Courage Beyond the Game - by Jim Dent (Paperback)

About the Book

Despite the pronouncement that he was too small to play college football, Freddie was a tenacious competitor who vowed to start every game as a varsity Longhorn. By the start of the 1969 season, Freddie was making his mark on the college gridiron, but he'd also developed a crippling pain in his thigh that worried his high school sweetheart, Linda.

Book Synopsis

Jim Dent, the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of The Junction Boys, returns with a powerful Texas story which transcends college football, displaying the courage and determination of one of the game's most valiant players.

Freddie Steinmark was a small but scrappy young man when he arrived at the University of Texas in 1967. A tenacious competitor, Freddie became UT's star safety by the start of the 1969 season, but he'd also developed a crippling pain in his thigh. Freddie continued to play, helping the Longhorns to rip through opponents like pulpwood. His final game was for the 1969 national championship, when the Longhorns rallied to beat Arkansas in a legendary game that has become known as "the Game of the Century."

Tragically, bone cancer took Freddie off the field when nothing else could. But nothing could extinguish his irrepressible spirit or keep him away from the game. Today, a photo of Freddie hangs in the tunnel at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, where players touch it before games en route to the field. With Courage Beyond the Game, a Brian's Song for college football, Jim Dent once again brings readers to cheers and tears with a truly American tale of bravery in the face of the worst odds.

Review Quotes

"A superb work that paints the resilient athlete as a fierce competitor and an unforgettable sportsman." --Kirkus, starred review

"Dent (The Junction Boys, 2001) brings Steinmark to life through interviews with friends, teammates, and coaches, who confirm that he was every bit the All-American boy... Dent doesn't oversell this inspirational story in the Brian's Song mold. In the end, readers may feel they've met an extraordinary young man and, though it's been 40 years since he died, mourn his passing." --Booklist

"Jim Dent, dadgum him, keeps writing books I wish I'd written. Like The Junction Boys and Twelve Mighty Orphans, to name two. Now here he comes with another terrific effort, Courage Beyond the Game, the story of the most courageous kid to ever pull on a football suit. If you pick it up, it's guaranteed to pick you up." --Dan Jenkins, author of Semi-Tough and Dead Solid Perfect

"Jim Dent is a world class story teller, and in Freddie Steinmark's courageous and triumphant fight to be a man of substance, he's found a tale worthy of his ample talents. Dent will bring tears to your eyes, and Steinmark's example will make you want to be a better person.'" --Joe Drape, New York Times bestselling author of Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen

"You will cheer and you will weep as you read Jim Dent's irresistible rendering of one of the great real-life dramas in college football history. Dent has brought plenty of tough guys to life in his other books, but little Freddie Steinmark surely ranks as the toughest. Dent has brilliantly re-cast a Longhorn legend. I could not put Courage Beyond the Game down.'" --John Eisenberg, author of That First Season: How Vince Lombardi Took the Worst Team in the NFL and set it on the Path to Glory, and Cotton Bowl Days: Growing up with Dallas and the Cowboys in the 1960s

"''Freddie Steinmark's story will inspire you and make you cry, and Jim Dent has told it better than anyone in Courage Beyond the Game. Jim's eye for detail and gifted writing will take you back to another place and time, and a new generation of college football fans will learn why Freddie lives forever in the hearts of those he touched in his brief life.''" --Richard Justice, lead sports columnist for The Houston Chronicle

"Courage Beyond the Game is a wonderful book whose protagonist, the doomed University of Texas safety Freddie Steinmark, delivers just what the title promises. Veteran sports author Jim Dent infuses a narrative whose ending we all know with depth, tenderness, and unexpected insights. His Steinmark could have easily been a cardboard saint. Instead the Steinmark we meet is intensely human, inspirational, funny and utterly unforgettable. This was a book I couldn't put down." --Bill Livingston, Cleveland Plain Dealer sports columnist

"Jim Dent once again proves his mastery of the way football felt and sounded in the days of Texas and the Southwest Conference. His inspirational portrait of Freddie Steinmark takes us back to a purer time." --Mark Whicker, Orange Country Register sports columnist

"Freddie Steinmark defined college football with his unquenchable thirst for life, unbridled spirit through adversity, and rare passion for the game he lived to play. Jim Dent can tell a story life like few others and brought this must-read, must-be-told account back to life for all to relish with his riveting, gut-wrenching book, Courage Beyond the Game.'" --Kirk Bohls, Austin American Statesman sports columnist

"Jim Dent's latest book will hit you hard--right in the heart. Dent, a gifted storyteller who is at his best writing about underdogs, weaves an unforgettable tale about a heroic player who long ago was propelled into Texas lore. You will admire Freddie Steinmark's fighting spirit. You will feel his pain. And you will be inspired by his courage." --Keith Dunnavant, author of America's Quarterback: Bart Starr and the Rise of the National Football League

"A compelling, powerful story told only as Jim Dent can. In Courage Beyond The Game, Dent once again has taken us inside a story that is far more remarkable than sports. It is impossible to read without feeling inspired by the courage of this heroic young man, Freddie Steinmark. Everyone should have this book." --Bill Macatee, CBS Sports

"Jim Dent delivered on the nearly impossible. Take a story in which everyone knows the ending and force the reader to turn the page. The book is compelling from the moment you meet young Freddie Steinmark sprinting in the shadows of the Rocky Mountains until his Texas Longhorns run up the Cotton Bowl tunnel as national champions. Whether you like football or not, it's hard not to appreciate Dent's ability to capture a moment in time down to the finest detail." --Chad Millman, Editor-in-Chief of ESPN The Magazine, Author of The Ones Who Hit the Hardest

About the Author

Jim Dent, a longtime award-winning journalist who covered the Dallas Cowboys for eleven years in Fort Worth and Dallas, including a stint at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, has written several books, including The Junction Boys, the New York Times bestseller that was the basis for an ESPN movie and remains a fan favorite, as well as Twelve Mighty Orphans, adapted to film in 2021 starring Luke Wilson. Dent lives in Texas