Golden Boy

Rating:
Summary: Not so Golden
Review: I have met Paul Hornung in person twice. The second time was in Green Bay when I bought this book at a book signing. Not only did Hornung charge full price for the book, he charged an additional $15 for his signature! I was the only person in line at the time and as a common courtesy I stuck out my hand to shake his after getting my book. At first it looked like he wouldn't even shake my hand. He finally relented and gave me a dead fish handshake without removing the Sharpie from his hand. Reading this book was about as satisfying as that handshake. Hornung is big on name dropping, but seems to have little use for the common fan.

This book reads easily, but is not rewarding. It contains many unflattering items about Hornung. He got his girlfriend pregnant in college and let her go off and have an abortion. Hornung told her whatever she did to keep it quiet to avoid any bad publicity. Certainly, everyone has heard about the womanizing and Hornung readily admits that much of it occurred while he was married to his first wife. He also admits to smoking marijuana on multiple occasions and trying cocaine once (he didn't like it). Gambling is justified as a way of life learned from his Louisville upbringing. An episode in which Hornung used insider information on a player's injury to place a large college bowl game bet is detailed. His embarassing comments regarding lowering Notre Dame's admission standards to get "the black athlete" are also discussed. Hornung seems truly amazed that just apologizing like a good Catholic going to confession (which Hornung doesn't believe in) hasn't enabled him to continue broadcasting Notre Dame football games.

I was astounded by the great number of factual errors in this book. It made me wonder if the publisher has any fact checkers on staff. Off the top of my head, I remember these errors:

Forrest Gregg was said to retire before the 1967 season to become an assistant coach at Tennessee. In reality, Gregg played for the Packers through the 1970 season.

Fred Williamson was said to be on the Oakland Raiders team that played in Super Bowl II instead of the Kansas City Chiefs team that played in Super Bowl I.

Hornung incorrectly states that the score of Super Bowl I was 37-10 instead of 35-10.

Frank Gifford is said to be on the original Monday Night Football team instead of Keith Jackson.

Hornung states that he didn't like Dan Devine because he crippled the Packers franchise by wasting several number one draft picks on Dan Fouts. It that were true, it might have been a good trade. Actually, Devine sent five high draft picks to San Diego for John Hadl not Dan Fouts.

Eddie Lee Ivery's last name is incorrectly spelled Ivory.

I think Paul Hornung still sees himself as a matinee idol. He has basically lived life on scholarship and I guess he figured he could cash in on this book without a great deal of effort. It is obvious that more effort should have gone into this book. For my money, Hornung is overrated. It never ceases to amaze me how he is given more credit for the Packers success of the 1960's than leading rushing Jim Taylor.



Rating:
Summary: Golden Forever
Review: On the field and off Paul Hornung was a champion, and his memoir GOLDEN BOY details what it felt like to be the star player on a mediocre team, and then the switch, to play well on the greatest team in America, and the magic transformation, he attests, was "like a light bulb going on in your head." Booze, gambling, and lots of women did him in, but his off-season (and in season!) night clubbing is fascinating forty years on, hearing about the way he interrupted a card game between John Wayne and Ward Bond, yet not recalling Bond's name, he mumbles, "You always play the SOB, right?" Wayne says, "Yeah, Paul, he's an SOB, but he's my SOB." Hornung's not afraid to tell stories on himself. I like the way the one man called him, "Meat," and when Paul asks why, the player says, "because you're the best-looking piece of meat I've ever seen." A lot of men feel that way about Paul Hornung, there's isn't a sexual thing going on, or not much of one. The trumpeter Al Hirt gives him a $25,000 ring right off his finger, saying, "This is from me to you, I love you." It's romantic, but not sexual. Frank Sinatra called him "Pablo." Those were the glory days. But Paul made a bad mistake, he turned down Sinatra when Frank offered to stand him a drink, and as Jilly Rizzo said, "That was a no-no." In another scary sequence, paul gets rolled, his drink spiked with scopolamine, and his Rolex and money taken from him. He wakes up in Bellevue, and the police tell him, he was lucky he had something that the ambushers wanted. "If they hadn't have gotten something," said one of the officers, "they'd have killed your ass right there." He was great in his part in DEVIL's BRIGADE, though he'll never win an Oscar, and maybe he should have made more of a run at movie stardom. He's not a racist, I don't think, but at the last minute a zippy epilogue addresses this possibility in the wake of the fuss last March when he talked about blacks at Notre Dame. You be the judge. In the meantime, you've bought yourself a seat right at the forty yard line and you're in for a super bowl's worth of fun.

Rating:
Summary: Old School Still Shines
Review: Paul Hornung was a great player on legendary Green Bay Packer teams in the 60's--tho his career was cut short by his gambling suspension (1963) and his injuries, his record 176 points (in a 14 game season or was it 12?) scored by passing, running and kicking still stands today. His playboy reputation and his candid no holes barred approach to life during the the burgeoning time of NFL TV marketing exposure (early sixties) captured the imagination of many football fans at the time. In the book is a photo of his ad sponsoring Marlboro cigarettes- smoking in the locker room and on the sidelines by coaches was commonplace back then. His exploits were probably of the same proportion as the late great Johnny Blood who also played for the Packers back in the ol days....Yet in this new media environment he served as a mythic catalyst to intense media hero worship that later resulted in Joe Namath and then all the rest...Hornung tells his tale in a personal manner, straight talk...really doesn't apologize for much (except for his recent remarks about Notre Dame football that were perceived as racist and got him fired from radio broadcasts of the game) and goes on to list numerous exploits, memories and good times with the high and mighty of Las Vegas showbiz...He talks about football past and present with insight and intelligence. Hornung does not dip into great exploitive detail about his off the field conquests which is refreshing. He clearly has led the charmed life and admits to most of his mistakes. I think his ongoing defense of gambling is a bit over the top but his assertion that it's not much different than wagering in the stock market also rings true. It was clear from the start his life was going to be much bigger than football and his off the field success has amply demonstrated this. He regrets not telling Vince Lombardi he loved him...thats too bad but Vince must have know that.. he had to. So as a football yesterday memory trip (especially to Packer fans) back to the real glory days of football this a very fine example. And there is no doubt this guy could score.

Rating:
Summary: As deep as condensation on a windshield
Review: Reading this book , one might conclude that only five things mattered to Paul Hornung: football, alcohol, women (perhaps sex with women is more accurate), gambling and nightclubs (and the entertainers and hoods who inhabited them). As a window into the personality of a rather shallow and non-reflective human being, this book might be worthwhile. On any other level, it is a failure. It offers little insight into the game of football, it's evolution over the 50's and 60's, or the people who played it for Notre Dame or the Green Bay Packers. (Instant Reply or Distant Replay are both far superior). What kind of school was Notre Dame? I can't remember any class even being mentioned? Did Hornung appreciate the unique environment of professional football in a small town like Green Bay, Wisconsin. Again, not a word.
The book reads like a quickie done for pocket change. Some of the factual errors are quite remarkable: Hornung states that Fred Williamson played for the Raiders and got "hammered" in Super Bowl II. Wrong: he played for the Chiefs in Super Bowl I. He states that Frank Gifford was on the original broadcast team for Monday Night Football. Wrong: Gifford joined in the second season, replacing Keith Jackson. One wonders if Hornung actually read the ghostwriter's script.


Rating:
Summary: long gone era
Review: Somewhat interesting, but Hornung is a fossil from four decades ago.
Let his career and life rest in peace.
He died several years ago.

Rating:
Summary: Uncomfortable feeling...
Review: When writing a book like this - you simply MUST get your facts straight or no one is going to believe you... If you cannot even get the factual stuff right, then it is hard if not impossible, to believe the opinion sort of stuff... I can give a bunch of examples - He had the score of the first Super Bowl wrong - NOT 37-10 (it was 35-10) - He had the record of the first year of the New Orleans Saints wrong - NOT 3 & 8 (it was 3 & 11) and his own stats in the back do not add up properly...There are well over a dozen such errors & it would be too boring to list them all - Lots of the stuff may have been simple typos, but still, someone should be checking that sort of stuff before it goes to press - It creates some doubt over pretty much the entire work. But then there are even the other kinds of stories which are clearly more than just errors in data. One example is when he talks about his running mate in the Green Bay backfield, Jimmy Taylor. He states that Taylor played on a national championship team @ LSU, but was overshadowed by Billy Cannon. This is simply NOT TRUE!!! Taylor played on two VERY mediocre LSU teams and HE, not Cannon, was the star of those teams. Taylor graduated & went on to play in the NFL, Cannon remained @ LSU for two more years - it was THEN that Cannon became a star - LSU won the National Championship (AFTER Taylor had graduated) and then Cannon went on to win the Heisman Trophy the following year (again AFTER Taylor was in the NFL) - Hornung had some blockbuster things to say in his book - but the thing is... there are so many errors that I am sure of... it just gives me an uncomfortable feeling that he is just throwing things out there that are just plain wrong. I just wonder how much of any of it is true? ... Also... ol' Paul is pretty full of himself... it will only take you a few pages to realize this. I did enjoy reading the book overall, it brought back a lot of memories, but as I finished the book, "uncomfortable" is the best way I can sum up my feelings about it...