Download or read book Dat written by Dat Nguyen and published by Swaim-Paup Sports Series, Spon. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a quintessentially American game, for an organization often called America's Team, Dat Nguyen stands as the first player of Vietnamese descent ever to play in the NFL. Yet if asked for his job description, he would probably answer simply, "I tackle." He tackled so well at Rockport-Fulton (Texas) High School that he earned a scholarship to Texas A&M University, becoming the first Vietnamese American football player in school history. As part of the storied "Wrecking Crew," Nguyen's tackling earned him All-American honors and led the Aggies to their first Big 12 title. And, even though he was once deemed too small to play middle linebacker in the NFL, he has earned All-Pro recognition with the Dallas Cowboys. For Dat Nguyen, though, tackling the various obstacles of life--not just running backs--gives him the most pride. He learned how to tackle life from his parents, who narrowly escaped from the North Vietnamese Army in 1975. Nguyen offers the story of his faith, his family, and his career, a true story of the American dream lived out, as an inspiration to others. He recounts his father's decision to flee Vietnam; the boat trip that took his family to freedom; and their eventual settling in Rockport, Texas, where a community of Vietnamese shrimpers established an economic livelihood using skills brought from the old country. He describes the racism his family encountered while he was growing up and how the friendship of one young Caucasian boy and his family overcame prejudice through an invitation to participate in sports. Nguyen's insightful look into the life of a big-time football player offers first-hand glimpses of the personalities and playing (or coaching) styles of many celebrated stars of college football and the NFL. His stories offer excitement, romance (as he pursues his college sweetheart, now his wife), faith, fatherhood, and humor. Dat is a lively, engaging story of growing up in a refugee family, of big-time football, and of human struggle and success.

Download or read book College Sports Traditions written by Stan Beck and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2013-09-19 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every year since 1961, football and basketball players at Middlebury College in Vermont pick up their wheelchair-bound fan, Butch, and bring him to the stadium sidelines to watch their games. At John Brown University, the volleyball team distributes candy to fans before each match. For years, fans attending a University of Maryland football game rubbed the bronze statue of their terrapin mascot, Testudo. Traditions like these are visible statements of school loyalty, and they are part of why college sports are unforgettable. College Sports Traditions: Picking Up Butch, Silent Night, and Hundreds of Others details not only the well-known traditions of major universities, but also the obscure customs of smaller schools. Approximately 1,200 traditions are captured, covering almost every college sport. It depicts such traditions as The Ohio State University’s “Script Ohio,” University of Kansas’s “Waving the Wheat,” Linfield College’s “End Zone Couches,” and even a list of traditions that involve streaking. The wide variety of traditions covered in this book are grouped thematically, including: Before the game During the game After a score After the game Mascot traditions Preseason traditions Traditions probably not university sanctioned Rivalries Yells, cheers, and chants From the crazy and eccentric to the touching and meaningful, these traditions connect fans and athletes across generations. The first of its kind, this comprehensive volume encompasses hundreds of universities and colleges throughout the U.S. Featuring 75 photos that bring many of these events to life, College Sports Traditions will be an entertaining read for every sports fan.

Download or read book Aggie Spirit 101 written by Barry Bauerschlag and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2016-03-08 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you have ever visited Aggieland you may have fallen in love with the Aggie Spirit, the unique traditions which promote it, and the Aggie family which embodies it. You might want to better understand the role of their somewhat strange rituals, and access the blessings of their devotion. In Aggie Spirit 101: Greater Love, the author explores the treasured traditions of Texas A&M, the values they transmit and the timeless wisdom they hold in common with the Christian faith. Are there shared fruits of the Holy Spirit and the Aggie Spirit? And how can we be a good Aggie and a better Christian at the same time? Aggie Spirit 101: Greater Love is a contribution to this dialogue. In reading, reflection, and discussion discover a clearer path in this pilgrimage toward spiritual maturity and significant service. Develop the deeper joys of shared encouragement, and the blessings of a leadership of integrity and excellence, compassion and accountability, hospitality and hard work, courage and cooperation, loyalty and greater love!

Download or read book Champion of the Barrio written by R. Gaines Baty and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2015-02-09 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Buryl Baty (1924–1954) was a winning athlete, coach, builder of men, and an early pioneer in the fight against bigotry. In 1950, Baty became head football coach at Bowie High School in El Paso and quickly inspired his athletes, all Mexican Americans from the Segundo Barrio, with his winning ways and his personal stand against the era’s extreme, deep-seated bigotry—to which they were subjected. However, just as the team was in a position to win a third district title in 1954, they were jolted by an unthinkable tragedy that turned their world upside down. Later, as mature adults, these players realized that Coach Baty had helped mold them into honorable and successful men, and forty-four years after the coach’s death, they dedicated their high school stadium in his name. In 2013, Baty was inducted posthumously into the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame. In this poignant memoir, R. Gaines Baty also describes his own journey to get to know his father. Coach Baty’s life story is portrayed from the perspectives of nearly one hundred individuals who knew him, in addition to many documented facts and news reports.

Download or read book What It Means to Be an Aggie written by Rusty Burson and published by What It Means to Be. This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the 12th Man to the Aggie Bonfire to the Midnight Yell, the football traditions at Texas A&M are an important part of the school's educational experience. Recalling eight exciting decades of football, What It Means to Be an Aggie turns to the men who played in College Station and asks them to share, in their own words, their favorite Texas A&M gridiron memories. Former stars from Jack Pardee to Bucky Richardson to Quentin Coryatt bring to life some of the greatest moments in Aggie football history. Just as important, they reveal the life-changing values they acquired at Texas A&M--loyalty, service, commitment to teammates, and much more--that helped them succeed once they walked off the football field.--

Download or read book I ll Tell You When You re Good written by David Walker and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2011-06-17 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If there's anyone who could say,"I didn't sign up for this," it's Texas A&M quarterback David Walker. This is the incredible story of Walker's demanding, provocative, bitterly fought career, and the most miraculous comeback of all time. Now the hardest-fighting Fightin' Texas Aggie who ever lived reveals his life as the A&M Field General inside the cold-blooded arena of college football.Join fans now in discovering the most disturbingly fascinating career in NCAA history with the youngster who lived it, including unique stories of a superb high school coach and the all-time game-changers for Aggie football, the Wishbone Gang! Walker is the only college-level quarterback to ever publish a book based on his experiences in amateur athletics, and remains the youngest starting college quarterback ever. He held the single-season passing record at Sulphur High for 40 years and the single-game QB rushing record at Texas A&M for 35 years; a true dual-threat quarterback. Enjoy the flavor of Southwest Louisiana and the adopted Texas swagger in his unique voice as he takes you down a one-of-a-kind path you could never imagine possible in the modern era of college football. In so doing you will uncover what may be the best amateur sports story of all time how David Walker met the greatest challenge in NCAA history.

Download or read book Battle of the Brazos written by T. G. Webb and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-30 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During halftime of the October 30, 1926, football game between Baylor University and the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, a massive riot erupted between the two student bodies that resulted in the death of Texas A&M senior cadet Charles Sessums. Though various newspaper articles have chronicled this infamous “cold case” over the last ninety years, none has placed the riot in its proper context, nor has any official determination ever identified the person responsible for Sessums’s death. T. G. Webb has pored over related historic documents, including contemporary newspaper accounts, records in the library archives of both universities, personal correspondence of the victim’s family, and the original report of the Pinkerton detective hired by Texas A&M to investigate the incident. In Battle of the Brazos, Webb examines and explains the riot, its origins, and its aftermath, untangling many enduring myths that grew up around the event over the years to establish the definitive record. He allows readers to witness the heart-breaking arrival of Cadet Sessums’s parents at the Waco train station as they came to receive the body of their deceased son, and he places readers amid the swirl of charges, recriminations, and allegations that clouded the atmosphere at both Texas A&M and Baylor. Most significantly, Webb provides previously unpublished indications of a cover-up designed to shield the killer’s identity from public knowledge. This “historical whodunit” is a must-read for sports fans and historians, devotees of “leather-helmet” football, local history buffs, and Texas football enthusiasts alike.

Download or read book Cloyce Box 6 4 and Bulletproof written by Michael Barr and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2017-10-16 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cloyce Box was an American original. He was handsome, athletic, intelligent, and ambitious, and his life was the stuff of which dreams and miniseries are made. Starting out as a dirt-poor farm boy from the Texas backcountry, he used his great talents to become a star in the National Football League, a corporate CEO, and a very wealthy man. He was fearless, flamboyant, and controversial. His story is an epic Texas tale of football, cattle, horses, oil, money, power, incredible success, and spectacular failure. The ranch he owned near Frisco, Texas, became famous as the fictional Southfork Ranch on the hit television show Dallas. Financial over-reaching eventually cost him his fortune, just before his death in 1993. With access to Cloyce Box’s personal files and photographs as well as the assistance of his subject’s family and friends, Michael Barr has crafted a biography that is at once clear-eyed and sensitive, allowing the complex character of Cloyce Box to engage and challenge the reader.

Download or read book Houston Cougars in the 1960s written by Robert D. Jacobus and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-11 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On January 20, 1968, the University of Houston Cougars upset the UCLA Bruins, ending a 47-game winning streak. Billed as the “Game of the Century,” the defeat of the UCLA hoopsters was witnessed by 52,693 fans and a national television audience—the first-ever regular-season game broadcast nationally. But the game would never have happened if Houston coach Guy Lewis had not recruited two young black men from Louisiana in 1964: Don Chaney and Elvin Hayes. Despite facing hostility both at home and on the road, Chaney and Hayes led the Cougars basketball team to 32 straight victories. Similarly in Cougar football, coach Bill Yeoman recruited Warren McVea in 1964, and by 1967 McVea had helped the Houston gridiron program lead the nation in total offense. Houston Cougars in the 1960s features the first-person accounts of the players, the coaches, and others involved in the integration of collegiate athletics in Houston, telling the gripping story of the visionary coaches, the courageous athletes, and the committed supporters who blazed a trail not only for athletic success but also for racial equality in 1960s Houston.

Download or read book American Sports and the Great War written by Peter C. Stewart and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2021-02-15 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on newspaper accounts, college yearbooks and the recollections of veterans, this book examines the impact of World War I on sports in the U.S. As young men entered the military in large numbers, many colleges initially considered suspending athletics but soon turned to the idea of using sports to build morale and physical readiness. Recruits, mostly in their twenties, ended up playing more baseball and football than they would have in peacetime. Though most college athletes volunteered for military duty, others replaced them so that the reduction of competition was not severe. Pugilism gained participants as several million men learned how to box.

Download or read book The Entrepreneurial Spirit of Aggieland written by Rusty Burson and published by Dog Ear Publishing. This book was released on 2017-08-07 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A book unlike any other Aggie-related publication, The Entrepreneurial Spirit of Aggieland details the insightful, fascinating and inspirational stories of twelve Aggies who’ve chased their entrepreneurial dreams, conquered obstacles and succeeded beyond their wildest imaginations. Their stories will serve as a roadmap to success for current and former Texas A&M students with their own entrepreneurial dreams, as each first-person narrative features advice to aspiring entrepreneurs. These innovators have walked the Texas A&M campus and achieved tremendous success, and they each believe you can, too! Every penny of proceeds from book sales will be donated to Startup Aggieland, a multidisciplinary business incubator and accelerator devoted to helping current Aggies pursue their dreams. This is truly a one-of-a-kind book designed to propel current and former students to reach their entrepreneurial goals!

Download or read book Dat written by Dat Nguyen and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents the author's first-hand account of his experiences playing football in the NFL, the first player of Vietnamese descent to achieve that goal, and includes information on his faith, his family, and his career.

Download or read book The Fightin Texas Aggie Band written by Mary Jo Powell and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2019-08-19 with total page 683 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: They always win the halftime. Members of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band, embodying the spirit, camaraderie, and excellence of the school they represent, have marched and played proudly for 125 years. Here is the story of the music, the precision, and the tradition of the exceptional band that marches to the beat pulsing through the spirit of Aggieland. Illustrated throughout with historical and contemporary images, this lively history pays tribute to the bandmasters and musicians who have made this organization the pride of Aggies everywhere. Organized around the tenure of its founder, Joseph Holick, and its directors—Richard J. Dunn, E. V. Adams, Joe T. Haney, Ray E. Toler, and Timothy B. Rhea—the book marches through 125 years of tradition and excellence. From the birth of the band, through the development of its marching style, to its most recent triumphs of precision maneuvers and military music, the story is as bold and bright as the band itself. War years, fish bands, boots, band lyres, corps trips, parades, and other traditions known and loved by former band members and other former students of Texas A&M University fill the book’s pages. An appendix lists all of the band’s eight thousand–plus present and former members. This is the story of the determination, discipline, and enduring pride that rests deep in the heart of those young men and women who have been tough enough, proud enough, and good enough to be the noble men and women of Kyle.

Download or read book UC Davis 2012 written by Korey Hlaudy and published by College Prowler. This book was released on 2011-03-15 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Littlest Aggie written by Sheila C. Henderson and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Backyard Brawl written by W. K. Stratton and published by Three Rivers Press. This book was released on 2003-09-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An entertaining overview of the nearly one-hundred-year football rivalry between the University of Texas and Texas A&M explores this serious feud, which culminates in a yearly clash between the two teams, and what it means in terms of Texas politics, business, and culture. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.

Download or read book Big Time Sports in American Universities written by Charles T. Clotfelter and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-21 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book expands on the argument that spectator sports, despite their problems, have become a central function of American universities.