Awesome! - I’m glad you guys liked this. And I enjoyed reading all of your points as well. I had a few follow up observations too:
-Jeff and Mike M. pointed out one of the same books - Willis’s own bio of Carr. Like Mike M. said, probably due to modesty, Willis didn’t include any of his own books, but several were deserving in my opinion. I thought his oral history book Old Leather was just as good as the 3 oral history books that made the top 10 for example.
I checked my own bookshelf and found these:
-Home & Away by Carl M. Becker: Given its basically a book about the Tanks and the Spartans, its in my top 5 easily, but Willis may have felt it to be too focussed to include.
-Vagabond Halfback - The Life and Times of Johnny Blood McNally: I’m guessing since Willis already had a lot of bios, he had to leave some out. My argument in favor is that this one is unique since it went out of its way to do some myth busting - I’d include it.
-Pro Football Championships Before the Super Bowl A Year by year History, 1926-1965: Now I know Mike M. doesn’t like this one because there is an obvious flaw. The first year ideally would have either been 1920, 1932, or 1933. By choosing 26, one might buy the book to read about the Yellowjackets and find the Quakers and Yankees on the first page! 1920 would have been a great year to start in my opinion. Even though there weren’t official championships, we all know that each year there was usually a game or two that was a defacto championship. That being said, this book is top 5 for me since I find myself referencing it more than any other book I own. What surprised me is that there seems to be a very similarly focused book by Jerry Izenberg on Willis's list. Does anyone have this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Championship-c.../dp/B0007HL4J2?
-Breaker Boys: I was expecting to see this one on the list as well. The only thing that has always nagged at me was that I could’t find support for all the great things Grange said about Latone. Does anyone have the original 1954 “Grit Magazine” article?