Fields of Battle

July 15, 2016
A veteran sports journalist revisits "the most unusual yet meaningful Rose Bowl Game" ever.In 1941, Duke University was a national football power. Under legendary coach Wallace Wade, the Blue Devils were undefeated and slated for their second trip to the Rose Bowl to face Lon Stiner's Oregon State Beavers, surprise winners of the Pacific Coast Conference. West Coast security concerns following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor forced officials to move the game from its customary venue in Pasadena, California, to Duke's home field. As he prepares us for this extraordinary match-up, Curtis (Every Week a Season: A Journey Inside Big-Time College Football, 2004, etc.) explores each school's distinct culture, introduces coaches and select players, and summarizes the evolution of each team's season, including the unusual logistical challenges posed by the last-minute site change and the game's charged wartime atmosphere. He doesn't neglect the big game's details (an Oregon State upset), but he focuses mostly on what came after, the horror of a world war into which more than 70 of the game's participants immediately plunged. Yes, Curtis invokes the hoary football-as-war analogy in his title, exhortatory quotations from the likes of Wade and Vince Lombardi, but mainly he's careful to distinguish between an arduous game and savage war. In Europe and the Pacific, the boys of the Rose Bowl became men. Four were killed, many wounded; some won medals, and not a few returned to lives marked by alcoholism, depression, and divorce. Especially memorable are the tales of OSU's Stan Czech, who before his capture as a POW shared a hasty cup of coffee with Duke's Wade in a foxhole; Jack Yoshihara, the "alien" prohibited from traveling with his team to the Rose Bowl and who spent the war in an internment camp; and Frank Parker, the Beaver standout who rescued a Duke player near death on the battlefield. A fine sports book with a stirring extra dimension.

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June 15, 2016

Curtis (Go Long!) is familiar with both sports and history, having written for Sports Illustrated and Fox Sports among other outlets. This latest book, at least to begin with, is about college football, specifically the Rose Bowl, which has been played every year since 1902 on New Year's Day in Pasadena, CA. The game is now one of the most preeminent college football games of the year. Curtis does a fine job describing the history of the Rose Bowl through the years, including the addition of a parade. The bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 resulted in the 1942 Rose Bowl, between Oregon State and Duke University, being held in Durham, NC. Later chapters hurriedly shift from the gridiron to the battlefield, creating a close-up of the World War II battles and journeys of the players from the 1942 game. One wonders if the author chose the subject of this book because of the anomalous rescheduling of the game. Although there were heroic moments described, there is nothing distinguishing these men from anyone else from their era. VERDICT As football season fast approaches, recommend this title to college football fans who love their history. World War II buffs might not have the patience or desire to sift through the early play by play.--Keith Klang, Port Washington P.L., NY

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2016
In this remarkable book, Curtis masterfully connects two seemingly unrelated events: the 1942 Rose Bowl and WWII. On New Year's Day in 1942, the Rose Bowl game between Duke and Oregon State was played, not in Pasadena, Californiatoo near the West Coastbut in Durham, North Carolina, thanks to lobbying efforts to save the game, led by Wallace Wade, Duke's coach. Sports Illustrated writer Curtis convincingly makes his case for the game being the greatest metaphor for American grit and determination that the country had ever seen. The story extends beyond the field to the personal lives of the players, many of whom served heroically in the war. Perhaps the most moving of the stories Curtis recounts is that of Duke player Charles Haynes, whose life was saved by Frank Parker, a former footballer at Oregon State, who rescued Haynes after a serious injury left him badly wounded on an Italian battleground. Haynes and Parker met at the game's fiftieth reunion, the first time they had seen each other since 1945. This book has much in common with Laura Hillenbrand's best-selling Unbroken (2014) and should evoke similar strong emotions.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)