Inside Football (Paperback or Softback)

Inside Football

Frank W. Cavanaugh

Inside Football is legendary coach Frank W. Cavanaugh's classic treatise on the art and science of coaching college football. Written while he was recuperating from wounds suffered during his military service in France with the United States Army during World War I, Cavanaugh's book remains an essential guide for the aspiring team builder. It is a bona fide sports classic by an old school coach of the old school game. Cavanaugh covers the basics, including uniforms, the player's diet, offense, defense, punting and kicking. He also discusses other rudimentary aspects of player training, some familiar, some perhaps less so, including tackling dummies, grass drills, the run-back and the punt-out. Cavanaugh also shares his personal outlook on coaching the game, how a coach should build and guide a team, and what he considers to be the "mystic nexus" of football. When Frank W. Cavanaugh's Inside Football was first published in 1919, the Washington Post called it "one of the best and most instructive works of its kind that has ever been printed."

Francis William Cavanaugh was born the son of Irish immigrants in Worcester, Massachusetts on April 28th, 1876. A star football player in high school, Cavanaugh later attended Dartmouth before accepting a coaching job at the University of Cincinnati, the first of his many successful coaching positions. In 1911 Cavanaugh was hired to lead the Dartmouth football team, where he served as head coach at Dartmouth for the next five years, building a solid reputation, and leading his team to an impressive 42-9-3 record. When the United States of America entered the ongoing war in Europe, Francis William Cavanaugh, a husband, father, and then forty-one years of age, joined the army and marched off to France. "Cav" Cavanaugh quickly rose through the ranks. On October 23rd, 1918, while in command of the 2nd Battalion of the 102nd Field Artillery, Captain Cavanaugh was grievously wounded when an enemy artillery shell struck his command dugout. Cavanaugh would leave the war with the rank of Major. After the war Cavanaugh spent a year coaching in Omaha, Nebraska before returning to Massachusetts, where he was named head coach at Boston College. Beginning in 1919, the year which saw publication of Inside Football, Cavanaugh led the Boston College Eagles to an eight season record of 48-14-5. After his tenure at Boston College, Cavanaugh would go on to coach the Fordham Rams with a record of 34-14-4 during the years 1927-1932. Over a twenty-four-year career in college football, Cavanaugh's record was 145-48-17, a career average of .731 percent. Toward the end of 1932, failing health and loss of vision due to shrapnel wounds suffered during the war would force Cavanaugh to retire from the field. He died at home, surrounded by his family, on August 29th, 1933, and was buried at St. John's Cemetery in Worcester. Cavanaugh's life and career were depicted in the 1943 Hollywood film, "The Iron Major," starring the popular 20th century Irish-American actor Pat O'Brien. Coach Frank W. Cavanaugh was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954.