Originally the Portsmouth Spartans, the Lions played in Portsmouth, Ohio, from 1930 until 1934 before moving to Detroit and changing their name to fit with the city’s baseball team, the Tigers. The team won the NFL Championship a year after their move and added three more over a six-year period in the 1950s. Since then, however, they have had little success. They are the only team to have played every season of the Super Bowl era without appearing in the big game and are the only NFC team without a Super Bowl appearance.
1Paper Lion by George Plimpton (1965)
Not just a great book about the Lions, Paper Lion is one of the best football books ever written. George Plimpton was the founding editor of The Paris Review, the highly regarded literary journal, but had a sideline in competing in pro sports and then writing about his exploits. He pitched in an MLB exhibition game, played in a pre-season NHL game and sparred with Sugar Ray Robinson. For this book he went into training camp with the Detroit Lions, posing as a quarterback. The resulting book is a delight that works as a time capsule of the early 1960s NFL and as a reminder of how badly the average person would fair if they were dropped into an NFL team. Every fan should read it.
Full review
Buy the book: Amazon US | Amazon UK
2Even Big Guys Cry by Alex Karras with Herb Gluck (1977)
Alex Karras looms over George Plimpton’s Paper Lion, despite the fact that he was serving a suspension for gambling while Plimpton was at training camp. Plimpton heard stories of the larger-than-life character and by the time Paper Lion was turned into a film, Karras appeared as himself. He would go on to have a successful acting career following 12 years with the Lions. A four-time Pro Bowler, Karras is a member of the NFL’s 1960s All-Decade Team and the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His memoir tells of his upbringing during the depression, his college years and his time in the pros.
3Heart of a Lion: The Wild and Woolly Life of Bobby Layne by Bob St John (1991)
Between 1952 and 1957 the Lions reached the NFL Championship game four times, winning three. Bobby Layne was the QB in two of those title games – missing the third through injury – and led the Lions throughout their most successful period. In 1958 the Lions traded him to the Steelers and, legend has it, Layne cursed his former team to 50 years of defeat. Always a hard drinker, Layne sometimes drank during games and his death in 1986, aged 59, is thought to have been caused in part by his lifestyle. This biography, published five years after his death, tells his story.
4Detroit Lions: Great Teams, Great Years by Jerry Green (1973)
The NFL published a range of titles during the 1970s, including the Great Teams, Great Years series. Fans expected every team to be covered but the series ended after just nine had been published. The Lions’ edition, by Jerry Green of The Detroit News, covers the 1950s Lions, with the addition of one game from the 60s and another from 1970. The book is well illustrated and features interviews with Dutch Clark, Buddy Parker, Bobby Layne, Lou Creekmur, Joe Schmidt and Wayne Walker.
5Dutch Clark by Chris Willis (2012)
Talking of Dutch Clark, Chris Willis’s biography tells the rags-to-riches story of the quarterback who led the Lions to their first NFL Championship, in 1935. Part of the inaugural Pro Football Hall of Fame class, Clark was also the Lions’ general manager from 1936 to 1938 and their head coach for the last two of those years. He died in 1978 but Willis had full cooperation from the Clark family, and access to their archives, in writing this book.
Photo: Erik Drost
