Overview

Three star college football players and friends. One dream. Upon graduating from the University of Alabama, they vow that whoever gets the first head coach job will bring the other two along with them. Thus began their quest to be the winningest partnership of coaches the sport had ever seen. Only one lived to see their dream realized. Their story remained untold. Until now. Written by Coach Carney Laslie's granddaughter, Henry-Keefe, A Tide of Dreams is not as much about the game of college football as it is about friendship and loyalty, aspirations and dreams, and the intriguing blend of three personalities who loved the game, told against the backdrop of the history of the sport and the nation. Spanning the years 1930 - 1961, the account follows the trajectory of one of football's most legendary coaches, Coach Paul ""Bear"" Bryant of Alabama fame, and his former teammates and coaching partners, Coach Carney Laslie and Coach Frank Moseley, starting from their early days at Alabama as players, to WWII, where the three play a key role in helping to develop the Navy's most transformational program, known as the Navy V-5 Pre-Flight training, which used sports, with football as their 'secret weapon', to train the next generation of Navy pilots. Postwar, the three take the foundational elements they implemented during the war to the University of Maryland, Kentucky, and Texas A&M, where they struggle through both the growing pains of the sport and those of their partnership, with Bryant as head coach, and Laslie and Moseley his faithful, able assistants, pilot, wingman, and navigator respectively, as they strive to create championship teams with an eye always on a return to Alabama. This poignant and behind-the-scenes account not only gives dimension and understanding to one of college football's most influential and colorful personalities, but it speaks to the crucial elements of what it takes to be successful: a team. Never forgotten in the narrative is the ever important role of the families, their stories woven throughout using personal letters and diaries made accessible to the author, as well as a rich collection of photos from both private and public collections, creating an inside and fascinating look at not only the sport but what it cost for those who became the face of its success.

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9781646636877

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Carey Henry Keefe has done it-the remarkable, unknown, inside story of a rich red slice of Crimson Tide Americana! -ELLEN VAUGHN, New York Times bestselling author Never overlooked is the influence of wives and young families on the headline coaches, a factor which gives depth and humanity to the sporting evaluation, well beyond the usual 'Rah! Rah! Cis boom bah!' -WILLIAM CRISP, nephew of Alabama's Coach Hank Crisp, and author of several novels

""Carey Henry Keefe has done it-the remarkable, unknown, inside story of a rich red slice of Crimson Tide Americana!""-ELLEN VAUGHN, New York Times bestselling author ""Never overlooked is the influence of wives and young families on the headline coaches, a factor which gives depth and humanity to the sporting evaluation, well beyond the usual 'Rah! Rah! Cis boom bah!'""-WILLIAM CRISP, nephew of Alabama's Coach Hank Crisp, and author of several novels

Author Information

Carey Henry Keefe grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., and received a B.S. in Business Management from the University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia. She has written one novel, a mystery thriller loosely based on her twelve years as a medical practice administrator in Las Vegas. A humorist at heart, she has had numerous personal essays produced on NPR-affiliated stations.Keefe now writes narrative non-fiction full time, drawn to research and the telling of compelling historical events and the people behind them, and speaks regularly to groups about the fascinating account of how the Navy used sports during WWII to train aviators in a revolutionary new training regimen they named Pre-Flight Training, credited with U.S. troops coming to be known as the toughest in the world during WWII.Tidewater Virginia is home where when she's not doing research or writing, she enjoys time with family, which include six grandchildren, and watching the sun set each evening with her husband of forty four years.

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