Super Bowl Bound

by William Campbell Gault

Tom Cavanaugh played both football and baseball through his young years, and he was good at both. The time came when he had to choose. His grandfather had instilled a love of football into him when he was a very little boy and they had spent happy weekend hours watching the games together on TV. His father had played football once — but now his sport was baseball, and he and Tom coached a little League team. Although Mr. Cavanaugh did not forbid his son to play football, Tom knew he did not like it. All through Tom's school years, his father never attended a game.
In college, Tom was part of a trio—he and his pass catcher, Amos Hawkins, and running back Jason Jefferson beat some Pac Ten teams and put their college on the football map. But only two of the three would go on to the pros and the race for the Super Bowl.

153 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1980

About the author

William Campbell Gault (1910–1995) was a critically acclaimed pulp novelist. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he took seven years to graduate from high school. Though he was part of a juvenile gang, he wrote poetry in his spare time, signing it with a girl’s name lest one of his friends find it. He sold his first story in 1936, and built a great career writing for pulps like Paris Nights, Scarlet Adventures, and the infamous Black Mask. In 1939, Gault quit his job and started writing fulltime.

When the success of his pulps began to fade in the 1950s, Gault turned to longer fiction, winning an Edgar Award for his first mystery, Don’t Cry for Me (1952), which he wrote in twenty-eight days. He created private detectives Brock Callahan and Joe Puma, and also wrote juvenile sports books like Cut-Rate Quarterback (1977) and Wild Willie, Wide Receiver (1974). His final novel was Dead Pigeon (1992), a Brock Callahan mystery.


Series:
* Brock 'The Rock' Callahan
* Joe Puma

Reviews

[TK421 · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those of you that read Matt Christopher as a kid, check out William Campbell Gault. The writing is not spectacular, there is more telling than showing, and the characters are pretty flat, but the waves of nostalgia that you will feel while reading his sport novels is worth the price of admission.

[Rodney Haydon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid entry in Gault's YA sports fiction, this centers around the life of a young QB who understands that while the sport may not seem important, "But pursuit of excellence has always seemed important to me."
Readers just might learn about character, if they are not careful.

[ERIC · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was very choppy although I did like the fact that this is a football book.