Greenpoint Crusaders
Woodside Chief
State of Grace: A Memoir of Twilight Time by Bob Timberg
Review of State of Grace
The main
problem I have with this book is that I couldn’t put
it down. I finished it in the first reading. But then my
picture is in the team photo on the front cover. I probably
have a unique prospective on the football aspects of the
book since I both played on the 59 Lynvet senior team (I
played center, started a few games and did the punting
until Ferriola returned to health) and I played against the
Lynvets (57&58 in the junior division and 60,61,62 and
63 in the senior division).
The book is about more than the Lynvet football experience
it is also about Bob Timberg’s coming of
age—his difficult family life (parents
fighting—eventually divorcing, the mothers drinking,
the fathers not quite living up to his potential, his
attending half a dozen schools in just a few years).
Flowing through the tumultuous years in his family life was
football. A football team that served as a constant mirror
of how life could be. How success was possible even to
those who and an organization that provided him sanctuary
from everything else that was coming apart around him. For
two brief years Bob Timberg played on championships
football teams—one in 1958 that swept aside all
opponents and than the 1959 team that was perhaps more
talented but was rudderless for the first half of the
session.
The story is set around the man who supplied the rudder to
the team but who himself was adrift at the same time.
The author does not spare his parents nor himself in this
book. He was much kinder to the coach, never even hinting
that Larry needed forgiveness or approval. But that is part
of what the story is about—Kelly always a little
aloof--was surrounded by players (many who were seeking his
approval) and Bob admits to having a likewise relationship
with his parents where they sought his approval. It is as
if the examination of Kellys life, a person he greatly
admired for his coaching qualities and yet who floundered,
eased the pain of accepting that sometimes in life talent
isn't enough and also that sometimes some people just
aren’t meant to be married At the end of the book Bob
movingly admits that while he never gave them the credit
they deserved he states he is “glad that I’m
their kid”.
But he also realized that the troubled setting made the
Lynvet experince that much more valuable to him. And some
of his family background made it easier for him to embrace
a team populated with characters as uniquely talented and
sucessful on the field, their realm ,as he may have hoped
his parents could have been in the family that meant so
much to him. This was a time when he found a unique looking
glass called the Lynvets that enabled him to see himself
excel (in 1958 he ws the leagues high scorer-an
acommplihsihment he charactristically downplays--but must
have enjoyed greatly). This was a time in his life when he
needed that and the Lynvets provided the setting and he has
returned the favor.. You can feel how much the author was
intertwined with the events and influences that inspired
his working out, 40 years later, in a book that reads like
a novel—but it isn’t.
The players are described accurately as playing for the
love of the game—they were out of high school and
there was no place else for someone 19-21 to play the game
they loved. Most of them weren’t headed to college,
at least not to play, though some did that to. But it was
unusual. The football season comes when the temperature
starts dropping and the daytime is shortening (at least on
the east coast). During the week players practiced on
poorly lighted fields (the lighting coming from park lights
that illuminated other parts of the park—the grassy
fields (a real dream if you got to play on one—the
field qualities varied). Practice attendance usually fell
off as the season progressed (some were working late, going
to school at night or just plain tired) but the core of
these teams always showed up to practice. The coaches were
always there (without pay—not like today funded
‘social’ program athletics).
This was a world were darkness was a companion until the
weekend when you were bathed in the glorious crisp autumn
sun. Sundays were game days. You knew how to dress, how to
behave and you were willing to take as good as you gave.
Here was a world where you wanted to belong. State of Grace
returned me to the darkness of the Imperial café where you
entered Sunday night with full vision and somehow wound up
back home with blurry echo’s of ‘Shake the
thunder from down on high or ‘Over there’
coursing threw you head competing with the effort of trying
to remember—what happened—did I say that or do
that?
There was a lot of drinking, in Bob’s family, in the
live’s of most of the players—but not on
Sunday, not in the daylight. Sunday at 2:00 p.m was kickoff
time—we were in our own special place of
reverence—between the white chaulked lines is how my
brother once described a football field.
Timberg brings to life the quality of the people who played
and lived this game. They were the kind of kids that others
would tell ‘lighten up--it’s only a
game’. Maybe they never answered them back in
words—that NO. Your wrong-- its more than a game.
It’s all my hopes rolled up into 60 violent minutes.
The Lynvets and their opponents answered the "you should
lighten up crowd" with their actions. They travelled miles
by buses, trains, cars, carrying their dufflebags full of
equipment and their hearts full of hope to practice and
play between those white gridlines. And at the center of
all these teams were the coaches.
At the core of the Lynvet mystique was Larry Kelly the
coach. A person who thrived only in and around football.
His life away from football was disapointing--while many of
his players moved on to wider playing fields (some becoming
successful salesmen, some winning their battle with
alcohol, some becoming authors).
My impression is that Kelly is the main reason this book
was written. At the same time Timberg tells of how hard he
was on his own parents, for the family difficulties, the
challenges his father never met, the mother’s
drinking, he paints a picture of Kelly who had this one
narrow band of competence, in which he too could not
exhaust the promise of. Of how it almost seemed as if Kelly
were waiting to receive the acknowledgment he thought he
was due rather than pursuing his goal of coaching for a
living via the ordinary path of getting a degree as a
ticket to a coaching job (that everyone agrees he would be
good at). The undercurrent is that Bob Timberg is someone
who is willing to work for what he wants. And he
didn’t seem to understand how difficult that could be
for some—such as his father or Larry Kelly. They both
were acknowledged by those who knew them to be talented in
their fields but neither truly exhausted that promise.
Timberg relates the story of Kelly having crashed an
Football Giants function frustrated the Giants coach Allie
Sherman by talking down to him condenscendingly. Kelly had
a certain mystique that made it appear that he had an
unquestionable certainty about te rightness of his football
pronouncements and he seemed to maintain a distance from
most of the players--never giving them the approval they
craved. They always seemed to have to keep trying to earn
their positions and his approval. Maybe thats what some
good coaches do? Timberg cites the influence Kelly on for
him and Bob seems to be after trying to get his words
around that ineffable quality with which the enigmatic
Kelly mesmerized him, his teammates and annoyed, to no
end., the opponents. Timberg does catch some of the elusive
quality of the you-can-never-get-too-close-to-me Larry
Kelly--sort of (read the book to find out what 'sort of'
refers to). He tells of how Kelly came up to him in the 59
season and told him we need you on defense Bob and
truthfully your going down to easily when your tackled. And
Bob agreed. When Bob Timberg related this tale to me (he
interviewed me for the book) my reaction was—why
would you agree? Bob’s answer was “Because
Larry was right—I was going down to easily”.
That's how much faith Kelly's players had in his judgement.
To give you an idea of the drawing power of the Lynvet
organization I remember that at one practice in 1959 we had
two full scrimmages going (that’s 44 players) with
another 4 or 5 more on the sidelines. The 59 team was
loaded with talent but Larry Kelly, (the main demon that
Timberg writes to achieve a reconciliation with) was not
present—he was in Tampa Florida for his try at
college football. I was also dissapointed at his absence
because I went to play with the Lynvets because Kelly was
the coach (Garity didn't yet have a senior team--the other
eligible former Garity players went to play with Rockaway
rather than play for the Lynvets).
But as practice progressed that summer I was a little
perplexed because there were NO blocking or tackling
drills—just running plays and scrimmaging. The
current coaches assumed the skills were present and worked
on coordinating the offenses and defenses. One of the
things that changed when Kelly came back to the team half
way into the season (or it changed for the last week
leading up to the final Rockaway game anyway) was that we
were engaged in blocking and tackling drills-the practice
field was dark, lit only by street lights and we were in
pads (only a dozen players showed up) and we were hitting!
This is the football I knew and the preparation that was
missing when Kelly was missing. Nothing was taken for
granted, this was football and you earned your keep. I
remember being there with Eddie Steffens, who is portrayed
in the book as steady Eddie—its an apt moniker.
Eddie, was quiet, serious and extremely talented. He also
had a grip like an organatang. He was a no nonsense player,
whose side kick was Teddy Speiss. Teddy was a fullback but
unfortunately for him so was John Faulkner—Teddy
probably got less playing time than I did that year. But,
for insight into both Teddy and Larry Kelly, you have to
look no further than 1960 when Kelly switched Teddy to the
line (a completely new position for him) and I believe
Teddy won the most valuable lineman award for the league.
Timberg couldn’t put everything into the book but he
effectively sets the mood of the time. The seriousness of
the players, who in many cases (certainly my own) had
almost nothing else going for them in life except knowing
how to behave on a playing field.. That’s a small
area to bank all your life’s dreams on, but, like
alcohol, it sometimes works in the short run.
His family life was difficult and in his case his parents
were somewhat talented, which in itself is not always a
blessing. He weaves between his family, football and
academic life with the skill of a master story teller.
Bob tells the story of the colorful Mrs. Wickers, whose son
played against the Lynvets and how she ventured on to the
field and pretty much facilitated a riot. The league only
had 4 teams that year so we had to play Baisley Park
(Wickers team) twice. The game was played at Victory field
with a police presence and no fan disruption. The brawl at
the first game was memorable enough that it warranted the
police presence.
The books revelations of his complex family dramas and his
surviving them only reinforce the impression I had of him
in 1959, which was that of an earnest serious somewhat
introverted ball player – who did his job. He was
also fascinated by the outlandish shennigans of some of the
teams characters who must have seemed, to some one so
earnest ,to be without cares and unburdened by lifes
situations. Because all they cared about seemed to be
wrapped up in Sundays score.
There are three things I hope that come about because of
this book. (1) I hope it reaches a wide audience- the story
is told well and it successfully captures the times. (2)
This thought is not original with me, my brother first
mentioned it, there is a potential for a movie based on
this book. The characters are colorful, the times are
interesting and I have seen enough films of the gangs in
the fifties—Timburg's book represents what was really
transpiring.. (3) Finally —that all those who played
in those wonderful games and on those never to be replaced
teams spew forth their remembrances, photos, stories etc on
websites and blogs and we can all relive the times when we
were much better than we remembered.