Men Before Their Time

Men Before Their Time, an historic novel, chronicles the Los Angeles American Legion's 4-year quest to bring an N.F.L. franchise to its city. This story of professional football is set against the great depression and the racism, gambling, sex and violence that characterized the years leading up to World War II.

The year is 1934. Amid the ravages of the great depression, the N.F.L. Cincinnati Reds toil in futility. Before the end of the season the Reds owners will move the club to St. Louis, with plans to enter the lesser American Professional Football League the following season.

Cincinnati players, Carl Meternich and Jed Webster both leave the team. Carl returns to his home in Los Angles and Jed must help his suddenly homeless family migrate to the West Coast with its promise of a new start.

Carl starts a career as a teacher and coach in Los Angeles and gets involved in a new professional football league. Out of the ashes of this league is created the highly successful Los Angeles Bulldogs. Jed, on the other hand, meets the hostile attitudes of San Joaquin Valley ranchers and becomes embroiled in the struggle of migrant workers against the starvation wages and violence that abounded during that time.

The Zamboanga Club in Los Angeles is a watering hole for professional and college athletes alike and is also the hangout for a pack of gamblers. The Club is the spawning ground for the sex and violence that engulfs Carl and his old college pal, Pete Mercer.

Men Before Their Time is the first book in a trilogy that tells the story of the Pacific Coast Football League, the forerunner to the 1946 N.F.L. Los Angeles Rams and All America Football Conference San Francisco Forty Niners and Los Angeles Dons.