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Everybody's All-american
Gavin Grey is everyone's All-American. A star running back at the University of North Carolina in the late 1950s, he graces the covers of Time and LIFE magazines and appears on the "Ed Sullivan Show." Everyone wants a piece of him or to be around him to bask in his glory, including his nephew Donny, who narrates the story and is Gavin's only real confidant.After college, Gavin goes on to the NFL where he has a solid career. As his playing days wind down and the cheering stops, however, he finds the adjustment to life as an ex-athlete difficult to accept. His wife "Babs" goes off to work, becomes the primary breadwinner for the family while Gavin continues to trade on his memories of old times, when he was everybody's All-American.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
15 people are currently reading
141 people want to read
About the author
Frank Deford
39 books58 followersFrank Deford (born December 16, 1938, in Baltimore, Maryland) is a senior contributing writer for Sports Illustrated, author, and commentator.
DeFord has been writing for Sports Illustrated since the early 1960s. In addition to his Sports Illustrated duties, he is also a correspondent for HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and a regular, Wednesday commentator for National Public Radio's Morning Edition.
His 1981 novel, "Everybody's All-American," was named one of Sports Illustrated's Top 25 Sports Books of All Time and was later made into a movie directed by Taylor Hackford and starring Dennis Quaid.
In the early 1990s Deford took a brief break from NPR and other professional activities to serve as editor-in-chief of The National (newspaper), a short-lived, daily U.S. sports newspaper. It debuted January 31, 1990 and folded after eighteen months. The newspaper was published Sundays through Fridays and had a tabloid format.
Deford is also the chairman emeritus of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He became involved in cystic fibrosis education and advocacy after his daughter, Alexandra ("Alex") was diagnosed with the illness in the early 1970s. After Alex died on January 19, 1980, at the age of eight, Deford chronicled her life in the memoir Alex: The Life of a Child. The book was made into a movie starring Craig T. Nelson and Bonnie Bedelia in 1986. In 1997, it was reissued in an expanded edition, with updated information on the Defords and Alex's friends.
Deford grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, and attended the Gilman School in Baltimore. He is a graduate of Princeton University and now resides in Westport, Connecticut, with his wife, Carol. They have two surviving children: Christian (b. 1969) and Scarlet (b. 1980). Their youngest daughter Scarlet was adopted a few months after the loss of Alex.
DeFord has been writing for Sports Illustrated since the early 1960s. In addition to his Sports Illustrated duties, he is also a correspondent for HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and a regular, Wednesday commentator for National Public Radio's Morning Edition.
His 1981 novel, "Everybody's All-American," was named one of Sports Illustrated's Top 25 Sports Books of All Time and was later made into a movie directed by Taylor Hackford and starring Dennis Quaid.
In the early 1990s Deford took a brief break from NPR and other professional activities to serve as editor-in-chief of The National (newspaper), a short-lived, daily U.S. sports newspaper. It debuted January 31, 1990 and folded after eighteen months. The newspaper was published Sundays through Fridays and had a tabloid format.
Deford is also the chairman emeritus of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He became involved in cystic fibrosis education and advocacy after his daughter, Alexandra ("Alex") was diagnosed with the illness in the early 1970s. After Alex died on January 19, 1980, at the age of eight, Deford chronicled her life in the memoir Alex: The Life of a Child. The book was made into a movie starring Craig T. Nelson and Bonnie Bedelia in 1986. In 1997, it was reissued in an expanded edition, with updated information on the Defords and Alex's friends.
Deford grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, and attended the Gilman School in Baltimore. He is a graduate of Princeton University and now resides in Westport, Connecticut, with his wife, Carol. They have two surviving children: Christian (b. 1969) and Scarlet (b. 1980). Their youngest daughter Scarlet was adopted a few months after the loss of Alex.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
February 8, 2017
As great a sports fiction piece as I've ever read and I would put the same acclaim upon the movie.
The overriding theme is the fleeting glory of youth but with a tale that piques the curiosity of any American sports fan. Gavin Grey is Everybody's All-American who has the world on a string by age 21, living a fairy-tale life. Having so much success so early makes the adult years that much more difficult and this story spans his pro football career and life after football until his late 40's.
The narrator is his un-jock-like nephew who in age and relationship is more like a younger brother. He is an excellent narrator whom I think most readers relate to.
I feel the story is quite realistic, I imagine many and even most celebrated athletes deal with what Gavin Grey deals with.
I actually saw the movie first and loved it. Dennis Quaid was unbelievable as the main man. I didn't realize until many years later it was based on a book and I immediately put it on my list.
Movies generally upset me when they are based on books, but I actually think they got the spirit and Frank Deford's intended message. Especially the first two-thirds of the story. The book has much more of Grey's middle-age struggles and demons and numerous unsavory events that either did not happen or were not covered in the movie.
The movie is very much sanitized, I will leave it at that without spoiling the book. I can understand why it was modified on film for a mainstream audience.
I was baffled by some egregious typos and misspellings but I have a feeling those were due to a faulty E-book conversion.
The overriding theme is the fleeting glory of youth but with a tale that piques the curiosity of any American sports fan. Gavin Grey is Everybody's All-American who has the world on a string by age 21, living a fairy-tale life. Having so much success so early makes the adult years that much more difficult and this story spans his pro football career and life after football until his late 40's.
The narrator is his un-jock-like nephew who in age and relationship is more like a younger brother. He is an excellent narrator whom I think most readers relate to.
I feel the story is quite realistic, I imagine many and even most celebrated athletes deal with what Gavin Grey deals with.
I actually saw the movie first and loved it. Dennis Quaid was unbelievable as the main man. I didn't realize until many years later it was based on a book and I immediately put it on my list.
Movies generally upset me when they are based on books, but I actually think they got the spirit and Frank Deford's intended message. Especially the first two-thirds of the story. The book has much more of Grey's middle-age struggles and demons and numerous unsavory events that either did not happen or were not covered in the movie.
The movie is very much sanitized, I will leave it at that without spoiling the book. I can understand why it was modified on film for a mainstream audience.
I was baffled by some egregious typos and misspellings but I have a feeling those were due to a faulty E-book conversion.
May 13, 2020
I read this book because I had already seen the Dennis Quaid film based on the book and enjoyed it.
However, the film's happy ending seemed out of synch with the rest of the film, and I wondered if the book ended differently.
Sure enough, it does.
I won't spoil it for you if you've seen the movie and want to read the book.
Suffice it to say that the ending of the book fits the rest of the story like a glove.
If you read the Kindle version be warned that there are several inexplicable mistakes in it. Here are the examples I caught.
He had to make himself over into a completely different sort of player, though; he had to over into a completely different sort of player, though; he had to make substantial adjustments.
She only really wanted to be what she had been scheduled to be, which was really wanted to be what she had been scheduled to be, which was the most beautiful creature on the face of the earth.
Sure enough, as I had ventured that I would arrive “around four,” he was perched on his front porch, waiting for me, when I four,“ he was perched on his front porch, waiting for me, when I rolled in at three forty-five.
And she reached right up and kissed me, not so much as a gesture of affection, or even of up and kissed me, not so much as a gesture of affection, or even of greeting, but, I sensed, to put me at ease.
I told Babs I would do my best to keep him occupied before he went back to New York. The game was a him occupied before he went back to New York.
However, the film's happy ending seemed out of synch with the rest of the film, and I wondered if the book ended differently.
Sure enough, it does.
I won't spoil it for you if you've seen the movie and want to read the book.
Suffice it to say that the ending of the book fits the rest of the story like a glove.
If you read the Kindle version be warned that there are several inexplicable mistakes in it. Here are the examples I caught.
He had to make himself over into a completely different sort of player, though; he had to over into a completely different sort of player, though; he had to make substantial adjustments.
She only really wanted to be what she had been scheduled to be, which was really wanted to be what she had been scheduled to be, which was the most beautiful creature on the face of the earth.
Sure enough, as I had ventured that I would arrive “around four,” he was perched on his front porch, waiting for me, when I four,“ he was perched on his front porch, waiting for me, when I rolled in at three forty-five.
And she reached right up and kissed me, not so much as a gesture of affection, or even of up and kissed me, not so much as a gesture of affection, or even of greeting, but, I sensed, to put me at ease.
I told Babs I would do my best to keep him occupied before he went back to New York. The game was a him occupied before he went back to New York.
January 12, 2020
Quite disappointing. The story of the star quarterback and his beauty queen girlfriend, 20 years later and nothing has turned out as expected. As a character says of them, achieving your success at a young age is a dangerous thing, there’s no where else to go. So, a good story about life’s disappointments, but Deford turned it… tawdry is a good word. The characters became quite unlikable, doing really despicable things, and I don’t understand why he took that route. I really didn’t want to spend any more time with them and rushed through the ending. But see the ‘80s movie, quite a different interpretation.
February 14, 2015
This was an interesting story, but I was taken aback by how raw and crude parts of it were, especially from a sports writer who trends toward more ivy-league type prose.
May 23, 2020
I saw the movie with Dennis Quaid and Jessica Lange before I read the book. The movie runs close to the book except for the ending. I enjoyed both the movie and the book. Not an unusual story. Football star becomes legend in college. Good, not great career in the pros. Then a sad decline as the years build up and the injuries mount. Gavin, the Grey Ghost was a running back and athletes in that position do not usually have long careers.
Gavin suffers financial setbacks, betrayal and his marriage to his college girlfriend Babs begins to suffer. When Gavin’s playing days are over, he does not make an easy transition to a new career. He flounders and hopes he gets the chance to play football again. Babs moves on with her life.
All the attention, accolades and glamour leaves his life. He hangs on tight to his past legends and memories to the dismay of his wife and friends.
This is not so much a sports book but a tale of human tragedy. One reads actual stories like this of other athletes who retire or unable to compete and become financiually destitute and suicidal. A cautionary tale not only for athletes but all who choose to live on past laurels.
Gavin suffers financial setbacks, betrayal and his marriage to his college girlfriend Babs begins to suffer. When Gavin’s playing days are over, he does not make an easy transition to a new career. He flounders and hopes he gets the chance to play football again. Babs moves on with her life.
All the attention, accolades and glamour leaves his life. He hangs on tight to his past legends and memories to the dismay of his wife and friends.
This is not so much a sports book but a tale of human tragedy. One reads actual stories like this of other athletes who retire or unable to compete and become financiually destitute and suicidal. A cautionary tale not only for athletes but all who choose to live on past laurels.
July 23, 2021
This book had been on my reading list for many years. Back in the 1990s, the movie adaptation of this book was on heavy rotation with several cable channels. I caught bits and pieces of the movie and generally got its premise. But the last year or so, I had been thinking more and more about this book. Since turning 40, I've become extremely retrospective. Thinking about how I got here in life, the encounters and everything else.
But unlike the Grey Ghost, I am able to reconcile my past and move on. Sadly, he isn't. Like Al Bundy, he is still living vicariously through his glory years. It becomes awkward for him and the people around him. I think a lot of athletes kind of struggle with the transition into the post-playing years of their lives. Maybe people in general.
I think the old idom is true: You can't go home again.
After reading this book, I feel it necessary to check out the movie again.
But unlike the Grey Ghost, I am able to reconcile my past and move on. Sadly, he isn't. Like Al Bundy, he is still living vicariously through his glory years. It becomes awkward for him and the people around him. I think a lot of athletes kind of struggle with the transition into the post-playing years of their lives. Maybe people in general.
I think the old idom is true: You can't go home again.
After reading this book, I feel it necessary to check out the movie again.
July 9, 2018
A fiction novel about how adulation of a person for their physical traits and physical accomplishments effects our view of them but also how it effects their view of themselves. I prefer Deford's editorials on sports and its analysis but his novels are enjoyable as well. This is the second novel of his that I have read and I have enjoyed both. They address some human failures but also successes from a sports perspective. You don't need to be a sports fan to appreciate the story and its perspective on human nature.
July 11, 2018
Deford's football novel wrestles with fame, race, gender and football against the backdrop of a changing south and a nation trying to move beyond the oppressions of the past. Ambitious in scope, its is readable and still relevant over three decades since publication. Now onto the movie. (Kindle edition has an unusual number of typos and duplicative sentences. It's "On Wisconsin," not "Oh Wisconsin!" C'mon Amazon!
December 19, 2023
This is an older publication but somehow it landed on my reading list. I enjoyed the novel with its many pearls of wisdom. It's the story of an athlete who peaks early in life and then never really makes much of himself after that. He wants to keep reliving the memories and doesn't realize that others are living in the moment. It's got a few sports stories, but I wouldn't call it a sports novel. The bigger story is about relationships and personal growth.
June 20, 2023
Gavin Grey, a fictional college football player at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the early 1950s wins the Heisman Trophy and then goes on to a professional career, but is sidetracked by alcoholism, failed business ventures, and marital difficulties.
July 3, 2025
The movie was better.
As a Southerner, I get the religion that is college football down here. Still, the main character was not sympathetic. Key details were left out. It was more a psychological exploration than a story..kind of like The Bell Jar for sports fans.
As a Southerner, I get the religion that is college football down here. Still, the main character was not sympathetic. Key details were left out. It was more a psychological exploration than a story..kind of like The Bell Jar for sports fans.
July 12, 2021
Clunky, juvenile, predictable, exhausting, gleefully ugly in spirit. Characters are caricatures, soulless, unbelievable symbols. Dialogue long, ponderous, unnatural. Truly strange and grotesque takes on gender and race. Offensive AND boring.
March 7, 2008
Yes, a sports story. Snore? No! Rah, Rah Carolina!
It's a story about a sports star and the situations he and his family get in, during and post fame. I guess if I'm going to get involved in a soap opera, it may as well be in a book and may as well be written by Frank Deford.
This is the second Frank Deford book I've read and I'm definitely not stopping now.
I read about baseball first, this book was about football, next is the golf book which he only authored the foreword, and then it's on to the roller derby book. In the mean time, I will contact him to see what he can do about writing a bowling story. Should be good timing since the bowling congress is considering moving their home base in Milwaukee to Dallas. "You might as well make Oshkosh the rodeo capital of America and transport the Alamo to Sheboygan." - Frank Deford. Amen
July 18, 2015
I would rate this 3.5 stars if half-stars were an option. This is very much a sports book -- being about a football star -- but I think it would appeal to both sports fans and non-sports fans alike because it's a surprisingly acute observation of sports through the larger lens of American culture. Whether you think sports celebrities are heroes or goats, the novel offers insights into our American obsession with football and football players. Frank Deford writes with an amazing ease and grace. His characters are well-drawn and multi-dimensional. The novel is ever so much darker than the film that was adapted from it. Both are enjoyable in their own right, but they tell slightly different stories. I've always enjoyed Frank Deford's commentaries on NPR, so I was prepared to enjoy his writing, but I had no idea how skilled a novelist he was.
December 19, 2011
I am glad I read this book. It was a book club pick and I never would have read it on my own. It is an interesting look at the fall of an All-American sports star. The most fascinating person in the book, though, is his wife who also experiences rising and falling of her own.
I don't need to read this book again, but i did enjoy it, aside from the one death sequence which I still believe was unnecessary. I would recommend people to read this book- it's different, not my usual cup of tea, but I did enjoy that.
I don't need to read this book again, but i did enjoy it, aside from the one death sequence which I still believe was unnecessary. I would recommend people to read this book- it's different, not my usual cup of tea, but I did enjoy that.
May 8, 2010
Since I've longtime fan of Frank DeFord's intelligent sports commentary on NPR, my husband bought me this novel for Christmas. Great gift! It was about football and not about football at the same time. Sometimes the point of view shifts in a distracting way (how would the narrator know some of the things he's talking about?)but overall well done. Good characters and excellent use of dialogue and setting. My only major quibble is the ending was rushed.
September 11, 2013
"All this institutionalized nostalgia heightened my sense of the past, but the autumn is always the time for remembering. Christmases make us remember, but they only make us remember past Christmases. But the fall, those first few weeks of school, when the smells of summer fade, is when the world begins to resettle and renew itself every year. It is the actual beginning of an annual life that we have nominally assigned to January 1 and which nature gives to the spring."
July 1, 2014
I did not enjoy this book as much as I've enjoyed other Deford novels. The story is compelling and the writing as good as ever. But, I thought the plot dragged at points, and I wasn't really satisfied with how it ended. I do think it's worth reading and am glad I read it, but it was not as good as I hoped.
June 13, 2008
Excellent book that's manages to be about sports and life without being about games. The plot's hokey at times. While that may be an artistic choice to allow the reader to compare and contrast with more typical sports books, I doubt it. But that's just a quibble.
January 3, 2014
A pretty good book on a potentially brilliant subject matter that screws itself up by delving into soap opera rather than just dealing in the story at hand. Or, maybe I'm being naive, maybe these stories have to be overly-dramatic or they wouldn't be these stories.
February 10, 2008
Best fictional sports novel of all time.
June 13, 2013
Just...no...
February 7, 2017
A book I wanted to read for a long time, and it did not disappoint.
April 17, 2017
Sad story of a great, but one-dimensional football player living and dying in the past ... There is much more to life than football and fame; thank God for that!
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews