Football Bibliography: A PFRA Project?

[rhickok1109]

In a much earlier thread that I can't find right now, the possibility of creating a football bibliography was mentioned as a possible PFRA project. I commented that Anton Grobani edited a "Guide to Football Literature," published in 1975, and that it is obviously in serious need of updating, nearly 40 years later.

I have since thought about it further and I wonder if this is a viable project for the PFRA.

I would be willing to take on the task of compiling such a bibliography, with input from other members. I would begin, naturally, with the titles from the Grobani book. I would add the books from my own library that are not in Grobani and then I would add books submitted/suggested by other PFRA members. Finally, I would also search other sources, such as the Library of Congress on-line catalog.

I have given some thought to the details; we would obviously want Author, Title, Publisher, and Year of Publication. I think it would also be advisable to add the Library of Congress Classification number, the Dewey Decimal Classification, some tags or keywords, and a brief note describing the book and its contents.

This could, of course, become a PFRA publication, but I think it might be more useful as a database, since the user could then sort it on any desired field(s) to find exactly the books he/she is interested in.

What are your thoughts on this? Are you willing to participate? Is it a viable project for the association? Quite apart from its intrinsic value to members, might it be a way of raising a bit of money for the PFRA? Getting into the details, is there other information that should be included?

[Veeshik_ya]

Sounds like a great idea.

Another great idea was bandied about last year when a few of us discussed putting some type of matrix or graphical timeline or reference work of all the great defenses and defensive coaches, but then it went nowhere.

The PFRA could stand to do a few more things to promote itself and the great knowledge of its members. One one way to do that is to put some product out there.

[Moran]

I think it's a good idea and appreciate your willingness to get it started - and would be glad to help.

[BD Sullivan]

For years, SABR has had one for baseball (obviously):

http://www.baseballindex.org

[oldecapecod11]

Ralph, MORE SUPPORT
Here's a post by John Maxymuk, himself a producer of note.
As you can see, he liked your original statement in August of last year.
This post was cut from an old thread titled: Used Book Sales. (I am still looking for that other thread.)

#30 JohnMaxymuk
PFRA Member
Posted 21 August 2014 - 04:23 PM

rhickok1109, on 21 Aug 2014 - 08:19 AM, said:
Anton Grobani's Guide to Football Literature was published by the Gale Research Company in 1975. So far as I know, it's never been updated.

I think it would be a great project for PFRA.
Myron Smith published a more robust one on pro football i think in the 1990s. I spent a good portion of last year reading every book dealing with the pro game published prior to 1970 and learned a lot, but never turned it into anything.

WHOOPS! On the very next page, John Maxymuk also offered some additional starting points:
(This is the "edited" data.)

When I compiled my original list of Dallas Cowboy Books in 1995, I consulted (and cited) four critical bibliographic sources:
1. The Pro Football Bio-Bibliography (1989) by Myron J. Smith, Jr.;
2. Professional Football: The Official Pro Football Hall of Fame Bibliography (1993), also by Myron Smith;
3. Guide to Football Literature (1975) by Anton Grobani;
4. Biographical Dictionary of American Sports: Football (1987) by David Porter.

[Mark L. Ford]

I had started working on one by consulting sources like worldcat.org and running members names, but have run into one problem of whether there's a confusion of names. For instance, there are two men named Jeff Miller who write football books, one of whom is a PFRA member, and the other one who isn't. Some examples of football books, and books published by authors who appear to be in the PFRA as well:

Ty Cobb : his tumultuous life and times
by Richard Bak Taylor, ©1994.

Original Contributions - Cardiac Biology - Rapid Turnover of Connexin43 in the Adult Rat Heart
by Michael A Beardslee Grune & Stratton,

Keep a-goin' : the life of Lone Star Dietz
by Tom Benjey Tuxedo Press, ©2006.

The Badgers : Milwaukee's NFL entry of 1922-1926
by Michael D Benter St. Johann Press, ©2013.

Can you name that team? : a guide to professional baseball, football, soccer, hockey, and basketball teams and leagues
by David B Biesel Scarecrow Press, 1991.

Houston Oilers : the early years
by Kevin Carroll Eakin Press, ©2001

Game of my life. Kentucky Wildcats : memorable stories of Wildcat basketball
by Ryan Clark

Pro football's great moments
by Jack T Clary Bonanza Books, 1981

It would be easy to make a mistake on a list of this sort, either leaving something off that a member had written, or including a book by someone else with a name similar to a member. S

[oldecapecod11]

A little bit of the old "give credit where credit is due" practice...
John spurred your comment back in August so there is likely another potential contributor.

#26 John Grasso
Board of Directors
Posted 21 August 2014 - 07:08 AM
Has there ever been a really comprehensive bibliography of football books published?
Is that a potential project for the PFRA?


#27 rhickok1109
PFRA Member
Posted 21 August 2014 - 08:19 AM

John Grasso, on 21 Aug 2014 - 07:08 AM, said:
Has there ever been a really comprehensive bibliography of football books published?
Is that a potential project for the PFRA?

Anton Grobani's Guide to Football Literature was published by the Gale Research Company in 1975. So far as I know, it's never been updated.
I think it would be a great project for PFRA.

[Ronfitch]

I had started working on one by consulting sources like worldcat.org and running members names, but have run into one problem of whether there's a confusion of names. For instance, there are two men named Jeff Miller who write football books, one of whom is a PFRA member, and the other one who isn't. Some examples of football books, and books published by authors who appear to be in the PFRA as well:

Ty Cobb : his tumultuous life and times
by Richard Bak Taylor, ©1994.

Original Contributions - Cardiac Biology - Rapid Turnover of Connexin43 in the Adult Rat Heart
by Michael A Beardslee Grune & Stratton,

Keep a-goin' : the life of Lone Star Dietz
by Tom Benjey Tuxedo Press, ©2006.

The Badgers : Milwaukee's NFL entry of 1922-1926
by Michael D Benter St. Johann Press, ©2013.

Can you name that team? : a guide to professional baseball, football, soccer, hockey, and basketball teams and leagues
by David B Biesel Scarecrow Press, 1991.

Houston Oilers : the early years
by Kevin Carroll Eakin Press, ©2001

Game of my life. Kentucky Wildcats : memorable stories of Wildcat basketball
by Ryan Clark

Pro football's great moments
by Jack T Clary Bonanza Books, 1981

It would be easy to make a mistake on a list of this sort, either leaving something off that a member had written, or including a book by someone else with a name similar to a member. S

Clearly, first order of business is to pull this othe Jeff into the fold.

Love the idea, Ralph.

Years ago, on The South Endzone web site (http://www.southendzone.com) , Scott Crevier started a list of Packer-related books that grew pretty large until his site went more league-oriented and less Packer oriented in nature (still some Packer stuff there, but much less fan-sourced now). The list of Packer books included quite a bit of Ralph's suggestions for data. I shot Scott an email to see if he would share the old list (hoping he will, I am the one who suggested it initially and fed the first big dump of data into it).

[John Grasso]

I've got a bibliography of sorts that I used in my Historical Dictionary of Football.
It's in Word format. If anyone is interested, send me an email at
jgrasso@frontiernet.net and I'll forward it to you.

[fgoodwin]

Ralph, MORE SUPPORT
Here's a post by John Maxymuk, himself a producer of note.
As you can see, he liked your original statement in August of last year.
This post was cut from an old thread titled: Used Book Sales. (I am still looking for that other thread.)

#30 JohnMaxymuk
PFRA Member
Posted 21 August 2014 - 04:23 PM

rhickok1109, on 21 Aug 2014 - 08:19 AM, said:
Anton Grobani's Guide to Football Literature was published by the Gale Research Company in 1975. So far as I know, it's never been updated.

I think it would be a great project for PFRA.
Myron Smith published a more robust one on pro football i think in the 1990s. I spent a good portion of last year reading every book dealing with the pro game published prior to 1970 and learned a lot, but never turned it into anything.

WHOOPS! On the very next page, John Maxymuk also offered some additional starting points:
(This is the "edited" data.)

When I compiled my original list of Dallas Cowboy Books in 1995, I consulted (and cited) four critical bibliographic sources:
1. The Pro Football Bio-Bibliography (1989) by Myron J. Smith, Jr.;
2. Professional Football: The Official Pro Football Hall of Fame Bibliography (1993), also by Myron Smith;
3. Guide to Football Literature (1975) by Anton Grobani;
4. Biographical Dictionary of American Sports: Football (1987) by David Porter.

Not to take anything away from John Maxymuk, but I am the person actually being quoted above (note the reference to a list of Dallas Cowboy books). I would be happy to contribute those lists to the overall effort. They are available as Facebook notes on my FB Cowboys page.