Jack Gilden‘s Collision of Wills: Johnny Unitas, Don Shula and the Rise of the Modern NFL is the story of the last great mystery in the NFL, the contentious relationship between the league’s greatest coach and player. Unitas and Shula were the Brady and Belichick of their era, big winners and tough men. But their inability to get along, a mystery to their adoring fans and their closest friends, cost them dearly in the biggest of games. An intense work of journalism that includes personal interviews with historic figures such as Don Shula, Joe Namath, Gay Talese, and many others. University of Nebraska Press, October, 1st 2018. Buy now.
Praise for Collision of Wills:
“Gilden’s detailed book captures the excitement of the Unitas-led Colts drives and provides a glimpse into one of pro football’s greatest player-coach relationships.”
–Publisher’s Weekly
“Gilden’s book offers a detailed look at the Colts and the relationship between Unitas and Shula for hometown fans of the sport, but for anyone interested in a compelling, comprehensive and poetic take on the tumultuous 1950s and ‘60s through a pro-football prism, Gilden’s book kicks it through the goalposts.” -Susan Ingram, Baltimore Jewish Times
“Gilden uncovers much that we never suspected, in a book about two of the most legendary figures the game has ever known…doggedly reported and sharply revealing.” -Michael Olesker, Baltimore Post Examiner
“The book well chronicles their deeply intertwined careers, including substantial interviews with former Colts greats.” -Baltimore Magazine
“…presents well-rounded portaits of Shula, Unitas, and other principals such as owner Carroll Rosenbloom, and players Tom Matte and Raymond Berry . . . . Very much worth reading.” – Library Journal
Jack on writing Collision of Wills: UNP BLOG
Select appearances:
105.7 The Fan
Sports Radio
Hosts Scott Garceau and Jeremy Conn ask the questions and elicit long-lost stories from Collision of Wills about the roots of conflict between Johnny Unitas and Don Shula.
Mad Dog Russo
Mad Dog Radio/Sirius XM November 7, 2018
Jack Gilden visits the studio of New York’s sports talk radio king for a wide-ranging interview.
Dr. Chris Lamb
The story of how a seemingly mild act of protest became part of a much bigger struggle for racial equality during the early years of the Civil Rights Movement. The Cannon Street YMCA All-Stars was South Carolina’s first black Little League team, its charter approved in 1953. To the young boys in the league it meant they could play on a real field, with real uniforms and equipment. But it meant more than that to the team’s founder, Robert Morrison. He dreamed that the team could become a vehicle for change–if youth baseball could be integrated, so could other institutions.
When the 11- and 12-year-olds registered for a tournament in July 1955, it became clear just how hard that change might come. White teams refused to take the field with the Cannon Street team. Segregationists denied the boys their dream of playing in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Cannon Street all-stars spent decades trying to forget that day. It would not be clear to them until they were middle-aged men that they were part of something much larger.
Praise for Stolen Dreams
“…meticulously documents an important moment, and team, that few people will know but should. It’s about the collision of racism and baseball, years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, and shows just how far Blacks had left to go to be accepted in America’s pastime. Lamb writes this story with affection, grace, and skill.”—Mike Freeman, editor of race and inequality at USA Today
“Chris Lamb takes a forgotten baseball tournament and a forgotten moment in the civil rights struggle and spins them into an unforgettable story, proving, as Martin Luther King Jr. might have said, that the long arc of a batted ball bends toward justice. With impressive research and sharp insight, Lamb illustrates once again the important role baseball plays in understanding and shaping American culture.”—Jonathan Eig, best-selling author of Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Season
“Sports is a brilliant and bracing window for understanding Jim Crow segregation in the South. With this book, Chris Lamb uncovers a narrative in this history that few readers will know: a history of racism, injustice, baseball, and the kids crushed by the hatreds of adults. I can’t recommend this book enough. It speaks to the past brilliantly, but it also speaks to our troubled present. A necessary and important read.”—Dave Zirin, author of The Kaepernick Effect: Taking a Knee, Changing the World
“Lamb has presented Little League Baseball as a microcosm of Jim Crowism with so many history lessons of shame, sadness, and racial injustices propagated by the white majority. Lamb fires cannon shots with explosive narratives about Octavius Catto, Judge J. Waties Waring, Isaac Woodard, Robert Morrison, Robert Small, Frazier B. Baker, and others. This narrative is one of the most comprehensive examinations of the Lost Cause obsession for control in America.”—Larry Lester, Negro League Baseball historian and author
“Chris Lamb’s thorough and eloquent account embodies the best tradition of civil rights scholarship, exposing America’s long history of racism, particularly in Charleston, a city built literally on the backs of enslaved people. Redemptive at its core, Stolen Dreams reminds us of all of the importance of telling the stories of African Americans that have so often been erased, forgotten, or neglected.”—Marjory Wentworth, South Carolina poet laureate, 2003–20
Middle Grade fiction
Spring 2021 from Regal House Publishing/ Fitzroy Books
In 1910, twelve-year-old Savannah Dawson lives with her widowed father Caleb on a whaling station in New South Wales, Australia. A Scottish lassie with a temper to boot, Savannah yearns for the bright lights of Paradise. But she’s stuck across Reflect Bay on the Doddstown side where, “no one ever says they’re from.” On top of that, for generations the Dawson family has used orcas to hunt whales. Savannah believes these orcas hunted something else – her older brothers. Despite Caleb’s objections, she wants to become a whaler to avenge them and carry on the family legacy. But no one wants a girl in a whaleboat. Meeting an aboriginal boy, Figgie, changes that.
Figgie helps Savannah hone her whaling skills and develop her artistic talents. When she is finally able to join the crew, a whale destroys her boat. Savannah sinks into the shark-infested waters when a mysterious orca Jungay returns to rescue her. Savannah starts questioning everything she thought she knew about the orcas, her family and herself. She vows to protect the pod. That vow tests her mettle when Arizona Bittermen, daughter of the rapacious fishing fleet owner, shows up at school. Arizona tricks Savannah into helping capture the orcas her father Jacob plans to slaughter. Savannah has lost one family and she’s determined not to lose another.
Catch a glimpse of Jerry’s inventive writing process at Fitzroy Books blog
Praise for The Whaler’s Daughter
Mikorenda creates authentic characters who carry the story’s mix of humorous and meaningful moments as change comes to their community, along with revelations and understanding. His writing style successfully captures a period and place on the precipice of the modern world, and middle-grade readers will appreciate the glossary, which brings greater depth to the language used.” —Booklist
“Jerry Mikorenda’s first novel for young adults, The Whaler’s Daughter, ticks all the boxes: a fascinating saga that takes place in a faraway place and time featuring a courageous and ambitious young heroine who aspires to more. Twelve-year-old Savannah Dawson’s efforts to earn a place on her father’s whaling boat at the turn of the twentieth century in Australia will inspire twenty-first-century readers to hold fast in their quest to attain their dreams. A rollicking good story!” —Karen Dionne, award-winning bestselling author of The Wicked Sister
“In The Whaler’s Daughter, main character Savannah Dawson’s engaging honesty and rollicking energy sweep readers up in this coming-of-age adventure. Jerry Mikorenda’s YA novel debut delivers a touching, funny, sometimes gritty, always heartfelt ride.” —A. M. Jenkins, author of the Delacorte Prize-winning novel Breaking Boxes and the Printz Honor Book Repossessed.
From editors Chris Lamb and Will Moredock comes a clever new collection of great political comebacks, putdowns, and ripostes. Chronicle Books
As we reflect on the previous year in politics, it’s easy to recall all the ugly rancor, the insults, the partisan bickering, the division. Sadly, it’s not likely to let up. Wouldn’t it be nice to read a light-hearted, measured, and humorous antidote to all this? How about a bi-partisan book showcasing the best of political wit through a collection of spontaneous comebacks, insightful essays, and delightful political cartoons that celebrate great statesmen and women from the founding fathers to Hilary Clinton? This book is exactly that.
Lamb and Moredock have compiled more than 300 memorable comebacks for this book. They aren’t scripted jokes, but off-the-cuff responses. Some are famous, such as VP candidate Lloyd Bentson’s remark to Dan Quayle: “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.” Or Ann Richard’s quip about George H.W. Bush: “Poor George. He can’t help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth.”
Others are less well known: During a stop in the 1992 presidential campaign, Bill Clinton was introduced as the most intelligent of the candidates. Clinton observed wryly, “Isn’t that like calling Moe the most intelligent of The Stooges?”
The editors have discovered other hidden gems. Take for example Lady Astor’s response during a debate on agriculture in the House of Commons when Winston Churchill interrupted to question her knowledge of farming. “I’ll make a bet she doesn’t even know how many toes a pig has,” Churchill said.
“Why don’t you take off your little shoesies and we’ll count them together?” Astor replied.
But the book is more than a compilation of witty remarks. Also included are essays that examine the value and risk of humor in politics. Some politicians, like Abraham Lincoln, used their humor to advance their political careers, others were able to permanently silence their rivals, while others were hated for their acid wit. In some cases, their sharp words may have changed history.
Middle Grade Fiction.
The story of eleven-year-old Caroline Panski, growing up in 1950’s Baltimore with the unusual dream to play ice hockey. But, as the neighborhood boys—and her mother—tell her: Boys play hockey; girls figure skate. Caroline is not one to give up on anything easily. She navigates her little world with will and determination. But her little world is soon made much bigger by the fact that her father is fighting in Korea, and when her school is integrated, she develops a crush on an African-American classmate. Amphorae Publishing, Fall 2018.
Praise for Spitfire
“Caroline Panski defies the norms—and the odds—to be the fiercest girl on ice! Moving, relevant, and utterly engaging, Spitfire inspires us all to fight for what matters: friendship and love.” -Elissa Brent Weissman, bestselling author of the popular Nerd Camp series.