Scoreless

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Scoreless

Omaha Central, Creighton Prep, and Nebraska's Greatest High School Football Game

John Dechant 
Foreword by Gale Sayers

288 pages
29 photographs, 1 table

Paperback

September 2016

978-0-8032-8572-9

$18.95 Add to Cart
eBook (EPUB)
Ebook purchases delivered via Leaf e-Reader

September 2016

978-0-8032-9510-0

$18.95 Add to Cart
eBook (PDF)
Ebook purchases delivered via Leaf e-Reader

September 2016

978-0-8032-9512-4

$18.95 Add to Cart

About the Book

In October 1960, Omaha Central and Creighton Prep met for what many Nebraskans consider the greatest high school football game ever played. Future NFL Hall of Famer Gale Sayers scored seventy points while leading Central’s powerful offense through its first four games. Prep’s strong defense, on the other hand, allowed only twenty points all season. Legendary coaches patrolled both sidelines, and Prep was aiming for its third straight state championship. The stage was set for a Friday-night showdown.

Fifteen thousand fans packed into Omaha’s Municipal Stadium to watch the early season championship clash. Stubborn defenses ensured parity. Back and forth the teams battled, mired around the 50-yard line, punt after punt soaring into the sky. With no overtime to settle things and the defenses holding fast, the game ended in a scoreless tie. When both teams won their remaining games, they shared the state title that year.

Scoreless retells the details of this legendary game, the buildup to it, and the story behind the teams and their renowned coaches and players. It is the tale of one of the most remarkable football games in Nebraska high school sports history.
 

Author Bio

John Dechant is the author of nine books and coauthor of Truth and Other Tall Tales. His writing has also appeared in a variety of Nebraska magazines. Gale Sayers attended Omaha Central High School before becoming a two-time All-American football player at the University of Kansas. He played seven seasons in the NFL with the Chicago Bears, was an All-Pro five times, and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977.

Praise

"[Scoreless] should have appeal beyond the alumni of both schools, especially for fans of Sayers and those who enjoy Omaha history—sports-related or not."—Stu Pospisil, Omaha World-Herald

"A book that will be of interest to sports readers in the Omaha and Council Bluffs region and beyond."—Michael J. Smith, Nebraska History

“John Dechant’s great feel for his subject brings to life an innocent age of high school football and dusts off one of that sport’s most brilliant gems. One of the game’s all-time greats and a never-to-be-forgotten contest make for a delightful read.”—Jonathan Rand, author of Fields of Honor: The Pat Tillman Story
 

“John Dechant’s Scoreless is peerless among sports books focused on a particular game or season. Scoreless digs deep and reads fast, busting all the right moves, jukes and shakes, reminiscent of a glorious Gale Sayers dash to pay dirt.”—Mike Towle, author of I Remember Walter Payton 

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Foreword
Prologue
Part 1. The Fundamentalists
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Part 2. Fall 1960
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Part 3. Scoreless
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Part 4. As Good As It Gets
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Bibliographic Essay

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