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In the 1870s, Gus Hornsby spread the game of American football around the world like an evangelist and helped establish it in the U.S. heartland. Hornsby seemed destined for greatness as a journalist, inventor, explorer and entrepreneur. His arrogance, greed and an intractable gambling addiction, however, drove him to criminality and cast him into obscurity. But this public ruin led to his greatest accomplishment in prison: personal redemption.
Surprisingly, Hornsby's meteoric rise and fall intersected with towering influencers of the time, including the women and men who would pioneer the "first-wave" feminist movement in the United States. This book explores their unexpected connections and interweaves their stories--along with details of the first American football game in the Midwest--to reveal elements of a pivotal moment in American history, both in feminism and sports. More than a biography of a person, it is a story about America--brash, imaginative and seemingly limitless in resources and creativity, but overly self-assured and wildly reckless.
List of contents
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Preface
Introduction: A Gambler at the Rubicon
Part One: The Football
Game Day, 6:30 a.m.
Chapter 1. 1846: India
Game Day, 9:00 a.m.
Chapter 2. 1866: Madras
Game Day: A Glimpse of Evanston, Illinois, at High Noon
Chapter 3. 1873: America
Game Day, 1:00 p.m.
Chapter 4. 1875: Chicago
Game Day, 2:00 p.m.
Chapter 5. 1876: Chicago
Part Two: The Fraud
Game Day, 3:05 p.m.
Chapter 6. 1882: St. Paul
Game Day, 3:10 p.m.
Chapter 7. 1888: Chicago
Game Day, 3:25 p.m.
Chapter 8. 1892: St. Paul
Game Day, 3:30 p.m.
Chapter 9. 1893: Hastings
Game Day, 3:45 p.m.
Chapter 10. 1893: Stillwater
Game Day, 3:55 p.m.
Chapter 11. 1895: St. Paul
Game Day, 4:05 p.m.
Chapter 12. The Precipice of the American Century
Game Day, 5:30 p.m.
Chapter 13. 1926: Evanston
Game Day, Night
Chicago Foot-Ball Club : List of Known Members, 1875-1878
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Larry LaTourette works as a consumer insights and marketing analytics expert. For over twenty years, he has pursued historical research, exploring the roots of American football and the people who brought it to us. He lives in the Chicago area.
Summary
More than a biography of a person navigating nineteenth-century America, this is a story about America - brash, imaginative and seemingly limitless in resources and creativity, but overly self-assured and wildly reckless.
