Rags to Roses: The Rise of Stanford Football

by Joseph Beyda, George Chen, Sam Fisher

The story of Stanford football's rise from the seemingly disastrous 2007 season to a Rose Bowl victory in 2013.

Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Greg Beale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Go Big Ted

I am a Stanford Football Letterman, 1965 to 1969. We were the building years leading to 2 Rosebowl victories in 71 and 72.

John Ralston was our head coach.

This book catches the hard work and difficulty it is to play for a high scholastic college.

Most of my teammates never played football after their senior year.

Stanford Football attempted to win with scholars first…

It wasn’t easy but as I age that degree is what counts and the discipline it took to get a 3.8 GPA and play football as well.

I am proud of the Cardinal!

[Carlton Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Naturally, I loved it. Though there are plenty of reasons to suggest I'm biased :)

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun book for fans of Stanford football, though it's hard to believe that anyone else would be interested in the story of how Jim Harbaugh and David Shaw took Stanford from 1-11 to Orange Bowl and Rose Bowl Championships.

The book is written almost like a series of newspaper articles, as it goes in complete chronological order game-by-game, season-by-season, interspersed with quotes from the players. It's a great way to re-live all the great games over the years and recall games, plays and players since forgotten.

That said, it's a strictly "just the facts, m'am" approach. There aren't shocking revelations and scandals, statistical analyses or discussion of the Xs and Os and strategy. It simply discusses what happened.

The author did a nice job of getting in a lot of quotes from many players for the book, though it's unclear whether the authors actually interviewed anyone or whether the quotes were pulled from post-game press conferences and news articles and the like. It's likely the latter, because the quotes are mostly the "we knew we could win if we worked together as a team" cliche quotes any sports fan has heard before.

On the whole, the book is what I expected. It is very thorough, covers every significant event, and makes Stanford and the football team look really good. I couldn't reasonably have asked for much more.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readability 8. Rating 7. Well done. Subtitled The Rise of Stanford Football. Captured the essence of both the changes in the program and the games, and provided many fascinating details. It didn't feel like the whole story - lots of other perspectives could have been added that might have made it the definitive history, but at the same time, part of the fascination is the individuality of the change - not everyone saw or sees it the same way. At the same time, it did feel a bit like a book anyone could have written - I am envious but happy that they did. Also worth noting is that I am putting this under History - maybe I will create a sports category at some point, but I just couldn't justify it for one book.

[Lance · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gift from Gary. Wonder telling of each game from the 1-11 season under Walt Harris to the Rose Bowl victory in 2013. Because the author's had access to some of the key individuals, I wish they had asked about some of the bad choices, too, such as Luck passing late in Big Game when Toby was making great progress running the ball and putting the Fiesta Bowl outcome solely on the kicker who had already missed some kicks.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really good for me. This book is about Stanford Football so if a Cal or Oregon fan wants to read it, they probably won't like it as much. This book told the story of Stanford Football from 2006 to 2013. My favorite part of the book was the 2006 season because I knew that they did bad but I never knew the details. I would recommend this book to a class mate but only if they were a Stanford fan. This book is not in a series but it may be after a few more years.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a great overview of Stanford football from 2006 through today. Sometimes felt like a strung together collection of Stanford Daily game recaps, but the "in-between" bits about how the program developed under Harbaugh and Shaw, and the infighting that led to Harris's downfall, were very interesting. I especially enjoyed the tidbits that Stanford tried to recruit RGIII to go with Luck and had a verbal commit from Mante Te'o before he balked at retaking the SAT.

[Rajesh]

Excellent read for fans such as myself. Good memories. Probably not for the casual fan as detailed game descriptions are lost on most.

[Wendy Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good descriptions of the 2006 - 12 seasons written by current Stanford students. Interviews with players and coaches allow the authors to explain the motivation of the team.