He ran like a crazed jackrabbit, according to one awe-struck sportswriter.
Clint Castleberry was already an Atlanta-area football sensation when he arrived at Georgia Tech in 1942, and in one meteoric college season he became a national sports hero as well. He was the first college freshman ever to be voted All-American. At least one Heisman Trophy was all but certain. Though weighing just 155 pounds, he seemed destined to become one of the greatest tailbacks in college football history. But then World War II intervened, and Castleberry became, instead, another young man whose destiny was cut short. His #19 is the only number ever retired in the illustrious history of Georgia Tech football.
Bill Chastain weaves Clint Castleberry’s story around other legends of Georgia Tech football–including John Heisman, William Alexander, and Bobby Dodd—to create a glorious portrait of a proud football tradition and America’s Greatest Generation.
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Bill Chastain began his journalism career as a freelance writer shortly
after graduating from Georgia Tech in 1979. Some of the more notable
publications where his stories have appeared over the years include:
Razor Magazine, Nation’s Business, SPORT Magazine, and Inside Sports.
Chastain worked as a sports reporter for The St. Petersburg Times and
The St. Petersburg Evening Independent before going to The Tampa Tribune
in 1990, where he worked for twelve years as a columnist and sports
reporter. While with the Tribune he also served as a correspondent for
Sports Illustrated. He is the author of Payne at Pinehurst: The
Greatest U.S. Open Ever; Purpose and Passion: Bobby Pruett and the
Marshall Years; Steel Dynasty: The Team that Changed the NFL; September
Nights: Chasing the Beasts of the American League East; Jackrabbit: The
Story of Clint Castleberry and the Improbable 1942 Georgia Tech Football
Season; Hack’s 191: Hack Wilson and His Incredible 1930 Season; and
The Steve Spurrier Story: From Heisman to Head Ball Coach. Currently he
covers Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays for MLB.com.