Big League City! 100 Years of Football in Jacksonville

[Metro Jacksonville]

Big League City! 100 Years of Football in Jacksonville



Big League City! 100 Years of Football in Jacksonville, the new book by Metro Jacksonville member Ken Bowen, chronicles Jacksonville’s unmatched gridiron fervor, from Florida’s first college football game held in the wake of the Great Fire of 1901, to the birth of the Florida-Georgia game and the Gator Bowl Classic, to the numerous professional teams from long-forgotten leagues that have called Jacksonville home, through the new era of Jaguars football currently underway. Years in the making with research drawn from thousands of sources and featuring an exclusive foreword written by Jaguars owner Shad Khan, Big League City! is the most in-depth book ever written on Jacksonville’s football history.

Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2014-jul-big-league-city-100-years-of-football-in-jacksonville

[JaxNative68]

I'll will have to check this book out.  Jacksonville unquestionably has a bizarre football history.  I still have the exact Sharks pennant shown in the article, along with the one from the Express (the team that replaced the sharks in '75). I think I kept them for novelty since the both teams only last a year each.

[Ocklawaha]

Damn man! I was quite the fan in the days of the WFL (Sharks and Express)  and USFL leagues, attending games from Orlando to Portland (where we predictably got stomped in what turned out to be the last game ever played in the WFL. These were the days before the internet, and I kept a scrapbook of virtually every news or magazine clipping, programs or press releases. It was freaking huge. When I finally gave up on the addiction and pretty much on Jacksonville ever becoming 'A Big League City,' around 1982, I gave the whole thing to a neighbor as I moved to Orlando. I do have a lot of fond fan memories of the games and still own a complete set of WFL team coasters for the coffee table. Great to see this book come out, I just wish now that I'd kept all of that cool stuff as it should have been in our historical society... but who knew?

[Tacachale]

I was privileged to read some of the early drafts of this book while Ken was writing it. This is easily the best work available for one of the most distinctive features of Jacksonville history - our long relationship with the game of football. Plus some nice quotes from my old man. Excellent work by one of the Metro Jacksonville regulars.

[urbanlibertarian]

I was in the Gator Bowl the night Jacksonville caught Colt Fever and Bob Irsay and Jake Godbold landed on the field in a helicopter.

[duvaldude08]

I was privileged to read some of the early drafts of this book while Ken was writing it. This is easily the best work available for one of the most distinctive features of Jacksonville history - our long relationship with the game of football. Plus some nice quotes from my old man. Excellent work by one of the Metro Jacksonville regulars.

I read some drafts also. They are actually still in my inbox and Ive read them several times LOL Great work Ken! Im definately getting the book

[Wacca Pilatka]

I can't wait to read this.  I loved the 2004 Publix-sponsored "Jacksonville Football History" book that was done for the 10th anniversary of the Jaguars and the pending Super Bowl, but this sounds much more comprehensive!

[KenFSU]

Thanks guys, very much appreciated. Really enjoyed putting this book together over the last two and a half years, and I hope you all get a chance to check it out

[Wacca Pilatka]

Nice to put a face with the name as well.

[civil42806]

Ordered my copy today

[Rynjny]

just ordered me a copy today!

[Editor99]

".. the team was annexed from the league. "

There is no definition of the word "annexed" that makes that sentence grammatically correct.

Also, Kansas City Chiefs, not Kansas City Chief's. You don't make a plural with an apostrophe, or a possessive with one before the s.

[KenFSU]

Ordered my copy today

just ordered me a copy today!

Thanks so much guys, much appreciated.

".. the team was annexed from the league. "

There is no definition of the word "annexed" that makes that sentence grammatically correct.

Also, Kansas City Chiefs, not Kansas City Chief's. You don't make a plural with an apostrophe, or a possessive with one before the s.

Good catch.

I've ordered a recall on the book.

[Ocklawaha]

Touché! x1000

[Redbaron616]

Nothing at all against football. Against millionaires showing up with a sports team and  sticking the taxpayers with a fat bill while the millionaire get the profits. Worst, many taxpayers don't seem to mind. Get your priorities straight, folks.