Description
In the 1870s, Gus Hornsby spread the game of American football around the world like an evangelist and helped establish it in the U.S. heartland. Hornsby seemed destined for greatness as a journalist, inventor, explorer and entrepreneur. His arrogance, greed and an intractable gambling addiction, however, drove him to criminality and cast him into obscurity. But this public ruin led to his greatest accomplishment in prison: personal redemption.
Surprisingly, Hornsby's meteoric rise and fall intersected with towering influencers of the time, including the women and men who would pioneer the "first-wave" feminist movement in the United States. This book explores their unexpected connections and interweaves their stories--along with details of the first American football game in the Midwest--to reveal elements of a pivotal moment in American history, both in feminism and sports. More than a biography of a person, it is a story about America--brash, imaginative and seemingly limitless in resources and creativity, but overly self-assured and wildly reckless.
Author: Larry LaTourette
Publisher: McFarland & Company
Published: 07/06/2023
Pages: 234
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.74h x 5.83w x 0.63d
ISBN13: 9781476691183
ISBN10: 1476691185
BISAC Categories:
- Sports & Recreation | Football
- Biography & Autobiography | General
About the Author
Larry LaTourette works as a consumer insights and marketing analytics expert. For over twenty years, he has pursued historical research, exploring the roots of American football and the people who brought it to us. He lives in the Chicago area.