Giants and Heroes: A Daughter's Memories of Y. A. Tittle - Hardcover

Tittle De Laet, Dianne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1883642132 ISBN 13: 9781883642136

Publisher: Steerforth, 1998

Synopsis

None of the books in this genre is remotely comparable to de Laet's remarkable effort. --The Sporting News

About this title

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

I remember that my father fell in love with spinning objects when he was six years old. And when I was six years old watching him play, a football fan at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco leaned over and asked if I was going to be a cheerleader when I grew up. "no," I replied, "I am going to write a book about Greek mythology and be buried under a cypress tree." Of course, my parents found this incomprehensible. It never dawned on them or me that I could indeed write a book, until I stood there in Olympia, Greece, remembering the expression of the football fan whose thoughtful pause threw wide open the doors of my life. No mythological heroes? There were the fans in Yankee Stadium. In particular, there were the cab drivers in the Mezzanine section, whose faces read like an epic, and whose enthusiasm was enchantment for me.

As a football player, Y.A. Tittle was not only a master of the moment, he was also the only Hall Of Fame quarterback who never won a championship. As his daughter, was it not possible for me to choose the classical "T" formation rather than the contemporary "shotgun" approach to the sports biography, or celebrity memoir as it has come to be known? And could I not be buried under a cypress tree just as easily after writing a book about what it was like growing up in the land of football players?

From Publishers Weekly:

Yelberton Abraham Tittle, from the Piney Woods of East Texas, played pro football from 1948 until 1964, retiring at 38 after starring for the Baltimore Colts, San Francisco 49ers and New York Giants. Although he was the quarterback in the 49ers' so-called Million Dollar Backfield, he is best remembered for his three years in New York, when his passing took the team to three NFL championship games, none of which they won, and for his willingness to take the field when badly hurt. His daughter Dianne, a poet and concert harpist, has authored an unusual volume that is rich in memorable metaphors and explains her pursuit of the question, What constitutes a hero? Her answer is based heavily on her study of the Greek and Roman classics. Classicists will exult in the passages from Pindar and Martial, and all literate sports fans will love it. There are several excellent action photos.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Steerforth
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1883642132
• ISBN 13: 9781883642136
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 261