The Best Game Ever: Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL
by: Mark Bowden
List Price: $23.00
Prices subject to change.
Price: $15.64
You Save: $7.36 (32%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Product Description:
On December 28, 1958, the New York Giants and Baltimore Colts met under the lights of Yankee Stadium for the NFL Championship game. Played in front of sixty-four thousand fans and millions of television viewers around the country, the game would be remembered as the greatest in football history. On the field and roaming the sidelines were seventeen future Hall of Famers, including Colts stars Johnny Unitas, Raymond Berry, and Gino Marchetti, and Giants greats Frank Gifford, Sam Huff, and assistant coaches Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry. An estimated forty-five million viewers—at that time the largest crowd to have ever watched a football game—tuned in to see what would become the first sudden-death contest in NFL history. It was a battle of the league's best offense—the Colts—versus its best defense—the Giants. And it was a contest between the blue-collar Baltimore team versus the glamour boys of the Giants squad. The Best Game Ever is a brilliant portrait of how a single game changed the history of American sport. Published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the championship, it is destined to be a sports classic.
Alternate Versions:
Related Items:
- Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World
- The Greatest Game: The Yankees, the Red Sox, and the Playoff of '78
- The Glory Game: How the 1958 NFL Championship Changed Football Forever
- Giants Among Men: How Robustelli, Huff, Gifford, and the Giants Made New York a Football Town and Changed the NFL
- Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History
- see more
Browse for similar items by category:
- Books » Subjects » History » Americas » United States » State & Local » New York
- Books » Subjects » Sports » Football (American) » Professional
- Books » Subjects » Sports » Football (American) » General
- Books » Subjects » Sports » Football (American) » General AAS
- Books » Subjects » Sports » Miscellaneous » History of Sports
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- All NFL Roads Lead to this game
The 1958 NFL Championship Game is and always will be the starting point for any discussion about the birth of modern pro football.While some consider it the greatest game ever played, I think an argument can be made against that.Bowden recalls a list of the sloppy play that were part of this game.However, what is undoubtedly true is that this was the most important game in NFL history.Pro football was not the dominant sport and money making machine of today.Baseball still ruled the roost ... Read More
Rating: - Plenty of meat for most and a quick enjoyable read
I really never knew much about pre-Super Bowl era football except for what I've read on the Vince Lombardi coached the Packers (and his bio is fantastic BTW). This account really gives a nice history of the NFL leading up to this game and sketches brief but accurate bios of many of the games key participants. In particualr Raymond Berry gets a LOT of coverage, so does Johhny Unitas, to lesser extent so do Gifford, Ameche, Donovan, Big Daddy Lipscomb, Conerly, and Moore. He does an excellent job summarizing ... Read More
Rating: 
- Lukewarm retelling of often tall story
Mark Bowden has written some amazing and riveting works of non-fiction and would certainly rate in the top five of anyone today but this work really does not do his prior great writing justice.Basically he takes a lot of other people's work and pardon the pun he treads on well worn turf.Bowden does not reveal any new or insightful offerings into the game, already one of the most well known and well written about games in history. (It precedes my time on this earth so I can't say how it ranks but I will ... Read More
Rating: - Good Look at Turning Point in History of the NFL
I enjoyed reading this book about a key turning point in the history of the NFL. Once the college game was more popular, but starting around the time of this game the NFL took over the nation's interest. While that was the result of many factors, the excitement of this game was certainly one of them. I had also recently read the biography of Johnny Unitas, and the two together tell the interesting story of the NFL in transition from second fiddle to baseball and college football to premier sports franchise ... Read More
Rating: - Enjoyable portrait of a great moment in pigskin history
In recent times, using the adjective "best" in the title of a book about a sporting event has been used liberally. A golf match, the seventh game of the World Series and the NCAA basketball championship tilt have all received the designation as the greatest contest in the history of the sport. Mark Bowden's THE BEST GAME EVER casts its lot with the championship game celebrating its 50th anniversary this football season. The New York Giants and Baltimore Colts battled at Yankee Stadium in the first overtime ... Read More
- All NFL Roads Lead to this gameThe 1958 NFL Championship Game is and always will be the starting point for any discussion about the birth of modern pro football.While some consider it the greatest game ever played, I think an argument can be made against that.Bowden recalls a list of the sloppy play that were part of this game.However, what is undoubtedly true is that this was the most important game in NFL history.Pro football was not the dominant sport and money making machine of today.Baseball still ruled the roost ... Read More
- Plenty of meat for most and a quick enjoyable readI really never knew much about pre-Super Bowl era football except for what I've read on the Vince Lombardi coached the Packers (and his bio is fantastic BTW). This account really gives a nice history of the NFL leading up to this game and sketches brief but accurate bios of many of the games key participants. In particualr Raymond Berry gets a LOT of coverage, so does Johhny Unitas, to lesser extent so do Gifford, Ameche, Donovan, Big Daddy Lipscomb, Conerly, and Moore. He does an excellent job summarizing ... Read More
- Lukewarm retelling of often tall storyMark Bowden has written some amazing and riveting works of non-fiction and would certainly rate in the top five of anyone today but this work really does not do his prior great writing justice.Basically he takes a lot of other people's work and pardon the pun he treads on well worn turf.Bowden does not reveal any new or insightful offerings into the game, already one of the most well known and well written about games in history. (It precedes my time on this earth so I can't say how it ranks but I will ... Read More
- Good Look at Turning Point in History of the NFLI enjoyed reading this book about a key turning point in the history of the NFL. Once the college game was more popular, but starting around the time of this game the NFL took over the nation's interest. While that was the result of many factors, the excitement of this game was certainly one of them. I had also recently read the biography of Johnny Unitas, and the two together tell the interesting story of the NFL in transition from second fiddle to baseball and college football to premier sports franchise ... Read More
- Enjoyable portrait of a great moment in pigskin historyIn recent times, using the adjective "best" in the title of a book about a sporting event has been used liberally. A golf match, the seventh game of the World Series and the NCAA basketball championship tilt have all received the designation as the greatest contest in the history of the sport. Mark Bowden's THE BEST GAME EVER casts its lot with the championship game celebrating its 50th anniversary this football season. The New York Giants and Baltimore Colts battled at Yankee Stadium in the first overtime ... Read More
