The Game of Their Lives

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In the late spring of 1950, eleven young immigrants' sons, most of them strangers to each other, came together for the love and fun of a game. They came from Missouri, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York, from jobs in canneries, brickyards, post offices, classrooms, and bars, to play for their country in the 1950 World Cup, resulting in what has since been called, by scores of sources for more than forty years, the greatest upset victory in the history of American sports. But no one in America at the time paid attention. Their only public honor - roughly twenty minutes' worth - was from a throng of strangers in a Brazilian mining town. This is the story of the lives of these men: their jobs, wives, sweethearts, neighborhoods, the innocence of their era, the anonymity in which they worked and played. It is the story of heroism, stoicism, and simple unsung grace. Of a time before television, endorsement contracts, movie rights for serial killers, and seven-figure idols who denigrate us all. And ultimately - though it is not a sports story - it is the story of a game, played brilliantly. A single game of soccer, the greater game of life.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In 1950 in Belo Horizonte, a Brazilian mining town, the U.S. soccer team met the British in one of the preliminary rounds of the World Cup matches. The U.S. had not qualified to go to the World Cup since 1934 and, being from a country where soccer was definitely a minor sport, had to field a semiprofessional team consisting mostly of the sons of immigrants, taught the game by older relatives. The British, by contrast, were the rulers of European soccer, considered certain to win the Cup. The U.S. won the game 1-0, staging what is still arguably the greatest upset in World Cup history. Douglas (Class), a skilled writer, is disappointing when he tries to impart an almost mythic significance to this contest on the grounds that the U.S. athletes played for little more than love of the game and asked nothing but joy. He excels and becomes almost poetic, however, in his depiction of life in the ethnic big-city ghettos from which most of the players came, such as Dago Hill in St. Louis and Kensington in Philadelphia, where trust, closeness, loyalty and a sense of being part of something were a way of life. (Oct.)

Library Journal

In 1950, in the little stadium of Belo Horizorite, a mining town 300 miles north of Rio de Janeiro, the U.S. men's World Cup soccer team pulled off a stunning triumph by defeating powerhouse England 1-0. Unquestionably, this win ranks as one of the biggest upsets in the history of U.S. sport, a victory few Americans know anything about. The Game of Their Lives is the story of the 11 men from all over the United States who orchestrated that amazing upset. Incidentally, the team ended the tournament with a record of two losses (3-1 to Spain and 5-2 against Chile) and a single, but tremendous, win. Douglas (Class: The Wreckage of an American Family, LJ 10/1/92; LJ's Best Books of 1992) does a superb job in not only retelling the contest but chronicling the lives of these humble few in the years following the match. A refreshing tale of sporting heroesno pretensions, no glamour, no high salaries, just ordinary people playing a game they lovethis is a good, heartwarming read. Recommended for public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/1/96.]L.R. Little, Penticton P.L., B.C.

Kirkus Reviews

A timely and authoritative account of the Americans who pulled off one of the sporting world's most stunning upsets by defeating the powerhouse English soccer team in the 1950 World Cup.

Contested every four years, the World Cup tournament breeds a worldwide fanaticism that has no equal. Until recently, however, when the US hosted the tournament, the World Cup barely registered a blip on Americans' sports radar. Douglas (Class, 1992, etc) ably demonstrates that this was even more the case in 1950, when the US sent, absent of fanfare or press coverage, a hastily assembled band of amateur and semipro players composed chiefly of working-class immigrants. Listed as a 500-to-1 shot by one London bookmaker, the Americans were prohibitive underdogs to an English squad considered by all as the team to beat. From the opening kickoff, the Americans frustrated their foe's attack and late in the first half scored the match's only marker—a shot that caromed into the English net off the head of forward Joe Gaetjens. This goal would prove to be the margin of victory, as the Americans held their opponents in check over the balance of the contest. In his profiles of individual team members (among them an undertaker, a gym teacher, two mail carriers, a dishwasher, and a bricklayer), Douglas recreates a more innocent era in international sports competition. Without beating us over the head with it, the author makes clear that these were men who played for fun and cherish every moment of their soccer careers. Refreshingly, the players profiled—who have mostly moved on to fulfilling lives—begrudge today's wealthy athletes nothing.

Worthy of comparison to such classics of sports reporting as David Halberstam's Summer of '49, this book should be a real kick for soccer rooters and nonfans alike.