The Year of the Panther

In “The Year of the Panther,” William Hickey has written a wacky tale about Oriental collegiate football that will appeal to everyone with a sense of humor and not merely sports aficionados. If you haven’t had a good laugh in a long time, this book is a must for you.

Hickey’s transplanting of the popular American game to Asia makes for riotous reading. Where else has a football game been decided by an avalanche or a player flagged for biting the face mask? His view of the game and the characters who coach and play it is solidly tongue-in-cheek and politically incorrect in a gleeful manner.

While Americans might think they hold the patent on the winning-is-everything concept, Hickey and his cast of characters go out of their way to prove them wrong.