• Hi Guest, want to participate in the discussions, keep track of read/unread posts and more? Create your free account and increase the benefits of your eGriz.com experience today!

Must-read book for fans of college football

Here's another good and more recent book. "The Mosquito Bowl". Written by the author of Friday Night Lights. Former Griz Bill Lazetich is mentioned in the book. Bill was Pete's dad and longtime hoops coach at Billings Senior. He and my dad were good friends at UM.

"The Mosquito Bowl was a spirited, semi-organized football game on Guadalcanal between the 29th and Fourth Regiments of the Sixth Marine Division, which included a remarkable 16 players who had either been drafted or would receive offers to play professionally. The game, played on Christmas Eve 1944 with at least 1,500 Marines watching, is both a pretext and an organizing principle for the book, but its significance fades as Bissinger explores the fates of several participants.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/13/books/review/buzz-bissinger-mosquito-bowl.html

“The Mosquito Bowl is not just a book about war. It is, instead, about the men who fought that war. The author brings us rich details about their lives, their hopes, their dreams, and their aspirations, many of which were either delayed, derailed, or destroyed on Okinawa.”

In a piece of forgotten history, on Christmas Eve of 1944, shortly before one of the deadliest battles of World War II, an improbable football game took place. It was a game that many of us likely have never heard about. But now, thanks to Buzz Bissinger’s The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II, that little-known contest is thrust front and center.

On that day, former college football players serving in the 29th and 4th Regiments of the 6th Marine Division faced off on the gridiron on the hard-won island of Guadalcanal. Of the 65 men who played that day, more than 50 percent would become casualties a few months later on Okinawa, including 15 killed."

https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/mosquito-bowl-game-life
 
Back
Top