Monster of the Midway: Bronko Nagurski, the 1943 Chicago Bears, and the Greatest Comeback Ever

by Jim Dent

Book Overview

Jim Dent's Monster of the Midway is the story of football's fiercest competitor, the legendary Bronko Nagurski. From his discovery in the middle of a Minnesota field to his 1943 comeback season at... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312308671
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.1" x 6.4"

Customer Reviews

When Football Players Were Toughest

Jim Dent tells the story of Bronko Nagurski's football career. "Monster of the Midway: Bronko Nagurski, the 1943 Chicago Bears, and the Greatest Comeback Ever" is not a biography. It is about a football player and why he became among the greatest players ever, with special emphasis on one season (1943). Dent, however, can't help but to provide the background of Nagurski's early life. Bronko Nagurski was the Babe Ruth of football. No one was greater, more dominant, more powerful at their sport than Nagurski. Others have played well: We all know about Michael Jordan, Mickey Mantle, and Lance Armstrong, but few have embodied the essence of their sport with such successful excellence. I should mention Muhammad Ali. He often bragged he was the greatest, and he was. Someone needs to make a movie of this story. Bronko began the Hollywood/Horatio Alger as a hardworking, not too complicated future football hero. He had heart and the physical strength size to back it up. Good true football movies are sparse. There's "Rudy" and "Brian's Song," but that's it. A Bronko Nagurski story could add to this short list. Most of the book reads like a docudrama, utilizing storytelling techniques rarely found in sports books. If I were a high school football coach, I would have my players read this book. Bronko Nagurski played the game before the lights shone brightly on the pocketbooks, when the swagger and dance of endzone celebrations were still years away, and the game was still played by big, tough men not pretty enough for white-toothed smiling products endorsements. Nagurski was the kind of player the NFL needs today. I fully recommend "Monster of the Midway: Bronko Nagurski, the 1943 Chicago Bears, and the Greatest Comeback Ever" by Jim Dent. Anthony Trendl editor, HungarianBookstore.com

Pro Football During the 30's and Early 40's

The name Bronko Nagurski. You know this man was not a ballet dancer. This is more than a book about "The Nag" and the Chicago Bears. It is also a book about a number of other old football names I have heard of, but knew nothing about. Sid Luckman, Hunk Anderson, Don Hutson, Johnny "Blood" McNally, Clyde "Bulldog" Turner, Beattie Feathers, George Preston Marshall, Curly Lambeau, Slingin' Sammy Baugh, and, of course, the Papa Bear himself, George Halas. This was a period of players playing both on offense and defense, no hash marks, the fat ball, the quarterback being fair game until a play is blown dead by an official, and other rules that had not been placed into the game. George Preston Marshall, owner of the then Boston Redskins who played in Fenway Park, spoke to the conservative owners about the need to change some rules to jazz up the game to make it more exciting to the public. He was lucky to have a sympathetic listener in George Halas as support for his ideas. The demise of the fat ball made it possible to throw more passes, and put an end to the endless amount of running plays. One of Marshall's best ideas was to split the league into two conferences, and setting up a championship game each year. For all his good ideas, he stated he wanted Negroes out of the game. Black players had been part of the game since 1920, but Marshall's appeal banned black players from further play. Bronko Nagurski played for the Bears throughout the 1937 season, and left the team over a difference of $500 that The Nag and Halas differed over. Nagurski made money wrestling, and eventually came back to play for the Bears during the 1943 season. What surprised me was the number of college coaches such as Amos Alonzo Stagg and Knute Rockne who discouraged college players from entering the professional ranks. In 1990 Nagurski traveled to the Mayo Clinic to fuse bones in his ankles. A doctor asked for an autograph for his son, and The Nag wrote, "To Jeremy--Do Not Play Football. Bronko Nagurski." This is a book filled with colorful anecdotes, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A Study of Idealized American Masculinity

Readers looking for objective history here will be disappointed. Dent is not interested in presenting a critical biography of a public figure. Rather, *Monster of the Midway* is hero worship in its grandest form. Bronko Nagurski is depicted as the toughest man in a world of tough men. Even when hobbled with arthritis in his mid-30s, Nagurski is shown as a intimidating, powerful football player capable of dominating younger, better-conditioned men through sheer force of will. Dent's use of voice in this book adds to both its realism and its characterization of Nagurski and his cohorts. The author's voice is very formal, disdaining the casual language often found in sports biographies. On the other hand, when quoting football men, Dent uses the gruff, unpretentious, occasionally crude dialect that we usually associate with aggressive, masculine athletes. The contrast here is effective. Dent does not try to be "one of the guys", and his implied acknowledgement of the distinction between authors and football players is refreshing.Dent also makes good use of liberal tropes in presenting Nagurski and his Bears as heroic figures. The Bears' 1943 quarterback, Sid Luckman, endured disgusting Anti-Semitic epithets from both opposing fans and players. Dent shows Nagurski and the other Bears exacting retribution for these taunts, with Nagurski himself facing down a bench full of Anti-Semitic spectators in Henry Ford-era Detroit. Their fight against bigotry adds a moral thread to Dent's heroic portrayal of Nagurski's Bears, and it plays well here.Through all this idealization, Dent is never overtly dishonest. He quotes Nagurski as brushing off the more grandiose tales of his prowess, including his shattering of Wrigley Field's brick wall and giving directions in rural Minnesota by pointing with his plow instead of his finger. According to Nagurski, the only thing anyone ever saw him plow was the defensive line. Through all the adulation, one gets the sense that Dent's superhero is not too far removed from the real Bronko after all.

Best book I've ever read on pro football in its golden age.

Bronko Nagurski's comeback with the Chicago Bears in 1943 is just one of the greatest sports stories ever--reading the chapter in which he wins the final regular-season game for them to get into the championship game gave me goosebumps, I swear to God. But I also loved the wonderful atmosphere of the period Dent evokes here, and the many colorful characters--even Al Capone plays a part.If you've ever read the great Junction Boys, you know what a wonderful writer Jim Dent is. This is his best since that book. I highly recommend it.

Mesmerizing Midway

On the strength of Jim Dent's other books, I preordered "Monster Of The Midway". The story of Bronko Nagurski, the early years of the Chicago Bears and the NFL is fascinating. However the book is much more. Dent's exhaustive research is evident. He has artfully woven the Nagurski story with a lot of the history and characters of the day. The birth of the NFL, George Halas, prohibition, Al Capone, gambling, the depression, Red Grange, college football and much more are included. Each page creates vivid word pictures that take you back in time and let you experience places like International Falls, Minnesota and Wrigley Field of old as you become acquainted with legends, their incredible stories and a captivating portion of upper Midwest history. Highly recommended.