It brings me joy to read of UW history while rolling around the UW campus on a purple & gold electric ass bathtub. If you’re just a tiny bit aware of UW football history, you know of Don James, Jim Lambright and Slick Rick Neuheisel. You probably know of Jerramy Stevens as well. But you'll know a whole lot more when you get into this book.
I’m only a few chapters in, but I can recommend it to you as I'm rolling along Rainier Vista past Drumheller fountain, on to Husky Stadium, the football office, the Don James statue and Conibear Shellhouse as well. Not to mention the Admissions office, the President’s office and the Board of Regents too.
This is no “Boys in the Boat” feel good triumph over adversity. This is no "Snow Falling on Cedars". It’s major college football history with plenty of complicity.
Similar stories have played out in Eugene, Los Angeles, Boulder, Lincoln, Ann Arbor, Columbus, Austin, College Station, State College, Knoxville, Baton Rouge, Tuscaloosa, Athens, Miami and Gainesville. But most sports reporters stay on the sunny side, always on the sunny side. Glad handing, back slapping, looking the other way, looking at the scoreboard.
But these two reporters from the Seattle Times didn’t look away. They asked difficult questions. They dug deeper, focusing on the 2000 UW football season and all the criminal behavior that was basically overlooked.
The title of the book is rather cheesy, but it fits. Neuheisel coined the phrase when he was coaching at Colorado, before he came to UW. Win at all costs: “Scoreboard Baby”
You won’t find this book in the U Bookstore or the UW football office. The Seattle Public Library has only one copy for “in-library use only”. What’s that all about? I got my copy on eBay for $5.
Read a book. Read a book. Read a motherfucking book.
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