City of Champions

September 24, 2018
New York Daily News sportswriter Gola (Tiger Woods: A Pictorial Biography) recounts the story of the 1939 high school football national championship between two remarkably different teams. Gola writes how the working-class students of Garfield High School in New Jersey took on the more wealthy and renowned team from Miami, Fla. The narrative tracks each team’s progress throughout three seasons, with game summaries and analyses drawn from old tapes and news reports, culminating in the championship game in Miami’s newly built Orange Bowl. Gola also touches on life in America between the world wars, especially for the working-class immigrant families that made up and supported the Jersey team (including many Italians and Eastern Europeans), and the prejudiced Southern atmosphere around the segregated Miami Senior High. Throughout, Gola depicts a watershed period in American history as the country began climbing out from the Depression and war loomed. Football fans will relish this history of a bygone era in the sport—complete with 45 photos—and delight in the many anecdotes (the Garfield team’s stay at the upscale Alcazar hotel is particularly endearing) and play-by-plays of Miami’s Davey Eldredge muscling through Garfield’s defense and Benny Babula’s game-winning field goal.

Starred review from August 1, 2018

Veteran New York Daily News sportswriter Gola delves deeply into a fascinating forgotten story of a national champion high school football team from his hometown of Garfield, NJ. The book depicts life there during the Great Depression. Garfield was an industrial mill town, largely populated by Polish, Italian, and German immigrants, whose sons were brought together by a charismatic young coach to win consecutive state championships in 1938 and 1939. The team was then invited to Miami's Orange Bowl to face powerful Miami High in a charity game for the national championship. Gola covers the backgrounds of both cities, teams, and coaches, as well as the trip South and the game itself--won on a field goal in the closing minutes by Garfield star Benny Babula. Many of the players would serve overseas just a couple years later, and some would not survive the war. Gola tells their story with respect and admiration. VERDICT Extremely well done. Impeccably researched, with writing that is warm and moving. This beautiful book deserves the broadest of audiences.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.