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On Any Given Sunday: A Life of Bert Bell |  | Author: Robert Lyons
Publisher: Temple University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $19.60
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Seller: KeaneOnBooks
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 725521
Media: Hardcover
Edition: First
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.3 x 1.2
ISBN: 1592137318
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.332092
EAN: 9781592137312
ASIN: 1592137318
Publication Date: November 28, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Bert Bell, a native of Philadelphia, has been called the most powerful executive figure in the history of professional football. He was responsible for helping to transform the game from a circus sideshow into what has become the most popular spectator sport in America. In "On Any Given Sunday", the first biography of this important sports figure, historian Robert Lyons recounts the remarkable story of how de Benneville 'Bert' Bell rejected the gentility of a high society lifestyle in favor of the tougher gridiron and rose to become the founder of the Philadelphia Eagles and Commissioner of the National Football League. Bell, who arguably saved the league from bankruptcy by conceiving the idea for the annual player draft, later made the historic decision to introduce 'Sudden Death' overtime o a move that propelled professional football into the national consciousness. He coined the phrase 'On Any Given Sunday' and negotiated the league's first national TV contract. Lyons also describes in fascinating detail Bell's relationships with leading figures ranging from such Philadelphia icons as Walter Annenberg and John B. Kelly to national celebrities and U.S. Presidents. He also provides insight into Bell's colorful personal life o including his hell-raising early years and his secret marriage to Frances Upton, a golden name in show business. On Any Given Sunday is being published on the 50th anniversary of Bell's death. For more than 35 years, Robert S. Lyons has covered professional and college sports for the Associated Press and has contributed articles to numerous national publications. He is the author of "Palestra Pandemonium: A History of the Big Five", and co-author (with Ray Didinger) of "The Eagles Encyclopedia" (both Temple). He is the former director of the La Salle University News Bureau, editor of the university's alumni magazine, and an instructor in the school's Communications Department.
Book Description
Bert Bell, a native of Philadelphia, has been called the most powerful executive figure in the history of professional football. He was responsible for helping to transform the game from a circus sideshow into what has become the most popular spectator sport in America. In On Any Given Sunday, the first biography of this important sports figure, historian Robert Lyons recounts the remarkable story of how de Benneville “Bert” Bell rejected the gentility of a high society lifestyle in favor of the tougher gridiron, and rose to become the founder of the Philadelphia Eagles and Commissioner of the National Football League.
Bell, who arguably saved the league from bankruptcy by conceiving the idea for the annual player draft, later made the historic decision to introduce “sudden death” overtime—a move that propelled professional football into the national consciousness. He coined the phrase “on any given sunday” and negotiated the league’s first national TV contract. Lyons also describes in fascinating detail Bell’s relationships with leading figures ranging from such Philadelphia icons as Walter Annenberg and John B. Kelly to national celebrities and U.S. Presidents. He also provides insight into Bell’s colorful personal life—including his hell-raising early years and his secret marriage to Frances Upton, a golden name in show business.
On Any Given Sunday is being published on the 50th anniversary of Bell’s death.
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Fascinating Thoroughly-Researched Biography March 9, 2010
football_fan (Philadelphia)
As Don Shula says in his Foreword to On Any Given Sunday, "It's hard to believe that it's been 50 years since Bert Bell's death and that no one has ever chronicled the life of this remarkable man. Fortunately, Bob Lyons has finally filled the void with a fascinating, thoroughly-researched biography that not only details the accomplishments of one of the finest commissioners in the history of professional sports, but offers a unique glimpse into a long-forgotten era of the National Football League."
Not only is Lyons' biography meticulously researched, it is colorfully-written with dozens of anecdotes that describe the many faces and talents of a man, who founded and served as the first coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, and later co-owned the Pittsburgh Steelers before being elected Commissioner of the NFL in 1946.
Lyons carefully outlines in vivid detail how much Bert Bell did for professional football. He saved the league from bankruptcy by conceiving the concept for a player draft -- a great idea that paved the way for colleges preparing athletes to play in the NFL at no cost to the league. In addition to explaining the background behind some of Bell's other innovations like sudden death overtime, Lyons tells how Bell carefully developed the use of television, masterfully cultivated members of Congress when the federal government was trying desperately to nail the league for anti-trust violations, and aggressively protected the sport against unsavory characters.
We learn that it was Bert Bell who coined the phrase On Any Given Sunday. He was a well-to-do descendant of one of Pennsylvania's most influential families who quarterbacked the University of Pennsylvania to the Rose Bowl, then became a hero in World War I. Lyons also reveals for the first time that Bell played professional football against Jim Thorpe, once talked a young man by the name of Pete Rozelle out of quitting his job as general manager of the Los Angeles Rams, and helped arrange for Vince Lombardi to take over as head coach of the Green Bay Packers.
As Bob Lyons points out, Bert Bell wasn't perfect. Art Rooney, the late owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, once quipped that his good friend "touched all the bases" in his younger years. But all that changed when the beautiful Frances Upton, one of the biggest names in show business, came into his life, reformed him, and helped to bring out a tender, kindhearted personality that was often masked by a rough, tough exterior.
Bert Bell ruled the NFL with an iron hand. He was criticized in some quarters for sometimes overstepping his authority like the time that he arranged the trade of Van Brocklin to bolster the struggling Philadelphia Eagles. Some club owners didn't like it when he pushed for a players' union and pension plan. But, as Shula says, this was precisely the type of courageous, strong-willed guidance that the league needed.
The NFL is an amazing story and much of it started with Bert Bell, an incredible man whose life is captured by Lyons accurately and vividly. This book is well worth reading, especially for anyone interested in the early days of professional football.
 Something's missing - a lot of something February 16, 2010
Jeffrey S. Davis (Chicago)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As one moves through On Any Given Sunday, A life of Bert Bell, it becomes clear that author Robert S. Lyons was holding back in certain areas to the extent it seems that he was "protecting" the story of a colorful, wonderful individual whose live needed no cover. It's not that Lyons did not get interesting stories. It is obvious that Bell's sons, Bert Jr and Upton did their best to convey their feelings about a father they loved. But Bell's live at home in no way covers the nuances of his professional career. It can't. It's the nature of families that children protect their parents - as they should - and they cannot know all a reader should want and get.
The big problem all who ever covered or knew Bell was his lack of a filing system, any system to run a business as the NFL. It is fair to say that Bert Bell acted as a transitory figure from the league's origins to the ultra-slick machine that his successor Pete Rozelle developed from the time he took office at age 33 in 1960. Bell never was the league strongman during his time as the unsuccessful owner of money-starved Philadelphia Eagles franchise, nor even as the commissioner that led the league into the television age. That man, of course, was Chicago Bears founder, owner-coach, and league founder George Halas who carried the league on his back for the first 40 years of its existence. Bert Bell understood that and he understood that all major decisions must be cleared through Halas. That Halas, a Godfather-like figure, operated for the good of the league, not just the welfare of his Bears, is the single salient point Lyons missed.
In his narrative Lyons missed the obvious connection in the television era - Bert Bell's long, close, and loyal friendship with W. Wallace Orr whose TEL RA Productions gave the league its first national exposure in a weekly highlights program to the nascent telvision audience. As long as Bell lived, Orr and Tel Ram thrived in a relationship with the NFL that Rozelle would end when he turnede over league business in 1962 to his own "guy" Ed Sabol and his Blair Motion Pictures that became NFL Films. That was a hard and real fact of Bell's life as his struggle to stay alive in a losing battle with heart disease that ended his life at a football game in 1959. It deserved exposure, explanation, and a the biographer's interpretation that Lyons did not provide.
Let there be no doubt that Bert Bell was a great and wonderful man, but Bob Lyons did not convey it to the detriment of his book.
Very Good January 21, 2010
Marc R (NH)
This is a good book, it's well written and as someone who loves football history, I learned a lot. For the person o
who wants to learn about the NFL, this is a good place to start.
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