The remarkable biography of a small-town athlete who became one of the greatest players in NFL history. Bronislau "Bronko" Nagurski was a superstar for the NFL in the 1930s and one of the pioneer players of the league. He led the Chicago Bears to success on the gridiron as a larger-than-life personality, helping raise the popularity of the NFL during the Great Depression. In Bronko: The Legendary Story of the NFL's Greatest Two-Way Fullback, NFL Films historian Chris Willis tells the remarkable story of how Bronko became an NFL legend. Throughout his nine-year NFL career, Bronko's name became synonymous with power football. While the new league fought to gain respect and recognition, Bronko immediately captured the attention of sports fans in Chicago and across the country. The bruising fullback could do everything: run, block, tackle, and even throw the occasional pass. With the complete cooperation of the Nagurski family and unlimited access to personal letters, family scrapbooks, and photos, Bronko is the definitive biography of a true sports pioneer and NFL great.
Chris Willis is the head of the Research Library at NFL Films. He is the author of multiple books on professional football, including A Nearly Perfect Season: The Inside Story of the 1984 San Francisco 49ers; Walter Lingo, Jim Thorpe, and the Oorang Indians: How a Dog Kennel Owner Created the NFL's Most Famous Traveling Team; and Red Grange: The Life and Legacy of the NFL's First Superstar, all published by Rowman & Littlefield. Willis was nominated for an Emmy in 2002 for his work on the HBO documentary The Game of Their Lives and won an Emmy in 2016 for his work on HBO's Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Houston Texans. He was awarded the Professional Football Researchers Association's Ralph Hay award for lifetime achievement in pro football research and historiography in 2012.
A well-researched and extremely informative book about the early days of the NFL and one of its greatest players.--Robert W. Cohen, author of The 50 Greatest Players in Chicago Bears History The legend of Bronko Nagurski as one of pro football's pioneer stars is detailed like never before in this outstanding retrospective narrative by Chris Willis. The background of Nagurski's life before, during, and after his playing days, is both insightful and entertaining. Chris Willis has previously written some great books about a variety of NFL teams and players. This book might be his very best, and that is saying a lot.--Joe Zagorski, Pro Football Writers of America
