Spartan Seasons:
The Triumphs and Turmoil of Michigan State Sports

by Lynn Henning

*also reserve me a copy of Spartan Seasons II signed by the author!! (see "News")


Price: $24.95
ISBN 0-9700917-8-8

Originally published in 1987 and now back in print

Spartan Seasons provides answers, new slants, and fresh insight to the questions that have long intrigued sports fans about Michigan State athletics during the 1960's, '70s, and '80s. The inside facts. The stories that have never before been reported.

• Why did Denny Stolz—and not Barry Switzer—take over for Duffy Daugherty?

• Was the NCAA's investigation of the MSU football program really a cloak-and-dagger affair?

• What went on behind the scenes when MSU's varsity basketball team walked out on Gus Ganakas?

• Why did Kirk Gibson almost quit the baseball team? What changed his mind?

• How did Ron Mason build a dynasty on ice in East Lansing?

Lynn Henning is highly regarded for his insightful and penetrating reporting of Michigan State athletics. In his research for Spartan Seasons, Henning sought out the men who know what really happened. He talked with Magic. With Kirk Gibson. With Duffy, Muddy, Mason and countless others. The result? Henning has illuminated the dark corners and solved the behind-the-scenes mysteries that have always made MSU so fascinating and controversial.

From incredible highs to embarrassing lows, the Michigan State sports story has always been a compelling one. And Lynn Henning captures those moments in his award-winning style.

It's all here, in the pages of Spartan Seasons—the turmoil, the triumphs that have made Michigan State one of the nation's most talked-about college sports programs.

 
 

 

 

 

Author Lynn Henning first joined the Detroit News sports staff in 1979 and has specialized in covering the Detroit pro scene, as well as the Big Ten. A 1974 graduate of Michigan State, Henning began his career at the Battle Creek Enquirer and soon moved to the Lansing State Journal, where he was a sports writer and columnist. Henning was named 1985 Michigan Sports Writer of the Year. He is co-author of Kirk Gibson's autobiography, Bottom of the Ninth. Henning resides in Royal Oak, Michigan."

 

Coming in the fall of 2005:

*Reserve a copy of Spartan
Seasons II by Lynn Henning and we will notify you when the new book is
available. Those who reserve copies will receive a copy of Spartan Seasons II personally inscribed by Henning and we'll send it to you postage free!

Spartan Seasons II: The Triumphs and Turmoil of Michigan State Sports will follow MSU sports from the late 1980s to the present. It will illuminate MSU basketball’s extraordinary success under Tom Izzo, as well as the fits and starts that have plagued the football program. Henning, with more than 30 years of experience writing about MSU athletics, provides a step-by-step account of Nick Saban’s sudden departure for LSU following his five-year reign as Spartans head football coach.

Henning also profiles the parade of administrators who have passed through the athletic director’s office since 1988, providing the inside story of how they were selected, why they didn’t last, and how the current administration functions under Ron Mason, a hockey-coaching colossus who now heads MSU’s athletic department.

 

From SPARTAN SEASONS:

"Fans at that end picked up on it first, the sight of No. 33 walking determinedly toward the MSU bench. They came to their feet, yelling, screaming, roaring, the sound amplifying through Jenison as fans caught a glimpse of the player who would rescue Michigan State. It was as if John Wayne and the cavalry had ridden in, bugles blaring."

"By the time Michigan State arrived in California, the world was set for a New Year's Day slaughter at Pasadena. At least subconsciously, so were the Spartans."

"Drives that even reached the tennis building were considered boomers, and anything that landed on the roof was monstrous. Gibson had cleared the entire structure."

"A NCAA basketball championship had transformed MSU from probationary grace into a glamourous school which once again had national prominence and respect. The party would last all of nine months."

"George, be glad you didn't get that job," Daugherty said. "You can't win there now. A composite of Bear Bryant and Amos Alonzo Stagg couldn't win there now—not this soon after probation. The squad's so depleted in talent, Muddy has no chance. Next time around it'll come your way, and then it'll be a much better situation."

"When Mark Hamway scored the winner one minute and 43 seconds later, Scott's save earned a few more votes as Michigan State's most dramatic hockey moment in history."