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Buckeye Madness: The Glorious, Tumultuous, Behind-the-Scenes Story of Ohio State Football | 
 enlarge | Author: Joe Menzer
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
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Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 705234
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.4
ISBN: 074325788X
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.332630977157
EAN: 9780743257886
ASIN: 074325788X
Publication Date: August 2, 2005
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Condition: Mint!!
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Product Description
The Ohio State Buckeyes, one of the most storied college football programs in the nation, have a rich and colorful history that spans more than a century. In Buckeye Madness Ohio native Joe Menzer tells the exhilarating story of the Scarlet and Gray from the days of Woody Hayes in the late 1960s to Jim Tressel and OSU's recent national championship.In the fall of 1968, Hayes's Buckeyes went 10-0 and won the national championship -- a feat that the Buckeyes wouldn't repeat until January 2003, when an underdog OSU team upset the heavily favored Miami Hurricanes in an epic double-overtime national title game. In between those championships, scores of outstanding players took the field in Ohio Stadium, such as the legendary Archie Griffin, the last (and likely the only) player to win the Heisman Trophy twice. Ohio State fans will enjoy Menzer's descriptions of such Buckeye greats as Rex Kern, Chris Spielman, and Heisman winner Eddie George, among many others, along with his accounts of some great, and not-so-great, Ohio State teams in recent decades. Menzer explains how the game has changed in the years since Woody Hayes called the plays, and especially how the coaches themselves have had to change as concerns about off-the-field activities grew in importance. Hayes's immediate successors -- Earle Bruce and John Cooper -- were very different personalities from the incendiary Hayes; Tressel is a throwback to the Hayes era in many ways, yet he must deal with different issues as dictated by the changing times. But as Buckeye Madness makes clear in some unforgettable anecdotes, one thing will never change: the Ohio State-Michigan game remains the greatest rivalry in college football, a date circled months in advance on calendars in Columbus and Ann Arbor.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Not Great - Credibility is compromised. March 6, 2008
There are two problems with this book. First, it begins with a speech given by coach Jim Tressel on January 3, 2003, just before the 2002 National Championship game. Except it never happened. The speech was a fake, written by Ken Pryor, a fan, and e-mailed and posted across the Internet. It wasn't even meant to be a hoax, but simply something like a speech the coach might give, most sites listing Pryor as its author. Until this book, I never knew anyone had actually believed it to be anything else. It seems more than a little odd that the author didn't contact Tressel or anyone on his staff to confirm the validity of the speech. It's even more odd that the book's editor didn't either, considering that this book wasn't published until August of 2005, more than two and half years after it was already widely known to be false.
This leads into my second problem: It seems like any "fan" of Ohio State football would have known this. But to be fair, I don't doubt that Mr. Menzer is a fan. (He mentions in his "Acknowledgements" that at an early age he had an uncle and aunt that dressed him in OSU wear when he visited them Columbus.) It's just that by his reasoning, all my friends would have to be considered "fanatics." They have the football schedule months, if not a year, in advance, they have a plan for each and every game, and -to a certain degree- plan their lives around football Saturdays.
In my experience, being a Buckeye fan is something that seeps into you, like osmosis. No one dressed us up. We spoke up first, with "Where's MY Buckeye shirt?" and "Can I have an Ohio State hat for my birthday?" or "I'm saving up for a -insert OSU item here-." It's a certain level of commitment that isn't really a choice; at some point it's just ingrained in you.
But is this a bad book? I want to say, `No, not at all, except for the opening, it's a very good book.' Unfortunately, that's not true, because the opening puts you in a pall for the rest of the reading. Credibility is compromised. Is it written well? Absolutely, it is. Menzer is great with the turn of a word, but the validity of what follows is always in doubt.
When a young Earle Bruce sustains an injury and can't play football for Ohio State, Woody Hayes literally jumped into his car to stop him, and ask him to get an Ohio State education regardless? He uses the word literally. I've seen speeches by both men, and I have never heard either say Woody, not figuratively, but literally jumped into a car.
Later, defensive tackle Nick Buonamici says to coach Hayes, "Goddammit, I did it for you, Coach," and then jumped onto a table to reveal a tattoo. Really? He swore at Woody Hayes, in front of the whole team, then leaped onto a table? I didn't realize there was this much jumping in Columbus, Ohio.
And at a game, it was so cold that some people were physically unable to stand afterwards? Come on. That's way beyond even frost-bite. Hypothermia?
There are a lot of books about Ohio State football. Like this one, they all talk about the only two-time winner of the Heisman Trophy, Archie Griffin, about the undefeated team of 1968, about the legend of Woody Hayes, and the storied history of the Ohio State-Michigan game.
When picking up a book about the Buckeyes, let's just say this would not be my first choice.
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Joe Menzer is a sportswriter and contributor to NASCAR.com. Born in Hamilton, Ohio, and a graduate of Bowling Green State University, he covered the Cleveland Cavaliers and the NBA for the Willoughby/Lake County News-Herald. He has contributed articles to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Washington Post, the Sporting News, and Inside Sports, amongst others. He covered the Carolina Panthers football organization for over a decade, and is the author of several books, including Cavs from Fitch to Fratello: The Sometimes Miraculous, Often Hilarious Wild Ride of the Cleveland Cavaliers (1994), The Wildest Ride: A History of NASCAR (2002), and Four Corners: How UNC, N.C. State, Duke, and Wake Forest Made North Carolina the Center of the Basketball Universe (2004).
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 Words Should Mean Something March 17, 2007
There must be a credibility factor when a person puts words to press; whether it's a doctoral thesis, newspaper feature or a book chronicling a moment in time.
The plagarism scandels thay hounded historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Srephen E. Ambrose shows the shortcuts even the most respected writers will take, seemingly with an arrogance that no person will question their false research.
It is unfortunate that Joe Menzer - who, for years, was considered an excellent sports reporter/columnist in northeast Ohio - has traded fact for fantasy in the opening pages of what potentially could have been an excellent history of nearly 40 years in Ohio State football.
The reader is allegedly in the locker room before the 2003 National Championship game with coach Jim Tressel and his squad. Tressel gives a stirring speech - actually, one for the ages.
The problem - let me rephrase this, the major problem - is the speech supposedly given by Tressel is from an Internet posting on a message board that was written by a fan.
Well, nowhere do I see Tressel saying, "And men, according to the fan....," while he gives his version of Knute Rockne's legendary, but equally bogus, "Win One for the Gipper."
After this fraudulent opener, the book is classic Menzer, as he tramples over the myths and rumors surrounding the program from the late 1960s teams of Woody Hayes to the triumph by Tressel's team in the Fiesta Bowl.
But I cannot pull myself away from that false start. Words should mean something and Menzer has placed himself in the same category of Kearns Goodwin & Ambrose; but for all the wrong reasons.
 good read on the history of ohio state football November 17, 2006
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought this book last year with a Barnes and Noble gift card and immediately got into it. Now I myself am a huge sports enthusiast, especially when it comes to history. This is a good read on the history of ohio state football. Starting with the early days of the team and covering the bases on Paul Brown and Woody Hayes-coached teams that won national championships, the author does not fail to impress. The book came out right after Ohio State's national championship victory over Miami in the Tostitos Bowl, therefore the beginning talked about the win and how good it was for Tressel to bring a championship back to Columbus.
What really interested me was how John Cooper was disliked in Columbus, the main reason being that he did not take the rivalry with Michigan seriously. If you expect to succeed as a head coach, you must motivate yourself and prepare yourself for that big game at the end of the year that may have national title implications on the line. It's the best rivalry in all of college football, next to Notre Dame-USC, and this year will be no exception. Number 1 vs. number 2 will be watched by everybody who's somebody.
 I CUT MY TEETH ON OHIO STATE FOOTBALL STORIES! GREAT READING! November 14, 2005
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
As a young girl growing up in Ohio--many suns ago--I still remember my three brothers, my father and multi-uncles arguing the pros and cons of good old Ohio State football! So when I saw this book on Amazon, I just HAD to get it.
Wow--what memories it brings back!
I now live in Silicon Valley, and out here in the Golden State, we're always rooting for the 49ers and the Raiders, with three-fourths of my large family being 49ers fans, the other quarter rooting for the Raiders. Imagine the fun we have!
Now that my memory has been refreshed on Ohio Buckeye Madness, I can now toss in a good old Ohio State football story. It's invigorating to be reminded of one's ROOTS! (pun intended)
Dishonest September 15, 2005
9 out of 17 found this review helpful
This author is using information in the this book, specifically the "Pre-Game Speech", without the permisson of the original author and without crediting the author of this material. As the above reviewer notes, this "speech" was not actually given by Tressel, so the author is factually incorrect. As for the rest of the book, I have no idea, wouldn't buy because of the dishonesty in the first pages.
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