{"id":665,"date":"2018-12-31T13:19:17","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T13:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=665"},"modified":"2018-12-31T13:19:17","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T13:19:17","slug":"glenn-dromgooles-texas-reads-column-appears-weekly-at-lonestarliterary-com-37","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=665","title":{"rendered":"Glenn Dromgoole’s Texas Reads column appears weekly at LoneStarLiterary.com"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/span><\/span>Texas Reads<\/span>>> archive<\/span><\/a><\/span>Glenn Dromgoole<\/span><\/h1>\n

9.25.16\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Author relates history of Texas Prison Rodeo<\/h1>\n

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<\/a><\/span><\/span>I never made it to the Texas Prison Rodeo in Huntsville,<\/span> but it was quite an event when I was growing up in Southeast Texas. My dad was a Baptist preacher and he thought our family had better things to do on Sundays than go to a rodeo.<\/p>\n

The event, billed as the \u201cWorld\u2019s Fastest and Wildest Rodeo,\u201d started in 1931 and continued until 1986, staged on Sunday afternoons in October and drawing 30,000 spectators at its peak.<\/p>\n

Mitchel P. Roth,<\/span> a historian who teaches criminology and criminal justice at Sam Houston State University, has produced the first comprehensive history of the rodeo \u2014 Convict Cowboys: The Untold History of the Texas Prison Rodeo<\/span><\/a><\/span> (University of North Texas Press, $32.95 hardcover). Thoroughly researched and compellingly written, the 436-page book deals with the history of the prison system in Texas as well as the rodeo itself and the many guest celebrities who performed there.<\/p>\n

Three teams, one season, too many commas: <\/span>Author Nick Eatman<\/span> had written two books about Texas football \u2014 one on the Dallas Cowboys and a biography of former Baylor coach Art Briles. For his third book, he decided he would spend a season following three teams \u2014 a high school team, a college team, and a pro team. Quite an undertaking.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/span>The result is Friday, Saturday, Sunday in Texas: A Year in the Life of Lone Star Football, From High School to College to the Cowboys<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Dey Street, $26.99 hardcover). The three teams Eatman selected to follow through the 2015 season were the Plano Wildcats, the Baylor Bears, and the Dallas Cowboys, all with very high hopes for the season.<\/p>\n

Things didn\u2019t quite work out for any of the teams. Plano, despite a highly touted running back, struggled. The Cowboys collapsed after quarterback Tony Romo broke his collarbone, twice. Baylor\u2019s championship dreams were dashed when its top two quarterbacks suffered season-ending injuries, and then the program\u2019s very existence was suddenly in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

Even so, if you like football, Eatman\u2019s behind-the-scenes stories make interesting reading. Each chapter chronicles a week in the life of all three teams, beginning with high school on Fridays, college on Saturdays and pro on Sundays.<\/p>\n

However, I must add that Eatman and his editors at Dey Street, an imprint of mega publisher HarperCollins, allowed annoying comma mistakes to permeate the book \u2014 so many that when I read an advanced copy, I emailed the publicist and was assured they would be fixed in the final, edited version. They weren’t.<\/p>\n

To cite just one example, and they are numerous: \u201cDuring the football season, the only time you might catch Dallas head coach, Jason Garrett, watching any television\u2026.\u201d Of course, there shouldn\u2019t be commas before and after Jason Garrett. If there had been a \u201cthe\u201d in front of \u201cDallas head coach,\u201d then the commas would be appropriate. Otherwise, it should read \u201cDallas head coach Jason Garrett\u201d without commas.<\/p>\n

Glenn Dromgoole\u2019s<\/span> latest book is More Civility, Please. <\/span>Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.<\/p>\n

>> Read his past Texas Reads columns in Lone Star Literary Life here.<\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas Reads>> archiveGlenn Dromgoole 9.25.16\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Author relates history of Texas Prison Rodeo I never made it to the Texas Prison Rodeo in Huntsville, but it was quite an event when I was growing up in Southeast Texas. My dad was a Baptist preacher and he thought our family had better things to do on Sundays […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}