Giants and Heroes: A Daughter's Memories of Y.A. Tittle

Sporting News, The, Feb 5, 1996 by Steve Gietschier

(By Dianne Tittle de Laet. 261 pp. Steerforth Press. $25).

The "note on the author" on the last page of this distinctive book calls Dianne Tittle de Laet "a poet and harpist dedicated to the re-creation of women's voices from the Sumerian, Old Testament and Greek oral traditions." Her music is a far cry from the sounds native to Caddo fake and Marshall, Tex., the small town where her father, the inestimable Hall of Fame quarterback Y.A. Tittle, grew up and learned to throw a football. And her book is a far cry as well from the typical sports memoir.

From time to time, relatives of prominent athletes have written about their illustrious family members. To cite two examples, Lou Gehrig's wife wrote about the Iron Horse, and Bob Hurley Sr., father of basketball players Bobby and Danny, published "Divided Loyalties" (reviewed in INN, January 10, 1994) after Bobby's Duke team and Danny's Seton Hall team lost early in the 1993 NCAA Tournament. But none of the books in this genre is remotely comparable to de Laet's remarkable effort.

Book lovers know that some of the objects of their affections appeal right from the get-go. They look good, they feel good and, once opened, they read good, too. Indeed, even before the "Hut 1" that starts this book's preface, it is clear that readers are in for a treat. And yet, this is not an easy book to read or one that can be consumed quickly.

Y.A. Tittle played high school football in Marshall and then deserted the state and the University of Texas to attend Louisiana State. His extraordinary passing ability inspired Coach Bernie Moore to abandon the single wing for the T-formation. The Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference were impressed and grafted him in 1948, the year before Dianne was born. Y.A. played two seasons with the AAFC Baltimore Colts after being traded by the Browns, one With the 1950 NFL Colts, 10 with the San Francisco 49ers and four with the New York Giants. He played in seven Pro Bowls and three title games and was named the NFL's MVP in 1957, '61, '62 and '63. He held a slew of passing records, including 36 touchdown passes in 1963, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1971.

Dianne watched this career as a precocious child, but a child nevertheless, whose father's drive was hard to comprehend. In this book she revisits his life and her own, too, patched together from memories, conversations, dreams and photographs, and refracted through her understanding of Greek athletic heroes and the odes celebrating them. She comes to a new appreciation for professional football and for a bygone age during which one of the game's greatest players not only called his own plays but also sold insurance in the offseason to make ends meet.