Football Principles and Play – Books
I recently bought four out of print football books:
1) Radar Blocking by Leo Hand published in 1985
2) Football Principles and Play by David M Nelson published in 1962
3) Sports Illustrated Book of Football published in 1960
4) Defensive Football by Louis R. Oshins published in 1949
The latter book by Oshins is a nice children’s book explaining defense. Its only 30 or so pages and is a fun book to have in your collection for the 1950’s era descriptions of football.
The Sports Illustrated Book is another fun book about 90 pages in length. Its also a young adults book but it did describe a defense that I have been running called the Eagle developed by Coach Greasy Neale of the Philadelphia Eagles.
Radar Blocking by Leo Hand is a must for the true aficionado of coaching books and media. Coach Hand spends 210 pages outlining almost every conceivable block against 14 different defenses. It is an awesome book for any offensive line and defensive line coach. I highly recommend this book.
The last book I purchased is the Nelson book from 1962, Football Principles and Play . Its 450 pages of pure football genius. It is a must for any football coach. Yes, some of the information is now outdated but the basic strategy of football still comes through in this football masterpiece. I paid $45 for my copy off of eBay. It’s worth that and more.
Over the next few weeks or so, I will post some key points from these books as I study them to update my 5th grade team’s playbook.
