Greatest College Football Rivalries of All Time

College football is one of the most popular sports in the United States. Fans follow their favorite team with unfailing loyalty, and nowhere do the colors come out more fervently than when rivals face off. These games bring out the passion, the rituals, and even the rage of football fans across the country. Whether based on history and tradition, or proximity and local pride, college rivalry games have an intensity unmatched by any other sporting event. The Greatest College Football Rivalries of All Time: The Civil War, the Iron Bowl, and Other Memorable Matchups showcases the best of these competitions. Martin Gitlin details game highlights, the history behind the rivalries, and how the fans, players, and coaches have impacted the matchups. The fourteen top rivalries are covered, including the always-intense battles between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Michigan Wolverines, the great in-state rivalry between the Auburn Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide, and the historic contests between the Army Black Knights and the Navy Midshipmen. In addition to capturing the action of the games, this book also covers the personal stories that heighten the passion and intensity of the rivalries—including pranks pulled over the years by opposing fans. With stats and series highlights detailed in each entry, and featuring historical and contemporary photographs throughout its pages, The Greatest College Football Rivalries of All Time is a must-read for every fan of college football.

The 14 intense college rivalries in this book fall into three categories: in-state, such as the University of Alabama vs. Auburn University; interstate, such as Ohio State University vs. the University of Michigan; and nongeographic anomalies—think Army-Navy for example. Sportswriter Gitlin often begins a chapter with a key moment from a pivotal game in the series and expands from there to provide an overview of the entire run of the rivalry. He notes significant athletes, the progression of head coaches, the highs and lows of the programs, and the swings of dominance in the sequence of games. . . .VERDICT Well executed and featuring an engaging topic, this book should be of interest to all college football fans., College football rivalries can be fun but often turn into bitter contests for players and fans alike. Gitlin, a freelance and sports writer, details fourteen all-time rivalries, from Harvard-Yale to Georgia-Florida (commonly known as the world’s largest outdoor cocktail party). The author covers each rivalry equally in twenty to thirty pages including memorable games, players, and coaches, the rivalry outside the actual game, and concludes each chapter with game results and key facts. Each game has its own name, such as the Red River Rivalry (Texas-Oklahoma) or the Big Game (Stanford-California), but no game is a better rivalry than Army-Navy, like no game is a more bitter rivalry than Alabama-Auburn (the Iron Bowl). The book is a fun read. . . .The book has great merits to recall the Lafayette-Lehigh, the rivalry game first played in 1884, and the Civil War between Oregon and Oregon State. Gitlin concludes with notes on each chapter, a select bibliography, and a brief index. In all, this is a solid little book on the ever growing popular game of college football., To me there are many college football rivalries. In his new book Martin Gitlin examines what he feels are fourteen of the greatest college rivalries in the game of football. Mr. Gitlin examines each rivalry with interesting moments of the rivalry, traces the history of the series with highlights and statistics. There is also a year by year listing of the scores of the rivalry that is an excellent historical resource for the reader. I was also pleased to see that he included in his list of rivalries the often-overlooked Lafayette versus Lehigh that began in 1884. This chapter to me was a wealth of information for the fan and or the historian. I was also pleased with his development of 'The Game,' the Yale and Harvard battle that began in 1875. Also he also discussed the Grambling State and Southern college rivalry that has been overlooked for many years in my opinion. Overall I enjoyed reading this book, it was well written and developed, looked at both well­known and not as well-known college football rivalries. I highly recommend this book for any football library. It is an excellent read., [The Greatest College Football Rivalries of All Time is] a quick and informative read that helps stimulate new ideas on what it means to be 'great' in college football. The book’s focus on rivalry is one that will certainly resonate with many readers.

Martin Gitlin is a freelance writer and the author of more than 40 books on popular culture and sports. He has won many awards for his writing, including first place for General Excellence in Journalism from the Associated Press. His most recent books are The Great American Cereal Book: How Breakfast Got Its Crunch (2012) and The Greatest Sitcoms of All Time (Scarecrow Press, 2013).