Opening Chapter

What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.  So with that I will start at the end in the hopes of making it to the beginning.  First book I read this week was The Way We Played the Game by John Armstrong.  Something interesting about the book before even reading the first page of a chapter is that the the story was written in the early 70's and given to a local historical club to publish but was put in storage and forgotten until years later when the church it was stored in was struck by lightning.  Miraculously it and hundreds of other documents survived.  John Armstrong found the story and made some slight changes here and there to truly make it a story and the rest is history.  The book is really about how football was played in the 1900s focusing on a Benton Harbor football team that's out for revenge and also the dawning of football in America.  The story mainly follows a high school football player named Fletcher Van Horne.  He's a scrawny kid, weighing only about 115 and is only around 5'2".  He is selected to play quarterback because while not big and strong he's fast and more importantly smart enough to play it.  In the early days of football coaches weren't allowed to really coach during a game so it was up to the QB to decide what plays to run and when.  I personally can relate to Fletcher mainly because like him I'm undersized.  I know that whenever I step onto the field I'm going to be facing someone who probably outweighs me by 50lbs and can look over me without trouble.  Like Fletcher this doesn't bother me, as they say the smaller you are the easier it is to blindside someone.
Anyway back to the story, its a good football novel that really shows the brotherhood of the game especially back then.  It shows that hard work pays off in the end and it was truly a good book.  And with that I suppose it's time to end this beginning that is technically and end.