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* Title: “Bob Mathias: Across the Fields of Gold”

* Author: Chris Terrence, foreword by Dick Schaap, introduction by Bob Mathias

* Price: $26.95

Back when Americans actually cared a good deal more about track and field than, say, the WWF or NASCAR, Bob Mathias truly was viewed as an American hero.

Mathias was only 17 and recently graduated from Tulare High in the San Joaquin Valley when he won the Olympic decathlon in the 1948 London Games. He repeated the feat four years later in Helsinki, becoming the only American decathlete to win consecutive gold medals. He played himself in a film about his life and acted in several other features and a television series with Keenan Wynne called “The Troubleshooters.”

Mathias later served four terms in Congress and helped push through the Amateur Sports Act in 1978, which broke up the AAU’s stranglehold on track and field and other Olympic sports in this country.

Forgive Terrence’s book if it appears to be overly fawning. Mathias is still regarded as a legend in the San Joaquin Valley. Everybody contacted for the book seems to hold great affection for Mathias, whose remarkable feats also extended to the football field. As a college senior in 1951, he helped Stanford to a Rose Bowl berth with a 96-yard touchdown run against a USC team led by Frank Gifford.

This book is more of a scrapbook than a windy narrative of Mathias’ life and athletic accomplishments. You can easily thumb through the 112 pages in 30 minutes or less. Terrence lets 100 photos tell the story. He also includes several pages of quotes about Mathias from those who know him, and a question-and-answer section with Mathias at the end of the book.