The Fighting Tigers II; LSU Football, 1893-1980
John Musemeche [Photograph on back of jacket] Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1980. Revised Edition (Stated). Presumed first printing. Hardcover. Illustrated endpapers. xi, [1], 411, [1] pages. DJ has wear, soiling, tears and chips. Foreword by Paul Dietzel. Illustrations. Sources and Acknowledgments. Appendix. Index. Peter Paul Finney was born on Oct. 17, 1927, and grew up in the French Quarter, where he was an altar boy at St. Louis Cathedral. At Jesuit High School, he was editor of The Blue Jay, the school newspaper. Shortly after graduation, he went to work freelancing for The States. His first byline, for a story about American Legion baseball, ran on June 22, 1945, the day that the Battle of Okinawa ended in victory for the Allies. That fall, he enrolled at Loyola University, where he graduated in 1949 with a degree in journalism. Eight years later, he earned a master's degree in the subject at LSU. Mr. Finney was at places to write about major sporting events such as LSU's Tiger Stadium during Billy Cannon's legendary 89-yard punt return on Halloween Night 1959 in the annual grudge match against the University of Mississippi; John Gilliam's 94-yard touchdown return of the opening kickoff at the first Saints game at Tulane Stadium; and Tom Dempsey's record-setting 63-yard field goal for the Saints. In addition to his newspaper work, Finney wrote two books: "The Fighting Tigers, 1893-1993: One Hundred Years of LSU Football" and "Pistol Pete: The Story of College Basketball's Greatest Star," about Pete Maravich. Mr. Finney was a 17-time recipient of the Louisiana Sportswriter of the Year Award. He was inducted into the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame in 1998 and, a year later, into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame. Pete Finney, a sports reporter and columnist for 68 years who covered every type of athletic endeavor from American Legion baseball to dozens of Super Bowls, with prizefighting thrown in for good measure. Mr. Finney, whose perpetual cheer masked a determination to nail down every fact and detail, turned out nearly 15,000 columns in a career that began in the waning days of World War II and ended three years after the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl in 2010. He was on hand in Miami Gardens, Fla., for the Saints' 31-17 victory in Super Bowl XLIV over the Indianapolis Colts, with their New Orleans-born quarterback, Peyton Manning. Mr. Finney, who covered 40 Super Bowls, had been on hand nearly 44 years earlier for the birth of the team, too. Writing on the front page of The States-Item under the all-capital-letters banner headline proclaiming "N.O. GOES PRO!," Mr. Finney announced that New Orleans had landed a professional-football franchise. The date was Nov. 1, 1966, which just happened to be All Saints' Day. That was 21 years into a career that had begun shortly after Mr. Finney graduated from Jesuit High School in 1945. He started at The New Orleans States, which became The States-Item in 1958, when it merged with The New Orleans Item. In 1980, Mr. Finney began his career when reporters banged out their stories on manual typewriters. By the time he wrote his last column, when he was writing for the grandchildren of his original readers, Mr. Finney and his fellow scribes had graduated to laptops. Condition: Very good / Good.
Keywords: Louisiana State University, College Football, Lynn Amedee, Billy Cannon, James Corbett, Paul Bryant, Bear Bryant, Paul Dietzel, Huey Long, Warren Rabb, Jerry Stovall, Bernie Moore
ISBN: 0807107662
[Book #84963]
Price: $75.00