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by Carey Henry Keefe (Author)
Paul Bryant. Carney Laslie. Frank Moseley. Three friends and college football teammates at the University of Alabama. Their dream? To become the winningest team of coaches in the sport. Upon graduating from Alabama, they vow between themselves that the first one to land a Head Coaching job will bring the other two along with him. Written by Carey Henry Keefe, the granddaughter of Coach Carney Laslie who was known as the right-hand man of Coach Paul Bear Bryant, A Tide of Dreams is told against the backdrop of the history of the sport and the nation, their lives intertwined from college days through WWII, when the three join an elite group of football coaching talent selected from around the country to help implement the Navy's revolutionary new physical training program for Navy pilots at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Post-war, when Maryland taps Bryant as their head coach, true to their vow to each other Bryant brings Laslie and Moseley along with him as his top assistants, and their quest begins - from Maryland, to the University of Kentucky, then to Texas A&M. Always with an eye towards returning to their alma mater. Bryant and Laslie finally arrived back at Alabama in 1958, their coaching partnership spanning till 1970, when Laslie died from an injury sustained on the practice field; theirs still considered the closest and most successful collaborative partnership in college football sports history. In Bryant's first comments to reporters after becoming the winningest coach in 1981, he acknowledged only two people by name: Carney Laslie and Frank Moseley. Sports commentators could only comment that they were "two past dead assistants". This is their story.
Keefe weaves the narrative of the three men expertly, using personal letters and diaries provided by the families, personal interviews, as well as a wealth of highly documented sources, and includes a rich collection of photos from both private and public collections within its pages. The result is both an entertaining look at the history of the sport of football, and a compelling narrative about friendship and loyalty, aspirations and dreams, and the intriguing blend of three personalities who loved the game. It is, like the account told in Seabisquit, a story of Americana, and a new vantage point from which to tell an inspirational story. Of how friendship can serve to help tame inner demons, guide the power of talents, and achieve mutual success. Giving dimension and understanding to one of college football's most influential and colorful personalities, and what it cost for those who became the face of its success.
