About this item
In the summer of 1959, most of the town of Braddock, Pennsylvania---along with half a million steel workers around the country---went on strike in the longest labor stoppage in American history. With no paychecks coming in, the families of Braddock looked to its football team for inspiration.The Braddock Tigers had played for five amazing seasons, a total of 45 games, without a single loss. Heading into the fall of '59, this team from just outside Pittsburgh, whose games members of the Steelers would drop by to watch, needed just eight victories to break the national record for consecutive wins. Sports Illustrated and other media descended upon the banks of the Monongahela River to profile the team and its revered head coach, future Hall of Famer Chuck Klausing, who molded his boys into winners while helping to effect the racial integration of his squad.
About the Author
Greg Nichols has followed his penchant for place-based reporting from the barrios of South America to the steel towns of Western Pennsylvania. He holds a BA in philosophy from the University of California at Santa Barbara and an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College in Boston. He lives in Los Angeles, where he hikes, rides a motorcycle, and ekes out a living writing for magazines. STRIKING GRIDIRON is his first book.
