First and Long: A black school,
a white school and their season of dreams
by Greg Borowski
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In football, coaches will tell you, there are many ways to measure success. There are the statistics, of course, numbers neat and clean. But when lined up on a sheet of paper, numbers can often obscure a season more than capture it. They don’t measure the obstacles, how far the team came, how far behind it started. They don’t cover any of that, none of that at all.
For some teams, success is about never falling. For others it is about always getting back up. When Messmer, a predominately black Milwaukee high school, and Shorewood, a white suburban high school, decided to field a joint football team, it tested more than just the players’ football prowess. This is the story of that season of dreams.
Greg Borowski is a city hall reporter for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel who followed the team during that unique season.
First and Long is an award winner as one of the best sports books of 2004 from the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Midwest Independent Publishers Association. Buy now by clicking on the shopping cart button below and get a 20 percent discount to help us celebrate!
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“More than a recitation of game statistics and foibles, this engagingly written account infuses personality into the players, staff and students. Those who love high school football will find themselves rooting for this diverse group of kids who never gave up, even though they got pounded every week by bigger, better and more experienced teams.”
— Booklist, 2/15/2004
“In the tradition of great high school football stories like Remember the Titans and Friday Night Lights comes Greg Borowski’s inspiring story of the Little Team That Thought It Could, But Couldn’t. Over the course of a winless and increasingly hopeless season, a small group of determined kids learned valuable lessons about perserverance, brotherhood, and life — and so does the reader. I can’t wait to see the movie.”
— Jim Dent, author, The Junction Boys
“Borowski seems to find all of America in a one-mile stretch of Capitol Drive in Milwaukee. First and Long is a compelling account of rich and poor, black and white, urban and suburban youth all trying — against long odds — to move to the same snap count.”
— Steve Rushin, Sports Illustrated columnist
“First and Long is an excellent example of how young men from totally different backgrounds can come together in pursuit of athletic success. My entire athletic/sports experience was fueled with the belief that great things are possible through athletics regardless of race, color or family resources.”
— Willie Davis, Green Bay Packers great and NFL Hall of Fame member
First and Long
Publication date: February 2004
Softcover: ISBN 1-932542-03-5
Retail price: $16.95
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