Home and Away: The Rise and Fall of Professional Football on the Banks of the Ohio by Carl M. Becker (review)

A. Vincent should he commended for allowing us to share in the rich history of these midwestern communities. Diane Barnes Virginia Polytechnic University Carl M. Becker. Hoine and Away: The Rise tind Fil/ J c, f Professional Football on the Biinks of the Ohio.1919Ii ), 4. Atheiis: Ohio University Press, I 998. 448 PP. ISBN: 082141237X (cloth), $ 36.9£.ISBN: 0821412388 tpaper), SI9. 9G. Holne and Away follows the rise and fall of three professie , nal football teams and their relationships with tc,wns that supported them. Between IVI)and I934, the Ohio towns of Portsniouth Ithe Spartans),Iront(, n Ithe Tanks), and Ashland, Kentucky Ithe Arincos) entertained the Ohio Valley with pic,fessic, nal foc, thall. In this hc, c,k, the author expli, res a dependent relationship between each team and its c<) 1munity; the Spart. ins . ind T. inks, iii p. irtictil.11, depended on their conimunities fc, r inonetary suppoit, . ind the coininunities depended on their football teams for civic pride. Through seasonby -seascin analysis, Becker communicates the importance of rivalry, recognition, money, and winning to the success of Ohic, Valley professional football. Frc) 111 the controversial birth of professionalism in the Ohio Valley tc) the innovative 1932 " championship" game between Portsniouth and Chicago, Becker stiggests the significant place of the Ohio Valley in pr(, tessie, nal foc, tb: ill hist(, 1-y. Becker c(, ntends that the players dreained of bigtitiic focitball, but in reality only wanted to play for personal pleasure and for the crowds. Yet he undermines that idealistic perspective with constant reminders of the teams' and the players' finances, suggesting that moncy was a majoi reascm fc, r playing. Becker alsi) argues that the team's relationships to their sponsoring communities affected how those small town teams were remembered later. For examplc , Ashland's total dependence on the American Rc)] ling Mill Company CArnico) for financial support, rather than the conimunity itself, caused the memories of the Arnic<) s footh: 111 team to fade after it folded. By ci, ntrast, community wide financial support in Portsmouth and Ironton and the inteeration of players int(, each of those communities kept inemories of Spartan and Tank football alive long after each team left t(, wn. Becker devotes most of his book to a tedious season by season analysis derived from reading the Ironlon Register, Portsniouth Times, and other Ohic, Valley newspapers . The author also coniplements his newspaper research with a limited number of personal recollectic, ns, drawing heavily on his conversations with fc, riner football star Glenn Presnellas well as selected records from the National Football League and Hall of Fame archives. This is supplemented by an appendix that includes yearby year schedules, records, and attend. ince of the tenms fium Ironton, Portsmouth, and Ashland, a compilation of fifteen years ot professional fc, otball statistics that provides a valuable resource for future sports hist(, rians. But most intriguing is Becker's account of the famcius SpartansBears game played iii i 912. Influenced by cold weather and the desire to draw a large crciwd, the Bears decided to play the game in Chicagc) Stadium. Using dirt left over from the previous week's circus, the ground's crew transformed the indoor hockey and boxing aren: i intc, a sixtyyard fix, tball field. Becker . ils shows hori the Portsiouth Sp. zi t. ins linked Ohic, Valley football tc, the Chicago Bears and the elite ranks ot prc, fessic, nal fc)(, tball in the years pric) 1 t{) the I 9 31 game. Home and Away dc, es nc, t present an interpretive, thematic approach to the history of Ohio Valley professional football. Rather, it provides a simple history of what happencil , where it happened, and tc) whom it liappened. His season by season analysis, though soinewhat nionotonous, gains meaning through the importance of the I 9 32 Chicago Stadium game and glimpses of the deepening relationship that developed between commiinities and their teams. Carl M. Becker's Honie Lind Awtiy deserves recognition foi revealing the role sp(, rts played in the history of small co117munities and the rc, le communities played in the devel{) pment i,f prc, fessiona] sports. John R. Duke Univer. vit r ot Mississlill, i Kenneth Warren. Wealth, Waste. and Alienation: Growth and I) celine in the Connellsville Coke Industry. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001. 297 pp ISBN: 082294I32i Ccl(, th), $ 3<. 00. Kenneth Wai-ren's Wealth. Waste. tind Alienation focuses on the growth and decline of a prolific coke-producing region: the Connellsville district of western Pennsylvania. Connellsville, a town approximately fifty miles sotitheast of Pittsburgh, was cince the center of a coalmining region that supplied high quality coke to Pittsburgh's burgeoning steel industry. The wealth to which Warren refers flowed mainly to Henry Clay Frick, who d) minated coke production in the region, and to firms that transfc, rined that coke into steel. The land and laborers , Warren suggests, were rewarded with the waste and alienatiC) n. Coke is coal that has been reduced to carbon by heating the c(, al in the absence of air. lilast furnaces consumed huge am() unts of coke in the late nineteenth century, and by i 880 Pittsburgh companies proclucing pig iron purchased approximately two million tons of coke from the Connellsville district yearly. For the next several decades, Connellsville coke remained central tc)the Pittsburgh iron and steel industry, with productic, n peaking arc, und World Fall 2002 Reviews 39 ...