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Monsters of the Midway 1969: Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll, Viet Nam, Civil Rights, and Football

2017

Synopsis

Alice hates football, but she is attracted to Jack. She wears a beret. He wears a helmet. She is a Chicago feminist. He is a Hoosier farm boy.

The story of the rise and fall of Amos Alonzo Stagg's legendary football dynasty and the 1969 resurrection of University Chicago Football is interwoven with an unlikely love story.

From 1892 until the 1930s the Monsters of the Midway dominated college football. Incredibly, in 1939 the University of Chicago dropped varsity football and later left the Big Ten. But, in 1969 football was back.

The resumption of Chicago football didn't bring the Monsters fully back to life. The resurrected team is called "the worst team in college ball" by People Magazine. Players skip practices and flout NCAA rules. They lose game after game. Their old coach desperately wants his players to experience winning one game before he retires.

Sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, the Draft Lottery, the anti-war movement, and student rebellion on college campuses in 1969 - the University of Chicago is swimming against the cultural tide by resurrecting varsity football. Jack Blair is a small town Hoosier kid who joins the football team for ulterior reasons. In Chicago he encounters characters as diverse as Muhammad Ali and Milton Friedman. And, he falls in love.

The book is inspired by the author's experience of playing on the resurrected University of Chicago Maroons a/k/a the Monsters of the Midway and falling in love at the University of Chicago. Jeff Rasley is the author of ten other books, including False Prophet, a Legal Thriller; Island Adventures; Hero's Journey; and You Have to Get Lost Before You Can Be Found.

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