Don't Flinch: Barry Alvarez, the Autobiography: The Story of Wisconsin's All-Time Winningest Coach

by Mike Lucas and Barry Alvarez

Book Overview

Despite inheriting a moribund college football program, and half-empty stadium, Barry Alvarez never compromised his values, never flinched ? even after a 1-10 first season ? and never stopped... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 097587697X
• ISBN13: 9780975876978
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Kci Sports Publishing
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

better than most business motivational books

I like reading coach's books. If you're reading a coach's autobiography you can be sure that he was successful. Reading stories about successful people won't make you successful in itself, but you certainly can learn a lot from them. Some coach's stories, like Mack Brown's "One Heartbeat II" are smarmy, folksy stories about the coach's life philosophy containing stories about overcoming adversity or getting a team to come together to experience that championship season. A lot of coach's stories wind up in those business-motivational books, but I don't typically read those. Normally the messages they're delivering gets thinned out to the point that they become a manager's catch phrase. Executives buy them, then put them on the bookshelf in their office. Makes them look well-read. I've worked with a lot of executives. I usually make the point of pulling a book or two off out of their library and open it. 90% of them make that cracking sound a hardcover book makes the first time you open it. But I digress. Coach's stories tend to fall prey to a fair amount of sugar-coating. Not so with "Don't Flinch - Barry Alvarez: The Autobiography". The book starts (after forewards by Lou Holtz and author James Patterson) with Wisconsin's 2006 Capital One Bowl against Auburn. Going into the game, no one gave Wisconsin a chance to win. Alvarez starts by talking about how he would have rather played Alabama. Alvarez played for Nebraska when Alabama beat the Cornhuskers in the 1966 Orange Bowl, 39-28, and relates how Paul "Bear" Bryant arrogantly humiliated the Huskers later at an awards banquet. Alvarez makes it clear that this isn't how he's spent his career. Beating people is one thing. Rubbing their noses in it is another thing entirely, and something that Alvarez doesn't condone. He then goes on to talk about how he handled his underdog status and coached Wisconsin to a win. That initial story sets the tone for the book. Author Mike Lucas takes us through Alvarez' life, using his Western Pennsylvania background to set the stage for Barry's brand of football - conservative, hard-nosed, and physical. Alvarez played college football at Nebraska under legendary coach Bob Devaney. His first head coaching position was in Lexington, Nebraska where he chose to move instead of taking a job with the FBI. He later moved to Mason City, Iowa in a head coaching position. After being successful there, he went to the University of Iowa as an assistant under Hayden Fry. Later he joined Lou Holtz' staff at Notre Dame, serving as the defensive coordinator on the 1988 Fighting Irish National Championship team. Along the journey you're treated to the reasons as to why he was successful in each position, and what he learned from the people around him, particularly coaches. All the while his goal remains clear - to be a head college football coach. There are times he strikes you as incredibly stubborn and/or arrogant but completely capable of listening to other people giving g

Hard work pays off.

A great read and refreshing to know that hard work, focus and the love and respect of family is still the formula for success.

Great gift for football loving hubby!

My husband wanted this book for Christmas so I got it for him. He says it is one of the best books he has ever read. He is a diehard college football fan--but not necessarily a Wisconsin fan.

Behind the scenes with the winningest coach.

To get a good biography of a sports figure you've got to go beyond the simple statistics of this game or that player and get some understanding about what this coach did or does to take a so-so team and make them the best. And that's what you get in this book. As he talks about games, because that has to be included, he is also talking about the impact that other activities are having at the same time. Players are leaving, new players must be recruited, coaches are quitting or having to be fired, new coaches hired. Just playing the game is not enough, it's really more like running a business. Furthermore these other activities have to take place at the same time that games are being played. More than most books, this one is able to interleave all of these activities together. Alvarez stressed the basics, the fundamentals. But every coach does that. This book explains how he could do that while doing all of the other things that constitute building a whole series of winning teams.

No Badger fan or college football enthusiast will want to miss reading "Don't Flinch"

Barry Alvarez is one of the most successful and respected coaches in the history of Wisconsin's college football. He first hired on to take over the University of Wisconsin's substandard college football program with its lackluster collegiate support. What he created over the ensuing years was a UW football program that would win three Rose Bowl engagements in the 1990s and by the time he retired after the 2005 season ended, was one of Wisconsin's all-time success records as a UW football coach. Alvarez became so well respected that a statue in his honor now stands outside the UW football stadium. With the help of Mike Lucas, "Don't Flinch" is the autobiographical story of Coach Barry Alvarez and how he came to accomplish one of the most remarkable stories in college football history. A "must" addition to the Biography and Sports History collections for all Wisconsin community libraries, no Badger fan or college football enthusiast will want to miss reading "Don't Flinch", the truly remarkable, candidly personal and occasionally inspiring story of UW football coach Barry Alvarez!