Historical Dictionary of Football [Hardcover]

Gridiron football or American football or just plain football is the most popular sport in the United States in the 21st century. Although attempts have been made to develop the sport outside North America, it is still predominantly a North American sport with similar games (but significant rules differences) played in the United States and Canada.

The Historical Dictionary of Football covers the history of American football through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 600 cross-referenced entries on both amateur (collegiate) and professional players, coaches, teams and executives from all eras. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the sport of football.

John Grasso is an Olympic historian, he has been Treasurer of the International Society of Olympic Historians (ISOH) since 2004, and is a member of the Association for Professional Basketball Research (APBR), the North American Society for Sport History (NASSH), the Professional Football Researchers Association (PFRA) and was the founder of the International Boxing Research Organization (IBRO) in 1982. He is the author of Historical Dictionary of Basketball (Scarecrow, 2010), and Historical Dictionary of Tennis (Scarecrow, 2011).

In over 600 entries on collegiate and professional American football players, coaches, teams, leagues, and executives, Grasso (independent scholar) addresses the history of the sport. Individual entries are up to two pages long and have boldface cross-references to other articles. The book begins with a historical chronology of football and a good introductory essay that should provide novices with a basic understanding of this predominantly North American sport. Biographical entries include date and place of birth and death (if deceased); they offer narrative descriptions of players' football careers without including individual seasol“!