3rd Down and Forever: Joe Don Looney and the Rise and Fall of an American Hero

Here is a great biography of one the most fascinating sports characters in American History. Joe Don embodied the odyssey of many athletes during the turbulent '60's. His rebelion from the atuhoritarian and draconian mindset of the "Football Coach" was an inspiration to many guys from my generation who endured the lash of the omnipotent Coachs who ruled through fear and intimdation. It was the same mindset that sent many of the baby boomer generation to their early graves in Vietnam. Joe Don gave the ruling [...] the finger. He knew personal integrity mattered more than social mores that choked the life out you. Oliver Stone should do a movie of Joe Don's life if he really wanted to capture the essence of the 60's

In contrast to the reviewer who wrote "Still Searching for the Real Joe Don", I found Clark's treatment sympathetic to the values which guided Looney's travels & travails. Yet, to the author's credit, this end was accomplished without the wholesale denigration of the larger society's beliefs as embodied by Looney's parents, Bud Wilkinson and the U.S. Government. In walking this fine line Clark allows the reader to draw his own conclusion as to the worth or viability of bucking the system. I suspect the previous reviewer knew Looney personally. It is likely that no biograper could give a satisfactory account of the many traits and nuances which coalesce in an individual psyche, when that individual was our own colleague. I believe criticism is due Publisher's Weekly for smugly labeling Looney's life a "seemingly unworthy topic". In fact, Looney is a fascinating, legendary character whose life can be appreciated on multiple levels: 1) As pure, unscripted entertainment--no Hollywood production could match Looney's emotional turbulence, humorous pranks & quips, gridiron exploits, drug involvement and esoteric philosophy--which leads me to ask in amazement why his life hasn't already been made into a movie 2) As a sociological study in the conflict of individual expression with the ethos of consumption in post-war Texas suburbia during the "era of plenty" 3) Looney can be identified as the prototype of the modern football athlete with his emphasis on nutrition and seminal status as a weightlifter 4) Last but not least, Looney's experience is a tale of soul-searching which led him to discard the excess of inherited baggage in the pursuit of a happiness that was custom tailored to his own needs. In conclusion, Clark's rendering of the last few years of Looney's life suggests that Joe Don was a comparatively happy man. I would have been curious to see, had Looney lived longer, whether he could have orchestrated a more complete reconciliation with his parents and daughter. That finale would have proved Joe Don's nirvanna. At this late date, I am suprised that "3rd Down and Forever" has failed to garner greater recognition as it appears to me to have broad appeal.