The Ohio State Buckeyes have been a powerhouse in college football for decades, with numerous national championships and NFL draftees to their credit. With such a successful history, it's no wonder that the passion for Ohio State football has reached a level of devotion that has religious overtones. Saint Woody: The History and Fanaticism of Ohio State Football is a Bill Bryson-style look at Ohio State football and the spiritual fanaticism that surrounds it. Bob Hunter tracks the development of this powerhouse program from its earliest days to its heights under Woody Hayes, the de...

Ever look at a modern skyscraper or a vacant lot and wonder what was there before? Or maybe you have passed an old house and been curious about who lived there long ago. This richly illustrated new book celebrates Columbus, Ohio s, two-hundred-year history and supplies intriguing stories about the city s buildings and celebrated citizens, stopping at individual addresses, street corners, parks, and riverbanks where history was made. As Columbus celebrates its bicentennial in 2012, a guide to local history is very relevant.
Like Columbus itself, the city s history is underrated. Some...

James Thurber's Columbus was not today's Columbus--or even yesterday's. It was a Columbus he both knew and created, a place perched on the fringe of reality and the fringe of his imagination. It is the place Bob Hunter revisits in Thurberville, a book where the author separates truth from fiction and identifies what parts of the famous humorist's hometown of 180,000 exist in the burgeoning metro area of more than two million today.
Thurber's Columbus was a wild and crazy place, a city full of fascinating and sometimes peculiar characters, many in his own family. Because of the...

Players, Teams, and Stadium Ghosts collects more than 130 sports columns and stories, written over three decades, to offer a smorgasbord of nostalgia and discovery-including the origin stories of some of today's biggest names in sports-for fans in Ohio and beyond.