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When Mavericks Ruled

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By BOB D'ANGELO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 1, 2008

"Football in the AFL," author Dave Steidel writes, "was a simple game played with a pioneering spirit."

The men who played in the American Football League in the seasons spanning 1960 to 1969 were more than pioneers. They were proponents of wide-open football, "mad bomber" quarterbacks, 2-point plays, crunching defenses and innovative coaches. The league was formed to compete with the NFL, and eventually merged with the haughty, establishment league.

Plus, the AFL players had those great names. Roll these off your tongue: Cosmo Iacavazzi, Hatch Rosdahl, Proverb Jacobs, Preston Ridlehuber. And don't forget Wahoo McDaniel.

Steidel has put together a complete, nostalgic look at the upstart league, writing "Remember The AFL: The Ultimate Fan's Guide to the American Football League" (Clerisy Press, $29.95).

Steidel was drawn to the AFL as a youth through his card collecting hobby, and his work also will delight card collectors, as pictures of many of those 1960s cards are liberally sprinkled throughout the book.

Steidel, a high school counselor in Allentown, Pa., breaks down every year of the AFL's existence, with capsule summaries of each team and anecdotes and fun facts. He is no stranger to sports, having coached high school swimming and working as a referee for high school and college soccer (and a stint as a softball umpire).

The book is loaded with pictures, and other than a few editing glitches (principle owner Al Davis - it should be principal, for example), it reads well.

The last part of the book is a quiz, testing the reader's AFL trivia knowledge. Readers who score well on them can confidently call themselves AFL experts.

IRISH NOSTALGIA: The handsome kelly green book cover is the tip-off. The pictures and design of "Notre Dame Football: Yesterday & Today" (West Side Publishing, $24.95) beautifully captures the tradition of Fighting Irish football. Pictures include programs, newspaper clippings, pennants, ticket stubs. The text, written by Marty Strasen of The Tampa Tribune and tbo.com, covers the Irish's beginnings in 1887 to the present. Strasen, a 1989 graduate of Notre Dame, clearly relishes his assignments and has put together a nice cross-section of Irish history.

All the famous names are there: Knute Rockne, George Gipp, Ara Parseghian, Paul Hornung, Joe Montana, Joe Theismann and Rocket Ismail. Former coach Lou Holtz wrote the foreword.

GOING ONLINE: Book reviews will be moving online beginning next week. Go to tbo.com, Keyword: Sports Bookie to keep up with the latest sports book releases.

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