One Great Game - by Don Wallace (Paperback)

About the Book

In the tradition of H.G. Bissinger's classic "Friday Night Lights," veteran journalist Don Wallace takes on an incredible, exciting sports story--the first-ever national high-school football championship--and brings this fierce competition to life.

Book Synopsis

For more than a century, no Number 1 and Number 2 high schoolfootball team had ever met -- until October 6, 2001
One Great Game
This is the story of two teams -- Concord De La Salle, a private Catholic school in an upscale Northern California suburb, and Long Beach Poly, a proud public institution from a blue-collar SoCal seaport -- striving to achieve the same goal: the all-American dream.
In this supercharged account of the first-ever national high-school championship game, acclaimed sports journalist -- and former Poly varsity football player -- Don Wallace goes out onto the field and straight into the heart of each team. One Great Game offers a rare look at the world of young-adult sportsmanship, featuring up-close and personal interviews with the team players and their families, coaches and cheerleaders, rabid fans and sworn enemies. The result is a powerful piece of sports literature in the tradition of the classic Friday Night Lights. More than a book about football, One Great Game is an engaging cultural history about twenty-first-century American life.

Review Quotes

"[E]njoyable....Wallace gives an evenhanded account while conveying the excitement the game created."
-- Sports Illustrated

"A behind-the-scenes look at the players and coaches...as well as a play-by-play analysis of the big game itself."
-- The New York Times

"Wallace deserves credit for a historic record of a game that won't soon be forgotten."
-- The Los Angeles Times

About the Author

Don Wallace is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in Harper's, The New York Times, and dozens of other publications. A graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, he is the Michener Prize-winning author of the novels Hot Water and Log of Matthew Roving. He lives in New York City with his family