Illinois Authors

The Illinois Center for the Book banner

Doug Feldmann

Born: 1970 in Elgin, IL
Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: Feldmann born in Elgin and raised in Algonquin before attending Northern Illinois University. Among his books, two were written about the Chicago Cubs, one was a biography of former Chicago Blackhawks captain Keith Magnuson, and one was a biography of former Chicago Bears kicker and Illinois Supreme Court Justice Bob Thomas.

Biography: Doug Feldmann is a professor in the College of Education at Northern Kentucky University and a former scout for the Cincinnati Reds, Seattle Mariners, and San Diego Padres. He completed his Ph.D. in Curriculum Studies at Indiana University, his master's degree in Secondary Education at Rockford College, and his bachelor's degree in English and History at Northern Illinois University (where he played baseball and was a walk-on running back on the football team). Dr. Feldmann has written extensively on baseball history and the sport's sociological impact on urban and small-town America. A multiple-time nominee for the Casey Award and the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research, Dr. Feldmann is married and lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.


Awards:
  • September Streak Nominee, Seymour Medal, Society for American Baseball Research

Primary Literary Genre(s): Fiction; Non-Fiction

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

E-Mail: feldmannd1@nku.edu
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SportsBooksByDougFeldmann
Web: http://www.dougfeldmannbooks.com/


Selected Titles

A View from Two Benches: Bob Thomas in Football and the Law
ISBN: 1501749986 OCLC:

Northern Illinois University Press 2020

Whether in football or in the law, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Robert Thomas has always had the "best view from the bench." Bob Thomas got his start in football at the University of Notre Dame, kicking for the famed "Fighting Irish" in the early 1970s. Claimed off waivers by the Chicago Bears in 1975, Thomas helped to take the franchise from their darkest days to their brightest. Yet, on the cusp of the team's greatest moment, he was struck with a shocking blow that challenged his fortitude. In this dramatic retelling of Bob Thomas's fascinating life, renowned sports writer Doug Feldmann shows how neither football nor the law was part of Thomas's dreams while growing up the son of Italian immigrants in Rochester, New York, in the 1960s. Chasing excellence on both the gridiron and in the courtroom, however, would require resilience in ways he could not have imagined. As A View from Two Benches shows us, Bob Thomas reached the top of two separate and distinct professions, guided by a bedrock of faith that has impacted his decisions and actions as both a football player and a judge, helping him navigate the peaks and valleys of life. As Doug Feldmann reveals, Bob Thomas has always stayed true to the values he learned in his earliest days. Doug Feldmann's rich biography of an accomplished kicker and a proud justice of the law shows us that determination and resilience go a long way to a successful and impactful life.

Curriculum and the American Rural School
ISBN: 0761825584 OCLC: 51969013

University Press of America, Lanham, Md. : ©2003.

At the core of the educational transformation of American rural schools in the early 1900s, there was the re-examination of the rural school curriculum, preceded by the landmark meeting of the Committee of Ten in 1893. Until 1900, formal education in most rural areas was seen by many as an unneeded luxury, not necessary for the manual labor of the farm, mill, mine, or other primary employment sources of a given locale. Curriculum and the American Rural School traces the origins of American school curriculum, and subsequently contextualizes it within the history of rural school curriculum in the United States since the mid-1800s. Doug Feldmann examines modern issues pertinent to the rural school curriculum in light of this history, and the actual solutions to these issues that rural schools have discovered. Feldmann examines curriculum― in all of its procedural and documentary forms― in a real-life, contemporary rural school study, whereby the history and theory of this discipline is revealed in a true-to-life form.

Dizzy and the Gas House Gang: The 1934 St. Louis Cardinals and Depression-Era Baseball
ISBN: 9780786462445 OCLC: 908767074

Led by the colorful Dizzy Dean, the 1934 St. Louis Cardinals personified Depression-era America. And perhaps no team before or since found so many ways to will themselves to victory or took such pleasure in willing their foes to defeat. This book presents the legendary exploits of player manager Frankie Frisch, Leo Durocher, the Dean Brothers and the rest of the team that threw dirt at umpires, lofted insults at opposing fans, and hurled themselves at opposing teams.--Jacket.

Fleeter Than Birds: The 1985 St. Louis Cardinals and Small Ball's Last Hurrah
ISBN: 0786411651 OCLC: 48550976

McFarland, Jefferson, NC : ©2002.

For the St. Louis Cardinals and their fans, there was a great deal of uncertainty going into the 1985 season. Only three years before, the Cards had won the World Series, but were predicted to finish last in the National League East Division by every major publication. Manager Whitey Herzog was expected to rebuild his team, drug abuse had cast a lingering shadow over the game, and a players' strike threatened to halt play. The situation looked bleak for St. Louis but the season turned out to be nothing like the predictions. The Cards found themselves in a battle for the pennant. From beginning to end, that magical season is chronicled here. The book recaps the 1982 championship season and provides background information on Whitey Herzog and Gussie Busch's building of the early 1980s Cards, Busch Stadium and its characteristics particular to base running, and players of the era, including Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee and pitchers Bob Forsch and Joaquin Andujar. It then goes in-depth to discuss the Cards' 1985 spring training and season and the World Series.

Gibson's Last Stand: The Rise, Fall, and Near Misses of the St. Louis Cardinals, 1969-1975
ISBN: 0826220126 OCLC: 711050960

University of Missouri Press, Columbia [Mo.] ; ©2011.

In star-pitcher Bob Gibson's most brilliant season, the turbulent summer of 1968, he started 34 games and pitched every inning in 28 of them, shutting out the opponent in almost half of those complete games. After their record-breaking season, Gibson and his teammates were stunned to lose the 1968 World Series to the Detroit Tigers. For the next six years, as Bob Gibson struggled to maintain his pitching excellence at the end of his career, changes in American culture ultimately changed the St. Louis Cardinals and the business and pastime of baseball itself. Placed against the backdrop of American history and popular culture, from the protests of the Vietnam War to the breakup of the Beatles, the story of the Cardinals takes on new meaning as another aspect of the changes happening at that time. In the late 1960s, exorbitant money and free agency was threatening to change America's game forever and negatively impact the smaller-market teams in Major League Baseball. As the Cardinals' owner August A. Busch, Jr. and manager Albert

Keith Magnuson: The Inspiring Life and Times of a Beloved Blackhawk
ISBN: 1600788319 OCLC: 859537170

Written with the full support of Keith Magnuson's wife and children, this thrilling and insightful biography pays tribute to a Chicago icon and true hockey legend. One of the most popular Chicago Blackhawks of all time, defenseman Keith Magnuson was raised on the raw, rough traditions of hockey in western Canada. He captained the University of Denver team to its second straight NCAA championship in the spring of 1969 and by autumn joined Blackhawks stars Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, and Tony Esposito, becoming the much-needed policeman for the team. Over the course of the next several seasons, Magnuson and the Blackhawks fell painfully short of their Stanley Cup aspirations; nonetheless, Magnuson's leadership qualities led to his being named captain of the team. On December 15, 2003, Magnuson was in Toronto riding in a car driven by former player, Rob Ramage: he was killed when the car veered over the center line and struck an oncoming vehicle. As veteran sportswriter Bob Verdi described Magnuson upon his retirement from the Blackhawks, there have been many finer athletes in Chicago, but not one finer person, and this biography shares the story of his remarkable life.

Miracle Collapse: The 1969 Chicago Cubs
ISBN: 0803226373 OCLC: 62878632

University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln : ©2006.

Civil unrest at home, war abroad, and political uncertainty gripped the nation as the 1970s approached. In the summer of 1969, as a tumultuous decade of American history neared its end, Major League Baseball presented sports fans with a thrilling distraction: a pennant race that pitted the Chicago Cubs, those much-loved perennial also-rans, against the defending National League champs, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the upstart New York Mets.Miracle Collapse is the story of how one of the most talented Cubs teams ever to take the field—with Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Billy Williams, and ace pitcher Ferguson Jenkins among their ranks and led by the irascible manager Leo Durocher—raced to an early division lead and a seemingly certain pennant, only to unravel spectacularly at the season’s end.A time capsule in which baseball lore jockeys with history, Doug Feldmann’s book draws readers into the lives of these legendary Cubs players and their fierce bond with the city of Chicago. During this magical summer of baseball peaks and valleys, life goes on: Durocher “disappears” for a few days before his wedding; players leave the team midseason for National Guard duty; play is interrupted to announce man’s landing on the moon. It is against this backdrop that Miracle Collapse captures a baseball season for all time.

September Streak: The 1935 Chicago Cubs Chase the Pennant
ISBN: 0786415916 OCLC: 52070871

McFarland & Co., Jefferson, N.C. : ©2003.

With the recent success of the Gas House Gang as backdrop, the National League prepared for the 1935 season. The United States was still in the Great Depression, but executives in baseball predicted a financial comeback during the year, and Chicago's

St. Louis Cardinals Past & Present
ISBN: 0760335281 OCLC: 243548981

MVP Pub. Co., Minneapolis : 2009.

Explore more than a century of Cardinals baseball in this richly illustrated tour of the players, teams, ballparks, and moments that surround this storied frachise. From its origins as the St. Louis Brown Stockings of the American Association to its most recent successes on the field, the Cardinals ball club has a tradition of great moments, great teams, and great players that is virtually unmatched in the game of baseball. Featuring such icons of the sport as Rogers Hornsby, Dizzy Dean, Stan Musial, Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Ozzie Smith, Albert Pujols, and more, the Cardinals have enjoyed the devoted and passionate attention of millions of fans from around St. Louis and beyond -- and those fans have in turn been rewarded with 17 league pennants and 10 world championships since 1926. This book goes around the horn to celebrate the heroes at each position on the field, from the little-remembered stars of the nineteenth century to the heroes of tomorrow. It presents the speedsters and the sluggers, the field generals and front-office wizards, the voices from the broadcast booth, and the myriad rites of spring that keep fans coming back to Busch Stadium year after year.

The 1976 Cincinnati Reds: Last Hurrah for the Big Red Machine
ISBN: 0786438541 OCLC: 335214578

McFarland & Co., Jefferson, N.C. : ©2009.

The era of free agency in Major League Baseball ensured that it would be difficult to keep star teams together year after year. The 1976 Cincinnati Reds were one of the last to be considered a

The Dean of Clinton County – A Baseball Novel
ISBN: 1948901889 OCLC:

Acclaim Press, Inc. 2022

During the Great Depression in 1934, twenty-three-year-old John Laufketter is struggling to support his wife and infant son as a coal miner in the southern Illinois town of Beckemeyer, forty-five miles east of St. Louis. Once a promising baseball prospect destined for stardom, John’s dream was thwarted by a series of personal setbacks after leaving high school.The only recreation John can afford is playing in the Clinton County Baseball League, where the Sunday games are fierce battles for local pride among the towns which have teams. It was always expected by Beckemeyer residents that John would one day return and play for the town in the CCL, but only after a lengthy career in the major leagues. With the economy worsening, the availability of work in the coal mine has gradually dissipated – which furthers the disappointment John feels in himself.But due to an incredible implosion of faith and luck, he is presented with a one-in-a-million opportunity to claim the life in baseball he was supposed to have. It is his one, final chance to get himself and his family out of the coal mine for good.

Whitey Herzog Builds a Winner: The St. Louis Cardinals, 1979-1982
ISBN: 9781476667805 OCLC: 985075761

As Lou Brock was chasing 3000 career hits late in the 1979 season--his last after 18 years in the majors--the St. Louis Cardinals were looking for a new identity. Brock's departure represented the final link to the team's glory years of the 1960s, and a parade of new players now came in from the minor leagues. With the Cardinals mired in last place by the following June, owner August A. Busch, Jr., hired Whitey Herzog as field manager, and shortly handed him the general manager's position, too. Herzog was given free rein to rebuild the club in order to embrace the new running game trend in the majors. With an aggressive style of play and an unconventional approach to personnel moves, he catapulted the Cardinals back into prominence and defined a new age of baseball in St. Louis.

 

 

Accessibility