Back when Van Allen Plexico (’90) and John Ringer (’91) wrote their first “Wishbone” column for TWER — something about blue helmets and blue pants, surely the story of the year — the 2010 season of Auburn football still felt relatively normal. It didn’t stay that way.
Instead, it turned into the kind of season you thank God you started documenting from the beginning because, if documented correctly, you’d have a 218-page book waiting for you at the end.
Plexico, co-author of SEASON OF OUR DREAMS: The 2010 Auburn Tigers, says he knew 2010 was hitting it’s literary stride about halfway through.
“It was sort of a gradual process, I think,” says Plexico, a writer and professor of Political Science and History at Southwestern Illinois College. “We were getting lots of good comments and it and seemed like people were enjoying the columns, so pretty early on, John and I were discussing the idea of making a book out of them.”
Published by Plexico’s own White Rocket Books, the book contains every “Wishbone” column from the preseason through the fabled Date in the Desert— plus a stadium full of extras. The cover photo was taken by Plexico’s wife Ami at the BCS National Championship Game, the only Auburn game he was able to attend this season.
“I’m a fan of political commentators like Tom Friedman who [compile their columns into books], so it seemed a natural idea,” he says. “Once the season started looking really special, though– maybe after Arkansas– I started thinking more seriously about it and trying to persuade John that it was a good idea!”
How good would the idea have stayed had Auburn slipped on it’s road to Glendale?
“We would have gone ahead with the book regardless of how the season came out, though it probably would’ve had a different title if things had transpired differently on the field,” Plexico says. “And, at the time, I’m not sure what either of us would have written about had we lost in Atlanta or Glendale.
He jokes that he had a “Losing the Iron Bowl” column half-written in his head before halftime.
“Just the other day, though, it came into my head, out of nowhere, exactly what I would have written if we’d lost to Oregon,” he says. “And I’m very glad I never had to write it. Celebrating a championship –in print– was much more fun.”
SEASON OF OUR DREAMS: The 2010 Auburn Tigers is available in trade paperback ($14.95) and in Kindle format ($2.99) from Amazon.com.
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Yay Capitalism!!
Love it. Wish I could get it as an iBook!
218 pages…seems like a lot of comments are being included 🙂
SMR: Thanks! We set up an edition on Smashwords (which converts to various e-reader formats), but I was not happy with the quality so I have taken it down. Better no version in that format than a version so badly formatted that it drives people away! If I can find a way to get it to work properly, there or on another site, I’ll set it up and announce it.
Mac: Actually, we didn’t include comments… mainly because we didn’t think of it! What it does include is new material added in between each chapter/column, plus a new introduction, a new first chapter covering the preseason and the first game, new afterwords from each of us, and so on.
If you want the print copy but don’t want to bulk your Amazon order up to $25 just to get the free shipping, you can go to this site and order direct from us, via PayPal, and you’ll receive the book with *free shipping and no minimum order*, and you’ll get it at least as quickly as you would from Amazon:
http://www.whiterocketbooks.com/seasondreams.htm
(It still says “pre-order” but it’s regular “order” now!)
Hope everyone enjoys the book.
I forgot to mention: It also includes four appendices that cover season and player stats, weekly poll rankings, schedule/results. years AU could claim a national title, and nine bonus photos/illustrations.
Congrats Van! I’ve been knowing you since the old days of the AU-Sports Listserver (though you may not remember me… didn’t go by this handle in those days). Gonna get a copy tonight!
Just ordered a copy from White Rocket. War Eagle.
It would have been fun to include some of the comments with each week’s column – that was a good idea Mac.
Van and I had a great time doing the Wishbone column this year and the comments were a big part of that.
I just found an old VHS tape recording of the 1995 Iron Bowl and posted the part with Corso and my sign to YouTube. See chapter 3 of the book for the whole story (or dig back thru out Wishbone archives here).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQsoh9r0y10