It has been a while since I’ve posted here, I apologize, we switched servers while I was in New Orleans in January, thus blowing out several posts from the BCS National Championship experience, and there have been several subjects I’ve thought about posting on, (Laurinaitis, Jenkins, et. al. returning, Pryor signing, spring game, Gholston going high to the Jets, etc.) but for whatever reason, I didn’t. But hey, the players report to Columbus in a little over a week and the Youngstown St. season opener is quickly approaching.
I’m a big reader, usually either sports or history, or both, and this year looks to be a great one for those looking to add to their Buckeye library. Ohio St. football historian Jack Park has a new book out, Ohio State University Football Vault. For the kids, the 2nd and 7 Foundation (former Buckeyes, Mike Vrabel, Luke Fickel and Ryan Miller’s charitable organization that encourages kids to read) has their first book out, The Hog Mollies and Pickle Pie Party, and Steve Davis’s oral history, Stories of the Shoe, is slated for release late this fall. But of course, the big news is The Winner’s Manual For the Game of Life by Jim Tressel with Chris Fabry.
I recently finished the book and thought I’d give you my thoughts. First off, the background. Reportedly Coach wrote the book over a two week period. No, that doesn’t make Tressel the most prolific author this side of Stephen King, although a quote from King, as well as several quotes from Martin Luther King Jr., can be found in the book. The Winner’s Manual, or A Winner’s Manual as Tressel would have preferred it to be called, is derived from the Winner’s Manuals Tressel has passed out to his football teams dating back to the late 80’s and his days at Youngstown St. Every spring the team gets the latest edition, which is both a practical schedule and a philosophical guide book. The Winner’s Manual skips the nuts and bolts of a major college football program and sticks to the self-help underpinnings. I’m not sure how much the co-writer, Chris Fabry, contributed, but the book is definitely written in Coach Tressel’s voice.
Tressel takes you through the same fundamental teachings as the Penguins went through and the Buckeyes continue to learn from. It starts with the Block O of Life, the 6 guiding principles of Tressel’s philosophy. At Youngstown St. it was called the Wheel of Life, but was changed when he took the OSU job to the more fitting title, (can you imagine Rich Rodriguez adapting his teachings to the Michigan traditions? From what we’ve heard so far, no) and continues into the Big Ten Fundamentals. Each chapter of the book concludes with penetrating study questions and space is provided to record your answers, as Tressel challenges the readers to adapt his principles to whatever walk of life they find themselves in.
Tyndale House is the publishers, they are a Christian publishing house and published Tony Dungy’s best selling, Quiet Strength. Reading The Winner’s Manual, you can’t mistake that Coach Tressel is a Christian, throughout the book he talks about the importance of his faith in his life and how he stresses the importance of faith, whatever faith they choose to pursue, to his players. He talks in depth about Joel Penton’s Main Event and the impact that had. But he is very careful not to exclude others or be narrow-minded. As Buckeye legend Chris Speilman told me at the Main Event, “Coach Tressel does a great job of exposing his players to his religion without imposing it.” In the book, Tressel talks often about how anyone, famous or not, can be a witness for Christ. In the book’s Epilogue, Tressel goes deeper into his faith, writing in detail, about the night in 1969 that Bobby Richardson, the Yankee All-Star second baseman, asked the audience of a Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp, “If the game of life ended tonight, would you be a winner?” Tressel reveals his reaction and the steps he took that night to ensure he would be a winner in the game of life and the steps you can take to ensure your salvation.
As hinted at earlier, Tressel draws from an eclectic mix for inspiration. As expected, you can find quotes from both the Bible and religious figures (Mother Theresa and Billy Graham) as well as athletic figures (Michael Jordan, Pat Riley, Phil Jackson, Lou Gehrig, Vince Lombardi) but Tressel also draws inspiration from such diverse sources as philosophers (Voltaire and Moliere), scientists (Einstein, Edison and Pastuer), Presidents and statesmen and even entertainers. I challenge you to find another book in which Colin Powell and Liberace are both quoted.
The Winner’s Manual gives the reader an inside look into the Buckeyes program, but don’t read it expecting a lot of X’s and O’s. There are certainly a few football anecdotes sprinkled in, including a discussion on Maurice Clarett in the Hope chapter, but for the most part, the book is more about beating your inner demons, than beating Michigan.