John Roberts Tunis was, and is, one of America's finest writers of sports books for boys. He had a genuine love of games, and he deeply believed in the spirit of sports, not the use of sport to win or gain acclaim or money. That belief accounted, in part, for his decision not to write about college athletics, which he believed had been desecrated by commercialism and professionalism. He wrote more than two thousand magazine articles, most of them on sports and a large part lamenting the state of amateurism in sports--especially in football and his beloved tennis--and worrying about the coarsening effect of money on young athletes.

Tunis believed in clean-cut, intelligent, clean-living, honest young men, not perfect heroes, but honest and good people trying hard to find the truth and the right way to act. Because of this belief, he was less concerned with the outward...