Book Review: The NFL's 60-Minute Men: All-Time Greats of the Two-Way Player Era, 1920-1945

By John Turney

A new book by Chris Willis drops on Friday, and I know what you're thinking: Who's Chris Willis? Good question. He's one of the foremost pro football historians, as well as the head archivist and producer at NFL Films and someone who won an Emmy for his work on HBO's "Hard Knox" series.

In short, he's a pro football encyclopedia ... and memo to Hall-of-Fame voters: His new book is proof.

It's entitled "The NFL's 60-Minute Men: All-Time Greats of the Two-Way Player Era, 1920-1945," and it's a foray into the best players in the first two-and-a-half decades of the National Football League. Included are biographies of Willis' top 45 players from that era, with names you know -- such as Dutch Clark, Red Grange, Bronko Nagursk and Don Hutson -- and some you may not, like Joe Kopcha, Charley Brock and Father Lumpkin.

Willis ranks them from top to bottom and makes the case for each, with the help of interviews he did or collected from other works, as well as all-time teams picked by the players themselves ... and let me explain: If, for instance, Curly Lambeau or Mel Hein picked teams, they could ... and often would .. be part of Willis' analyses. He also uses quotes, available statistics, All-Pro teams and other criteria to come to his conclusions.

To describe it as comprehensive would be an understatement. 

In addition, Willis reviews each season from 1920-37 and picks a "Retro-MVP," someone who should've been the MVP in, say, 1922 or 1927, and re-evaluates league winners from 1938-45 -- the years prior to the creation of the official NFL Most Valuable Player award.

All of his choices are supported by impeccable research (the list of sources, end notes, bibliography and index are 21 pages alone), and maybe you agree with them; maybe you don't. But you can't say Willis didn't do his homework.

He did. And then some.

For Hall-of-Fame voters, especially those on the seniors' committee,  the final chapter is noteworthy. That's because Willis picks his All-Time two-way team -- both a first-and second-team -- which could serve as a resource for future debates on pre-World War II stars. Because of his access to old films, Willis is in a unique position to make his picks have special gravitas.

Best of all, the book is entertaining, with most of the chapters having photos to accompany the text. It's an educational experience where you're guided through an era too often forgotten, but it doesn't read like a textbook. You're introduced to the players, discover what drew them to the pro game and hear what their peers thought of them and why history should remember them.

That's one reason I recommend it. The other is the author: Chris Willis is so noteworthy that the Pro Football Hall of Fame picked him for the "blue-ribbon panel" that chose its Centennial Class of 2020. Furthermore, he's the author of eight previous books,  with biographies of Dutch Clark, Grange, Nagurski and Joe Carr among his pre-World War II (and even pre-NFL)  subjects. 

I guess what I'm saying is that, if you care about NFL history, you should read his latest work. I strongly believe it becomes one of the iconic volumes on the great two-way players of the early days of the NFL -- ones with nicknames like "Dutch," "Tuffy," "Ace," "Whizzer," "Slingin' Sammy" and "Blood" and who played in leather helmets on dirt and rock fields.

And, of course, who played both ways.