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What: “Football in America: Game of the Century”

Author: Bob Oates; Publisher: Quality Sports Publication

Price: $19.95

The title might imply this 348-page book is about the 1971 Oklahoma-Nebraska game, or some other matchup that was given the tag of “Game of the Century.” But this captivating book is about a lot more than one game. It covers the entire scope of football, the No. 1 sport of the century, from its roots to the present. And the book is filled with stories about the game’s stars and characters.

On the back of the book’s jacket, Joe Browne, NFL senior vice president, says: “I want Don Shula to coach the Big Game, Joe Montana to quarterback it and Bob Oates to write about it. No one in the media is more knowledgeable about America’s No. 1 sport than Oates.” Bill Walsh adds: “This is a masterful piece of work, and its timely publication offers us a comprehensive story on the evolution of our great game. Bob Oates is uniquely qualified to present this book to everyone who has an interest in football.”

The book opens with a chapter on Knute Rockne, with segments on the invention of the forward pass, George Gipp and the Four Horsemen. The second chapter deals with the very beginning of football, which, Oates points out, wasn’t a game between Princeton and Rutgers in 1869. That game wasn’t football. “Lining up 25 players to a side, they used a round soccer ball, and it couldn’t be carried or thrown, just kicked,” Oates writes.

Oates credits a college rules committee headed by Walter Camp of Yale for coming up with rules in the late 19th century and early 20th century that created the game of football as its is known today.

Most of Oates’ 60-plus years of sports reporting were spent covering professional football in Los Angeles, first for the Examiner, then the Herald Examiner and, since 1968, for the Los Angeles Times. He retired in 1995 but is still a Times contributor. He is one of eight sportswriters in the country who has covered every Super Bowl.

In a segment on Red Grange, Oates writes about how Grange drew 65,270 to the Coliseum when he played there not long after joining the Chicago Bears in 1925. We also learn about how USC and UCLA fought having a pro team in Los Angeles and how L.A.’s first pro team, in 1927, had to play all its games on the road because the city would not make the Coliseum available.

Toward the end of the book, Oates names his all-century team. Typically, he does it his way--naming only 11 players. The ends are Don Hutson, an offensive end, and Deacon Jones, a defensive end. The others: Bronko Nagurski, Jim Parker, Danny Fortmann, John Hannah, Dick Butkus, Joe Namath, O.J. Simpson, Deion Sanders and Jim Brown.