Bronko

The remarkable biography of a small-town athlete who became one of the greatest players in NFL history.

Bronislau "Bronko" Nagurski was a superstar for the NFL in the 1930s and one of the pioneer players of the league. He led the Chicago Bears to success on the gridiron as a larger-than-life personality, helping raise the popularity of the NFL during the Great Depression.

In Bronko: The Legendary Story of the NFL's Greatest Two-Way Fullback, NFL Films historian Chris Willis tells the remarkable story of how Bronko became an NFL legend. Throughout his nine-year NFL career, Bronko's name became synonymous with power football. While the new league fought to gain respect and recognition, Bronko immediately captured the attention of sports fans in Chicago and across the country. The bruising fullback could do everything: run, block, tackle, and even throw the occasional pass.

With the complete cooperation of the Nagurski family and unlimited access to personal letters, family scrapbooks, and photos, Bronko is the definitive biography of a true sports pioneer and NFL great.

“The legend of Bronko Nagurski as one of pro football's pioneer stars is detailed like never before in this outstanding retrospective narrative by Chris Willis. The background of Nagurski's life before, during, and after his playing days, is both insightful and entertaining. Chris Willis has previously written some great books about a variety of NFL teams and players. This book might be his very best, and that is saying a lot.”

[T]he most comprehensive look at Bronko Nagurski's life before, during and after his playing career with the Chicago Bears.... Willis does an excellent job in developing what Nagurski was like in both sports and off the field as a devoted family man.... Willis captured his intensity and sincerity of him both on and off the field. He created a great tribute to this pioneer of the early gridiron game. Chris Willis has a great ability to bring the person, subject, game, and/or event to life giving realismto the subject he is writing aboutthat I find missing in other books by other authors on football. Without a doubt, his new book isa must-read and should be a partof your football library as well hisother books. I highly recommend it.

A well-researched and extremely informative book about the early days of the NFL and one of its greatest players.

The phrase meticulously researched came to mind almost immediately, and suits it perfectly. Willis hits the right note between telling stories about Bronislau "Bronko" Nagurski and the personal details that we crave in an autobiography. Having the support of the Nagurski family, and The Bronko Nagurski Museum in International Falls, Minnesota, Willis is able to cram the book full of great facts.... Bronko: The Legendary Story of the NFL's Greatest Two-Way Fullback is an incredible book for football fans.

This book on Bronko Nagurski is full of original and unique research and details we'd never heard before. It covers Nagurski's life--pre-football, his career, and his post-NFL playing days and does it well. Willis is always so fluent in his writings of the Pre-World War II era and can make it relatable to younger readers who may not be enthralled with the NFL from that far back. Willis enjoyed the cooperation of the Nagurski family with access to loads of personal files and records and the inclusion of details from those documents makes the book more enriching and vivid. This is a fine, fine book and highly recommended.

Chris Willis is the head of the Research Library at NFL Films. He is the author of multiple books on professional football, including A Nearly Perfect Season: The Inside Story of the 1984 San Francisco 49ers; Walter Lingo, Jim Thorpe, and the Oorang Indians: How a Dog Kennel Owner Created the NFL’s Most Famous Traveling Team; and Red Grange: The Life and Legacy of the NFL’s First Superstar, all published by Rowman & Littlefield. Willis was nominated for an Emmy in 2002 for his work on the HBO documentary The Game of Their Lives and won an Emmy in 2016 for his work on HBO’s Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Houston Texans. He was awarded the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Ralph Hay award for lifetime achievement in pro football research and historiography in 2012.

The remarkable biography of a small-town athlete who became one of the greatest players in NFL history. Bronislau "Bronko" Nagurski was a superstar for the NFL in the 1930s and one of the pioneer players of the league. He led the Chicago Bears to success on the gridiron as a larger-than-life personality, helping raise the popularity of the NFL during the Great Depression. In Bronko: The Legendary Story of the NFL's Greatest Two-Way Fullback, NFL Films historian Chris Willis tells the remarkable story of how Bronko became an NFL legend. Throughout his nine-year NFL career, Bronko's name became synonymous with power football. While the new league fought to gain respect and recognition, Bronko immediately captured the attention of sports fans in Chicago and across the country. The bruising fullback could do everything: run, block, tackle, and even throw the occasional pass. With the complete cooperation of the Nagurski family and unlimited access to personal letters, family scrapbooks, and photos, Bronko is the definitive biography of a true sports pioneer and NFL great.

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