My Old Kentucky Books: Bart Starr

Jumping on the Unofficial College Football Championship bandwagon after the University of Kentucky's stunning, come-from-18-behind-at-the-half victory over South Carolina last night, I'd now like to review another great book, Bart Starr, by John Devaney. I finished this 1967 Scholastic Book Services title last week after starting it in 2007 or so.

Here are some things that I learned:

-- Bart Starr's dad was an Air Force seargent assigned to the Maxwell base near Montgomery, Ala, which is where Starr was born Jan. 9, 1934.

-- Starr took over as Sidney Lanier High School's starting quarterback when the regular starter broke his leg in the opening game of the 1950 season, Starr's junior year.

-- In his senior year, Starr gained the attention of colleges over the country when he led Sidney Lanier to a win at powerful Louisville Manual. The previous year, Starr had attended Bear Bryant's camp at the University of Kentucky, and there he met UK's All-American quarterback, Babe Parilli.

-- Starr intended to play football at Kentucky until his girlfriend, Cherry Morton, decided she would attend Auburn University. "Cherry might meet another boy while Bart was so far away. Bart thought about that a little longer. Then he signed to go to the University of Alabama." Devaney, John Bart Starr (New York: Scholastic Book Services, 1967) 34.

-- With so many older players fighting in Korea, Starr played enough minutes as a freshman at Alabama to earn a varsity letter. And he completed eight of 12 passes for 93 yards and a touchdown in the Crimson Tide's 61-6 victory over Syracuse in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 1, 1953.

-- "In 1953, Bart's sophomore season, he started the season as Alabama's No. One quarterback. At the end of that season, Alabama coaches were insisting that Bart Starr was the best passer in the history of Alabama, greater even than the Crimson Tide's legendary Harry Gilmer." Devaney, 35.

-- During that season, Starr ranked second in the nation in punting. While practicing punting in August 1954, Starr threw his sacroiliac out of place and missed most of his junior season, throwing only 41 passes all year. Coach Red Drew resigned as Alabama's coach following the disappointing season.

-- New coach J.B. "Ears" Whitworth benched Starr and most of the rest of Alabama's seniors. "He threw only 96 passes as a backup quarterback ... Mostly he played when Alabama trailed hopelessly. With mostly sophs and juniors in the lineup, the once-proud Crimson Tide lost all ten games." Devaney, 39.

-- A Packers assistant coach scanned a type list of prospects as the 1956 NFL draft entered its 17th round. He saw Starr's name. Alabama's basketball coach, Johnny Dee, was friends with a Green Bay scout. Plus, the Packers coach thought he remembered that Starr was a Phi Beta Kappa honor student. "'If he's that smart, maybe he can learn.' The Packers drafted Starr. Bart Starr was not a Phi Beta Kappa honor student." Devaney, 40.

-- Starr played behind Tobin Rote as a rookie in 1956 and behind Parilli in 1957. "The Babe ... was just as kind to Bart as he had been years before on the campus at the University of Kentucky. He showed Starr how he cupped his hands under the center to receive the snap, he he ran back into the pocket as fast he hcould, and how he released the ball without any wasted motion. 'In those early years,' says Starr, 'in high school and in my first three years with the pros, Babe taught me more about basic quarterback play than any coach.'" Devaney, 46.

-- Coach Lisle Blackbourn resigned after a 3-9 season in 1957 and took over as head coach at Marquette University. He tried to hire Starr as his quarterbacks coach, but Starr declined.

-- In 1958, the Packers went 1-11 with Coach Ray McLean alternating Parilli and Starr at quarterback. McLean was fired, and Vince Lombardi was hired.

-- Lombardi shared the starting quarterback job among Lamar McHan, Joe Francis and Starr during 1959 and '60. In the third game of Lombardi's second season, Starr relieved McHan and rallied Green Bay to a 35-21 upset of the world-champion Baltimore Colts. "After that game, Lombardi called Bart into his office. 'Bart,' said the coach, 'you're it. You're No. One. Don't worry about a thing.'" Starr, 61.

-- In the 1960 championship at Philadelphia's Franklin Field on Dec. 26, the Packers took a 13-10 lead with less than five minutes to play. The Eagles scored, and Green Bay took over at its 20 with about a minute and a half to go. Starr led a drive to inside the Philadelphia 20. "There was time for one last play ... Bart scanned the Eagle defense. These were the closing moments of a championship game, but Bart's face was as calm as though it were a preseason scrimmage. He knew what he had to do: He had to complete a short pass to one of his running backs, preferably big Jim Taylor. Then he had to hope that the back and his blockers could bulldoze their way into the end zone. Starr stepped back to pass, the big Philadelphia crowd standing and screaming. He threw a whizzing pass that Jim Taylor grabbed on the nine-yard line. Taylor lunged toward the goal line, knees churning. The huge Chuck Bednarik smashed into him. Jim Taylor's body bent as Bednarik hit him, but he didn't go down. For several seconds the two huge bodies swayed in the fog. And as they battled, like two dinosaurs on a steamy prehistoric swamp, the game swayed with them. Suddenly, out of the mist, flew the bullet-like bodies of three Philadelphia tacklers, slamming into Jim Taylor, and down he crashed. The gun sounded. The game was over. The Philadelphia Eagles were National Football League champions. The Packers walked off the field after shaking hands with the Eagles. They had come close, within nine yards and another minute, to winning that championship. But football fields are one hundred yards long, not ninety-one. And football games are played in sixty minutes, not sixty-one. The Packers had come close, but not close enough." Devaney, 69.

Devaney's writing is gripping, and Starr's story is wholly admirable. I give this book five stars, Perfect!

Vacation is awesome.