Full Product Details
Author: Chris Willis
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Imprint: Rowman & Littlefield
Dimensions:
Width: 16.10cm
, Height: 3.00cm
, Length: 23.60cm
Weight: 0.703kg
ISBN: 9781442236417
ISBN 10: 1442236418
Pages: 400
Publication Date: 16 July 2014
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
In this detailed account of the San Fransisco 49ers' 1984 season, historian Willis recounts how the team's 15-1 regular season ... culminated in its Super Bowl XIX victory over the heavily favored Miami Dolphins. Central to the story is the relationship between coach Bill Walsh and his star quarterback Joe Montana. Walsh, who had 'gained the reputation as an offensive genius' as an assistant coach with the Cincinnati Bengals, found his perfect student in Montana, who teammates considered to be the best quarterback ever to play the game. Willis provides full descriptions of each game of the season, even giving details on the television commercials that aired during ABC's broadcast and mentioning that Apple computers provided 84,000 seat cushions for the wooden seats in Stanford Stadium. Overall, this is a book for hardcore 49ers fans. Publishers Weekly The 1984 San Francisco 49ers are something of a neglected team among great teams, despite being the first club to win 15 regular-season games and 18 games overall; there is much more written about the 15-1 Super Bowl champion 1985 Bears, for example. However, the 49ers had a deeper roster that featured superstars Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott and groundbreaking coach Bill Walsh, and decimated a much better opponent in the Super Bowl than that fearsome Bears' team did. Drawn from extensive interviews with more than 40 players, as well as original broadcast tapes and Walsh's recorded comments from player meetings, this book details how the team was constructed and clarifies what the coaches were thinking from the preseason to the postseason. Game by game, Willis (head of research library, NFL Films; Old Leather) examines game plans, observes strategic personnel moves, and depicts the emotional fluctuations of the season with a flowing narrative that is enlivened by piquant quotations from the team's animated personalities. While the author's previous books all dealt with pre-World War II football, he shows an adept familiarity with the modern game in this thoroughly enjoyable retelling of the 1984 49ers. VERDICT The best football book of the year will be enjoyed by all football fans. Library Journal
In this detailed account of the San Fransisco 49ers' 1984 season, historian Willis recounts how the team's 15-1 regular season ... culminated in its Super Bowl XIX victory over the heavily favored Miami Dolphins. Central to the story is the relationship between coach Bill Walsh and his star quarterback Joe Montana. Walsh, who had 'gained the reputation as an offensive genius' as an assistant coach with the Cincinnati Bengals, found his perfect student in Montana, who teammates considered to be the best quarterback ever to play the game. Willis provides full descriptions of each game of the season, even giving details on the television commercials that aired during ABC's broadcast and mentioning that Apple computers provided 84,000 seat cushions for the wooden seats in Stanford Stadium. Overall, this is a book for hardcore 49ers fans. Publishers Weekly
Author Information
Chris Willis has worked at NFL Films as the head of the research library since 1996. He has written multiple books on early pro football, including Old Leather: An Oral History of Early Pro Football in Ohio, 1920–1935 (2005), The Columbus Panhandles: A Complete History of Pro Football’s Toughest Team, 1900–1922 (2007), The Man Who Built the National Football League: Joe F. Carr (2010), and Dutch Clark: The Life of an NFL Legend and the Birth of the Detroit Lions (2012), all published by Scarecrow Press.
