Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside World War II, Army's Undefeated Teams, and College Football's Greatest Backfield Duo

by Cavanaugh, Jack; Dawkins, Pete

• ISBN13: 9781600789298
• ISBN10: 1600789293
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-09-01
• Publisher: Triumph Books

Summary

Heisman Trophy winners Glenn Davis and Felix Blanchard—renowned during their playing days at West Point as “Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside”—were the best-known college football players in the country between 1944 and 1946, and Army was the nation’s top-ranked team under legendary coach Red Blaik. Acclaimed author Jack Cavanaugh takes readers through the Black Knights’ three consecutive National Championship seasons, including the 1946 “Game of the Century” between Army and Notre Dame, the only college game to date to have included four Heisman Trophy winners. Cavanaugh also examines the impact the war had on Army’s success—because its players were already considered to be in the military and thus deferred from active duty while students at West Point, Army featured many outstanding high school and prep school players in those years. A unique look at the changes that took place in sports and almost every aspect of American life in the wake of World War II, this book a must-read for fans of college football and military buffs in addition to Army fans.

Author Biography

Jack Cavanaugh is a veteran sportswriter whose work has appeared most notably on the sports pages of The New York Times, for which he covered hundreds of assignments over 25 years. He was a news reporter for ABC for five years and CBS for two years, and was an adjunct professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Cavanaugh is the author of five other books, including Season of '42, Giants Among Men, The Gipper, Damn the Disabilities, Full Speed Ahead!, and Tunney, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in biography. In addition, Cavanaugh has been a frequent contributor to Sports Illustrated and has written for Reader’s Digest, Tennis and Golf magazines as well as other national publications. He lives with his wife, Marge, in Connecticut. Pete Dawkins was an All-American halfback for Army who won the 1958 Heisman Trophy and the 1958 Maxwell Award. A Rhodes Scholar, he served with the 82nd Airborne and won two Bronze Stars for valor in Vietnam. After a 24-year career in the Army, he retired as a Brigadier General in 1983 and moved on to a successful business career.