Sweet Season: A Sportswriter Rediscovers Football, Family, and a Bit of Faith at Minnesota's St. John University

After fifteen years as a Sports Illustrated writer, pleading for interviews with large men in possession of larger egos, Austin Murphy decides to bail out. The time has come, he concludes, to fly beneath the radar of big-league sports, to while away a season with the Johnnies. So, he moves his family to the middle of Minnesota to chronicle a season at St. John's, a Division III program that has reached unparalleled success under the unorthodox guidance of John "Gags" Gagliardi.

The Sweet Season is an account of what happens when a family pulls up stakes and spends months in a strange and wonderful place. It is also, not incidentally, the story of the most incredible football program in the country, run by a smiling sage who has forgotten more about the game than most of his peers will ever know.

Looking to escape the NFL for a while, sports journalist Austin Murphy spends a sabbatical at St. John's College, a small Benedictine school in rural Minnesota, with the best record in college foot ball history. After fifteen years covering professional sports for Sports Illustrated, Murphy writes, "How unusual to go an entire season without interviewing a felon!"

Instead, he spends the season with the winningest coach in football, Coach John Gagliardi, a smiling wiseman who has forgotten more about the game than most of his peers know. But he hasn't forgotten the most important thing: that the coaches a game.

In the typically macho world of sports, this is a story about kindness and humility. It's also the story of a family, and what happens when a harried, frazzled couple has an opportunity—however brief—to slow down. Murphy, an immensely funny and appealing writer, brings his considerable charm to this already compelling story.

Publishers Weekly

Murphy, a Sports Illustrated writer whose beat exposes him to the ballyhoo of college football on fall Saturdays and the high maintenance millionaires of the NFL on Sundays, takes a season-long respite from egos and attitudes at idyllic St. John's College in Collegeville, Minn., to cover the school's Division III squad, the Johnnies. Murphy seeks rejuvenation, for himself and his relationship with his wife and two small children. He also seeks enlightenment from John Gagliardi, the Johnnies' eccentric coach whose unorthodox style includes never allowing his players to hit each other in practice. He's also the winningest active coach in NCAA football and second on the all-time list. Murphy's dry, delightful humor keeps him out of trouble when sappiness looms. Upon his final visit to the Johnnies' stadium, he writes, "Here... I will let go of the season. Here, I will bid bittersweet adieu to the Natural Bowl, my favorite sports venue of all time. Here, I will search for the Starbucks commuter mug I left under the bench this afternoon. The goddam things go for about seventeen dollars." He also shows his sportswriting talents with several vital, original descriptions reminiscent of Hunter S. Thompson's gridiron coverage. "Moore hip-faked the poor boy halfway back to Wisconsin," Murphy writes of the Johnnies' offensive star, "sold him a parcel of swampland, a used '74 AMC Pacer with a cracked engine block." Readers will also appreciate Murphy's funny, self-deprecating reflections on his family life, though the passages sometimes drag on. But invariably Murphy comes to the rescue with a well-timed one-liner, a signature of this lighthearted, enjoyable book. (Sept.) Copyright 2001 CahnersBusiness Information.

Austin Murphy is a senior writer at Sports Illustrated. He lives in northern California with his wife and their two children.