similar series called
“Images of Sports” that follow the basic model used in other series. This series features books in a variety of
American sports, and includes about a dozen books on football history,
particularly the history of specific college football programs. These
books
include histories of such schools at Harvard, Yale, Michigan State,
Auburn,
Nebraska, Northwestern and others, with the most recent (as of this
writing) a
book on Oregon State University football.
Dearest to my heart in college football,
however, is the University of Wisconsin, which is featured in this
entry in the
Images of Sports series. I started going to Badger games as a child and
had
season tickets for three years while attending school there during the
Dave
McCain era of the early 1980s, when Al Toon, Tim Krumrie and others led
the
Badgers back to postseason bowl game play for the first time since the
early
1960s. No matter what era of Wisconsin football is of most interest to
the
reader, however, this new book will bring back many happy memories.
Like other Arcadia
books, this book features a gold mine of wonderful old black and white
photos
which in this case date back to the 1890s and go through the early
2000s, and
features a good balance of shots from throughout Wisconsin football
history.
The book also features commentary from Dave Anderson, which sometimes
is a bit
too idiosyncratic and focused on his own experiences, but overall a
useful
addition. Here, too are useful lists for Badger fans, such as award
winners,
the records of all UW coaches through 2004, and more. But like other
Arcadia
books, this books is all about the pictures, and wonderful ones they
are. I
particularly enjoyed the collections of program covers through the
years. Any
Wisconsin Badgers football fan or Wisconsin history buff will enjoy
seeing
them, and even people who are neither may well enjoy this pleasant,
slender
paperback.