Striking Gridiron
Striking Gridiron is a book written by Greg Nicholas and it tells about a football team in the town of Braddock, Pennsylvania . During this time was one of Americas biggest labor stoppages in history. Many workers went on strike, and with no money coming in they looked to their football team, the Braddock Tigers. This team was very talented and was looking for their 6th undefeated season and so were all the steel workers because they bet their last dollars on this team in hopes of them winning and getting out of the steel mills. They did in fact win their 6th season undefeated and this book not only portrays the football team but also a small American town during the hardest times of its people.
Chuck Klausing was the coach …show more content…
This sled was made by a manager of the Edgar Thomson Works, a local US steel plant, to make and weld this ginormous creation together. It was rare to see any sled over a two man compacity but this sled was ten yards wide and had a seven man compacity. Its weight, over a ton and had to be lifted onto the Braddock Tigers practice field by crane. Its first group of players to hit it simply bounced off. The steel mill, Edgar Thomson Works, is still around today making steel. It’s very rare and is a survivor in Western Pennsylvania, a region that lost a lot of its heavy industry due to it being the economic engine of the 20th century. Edgar Thomson is located in Braddock where many building have plants growing on them and their lots have been vacant for years. Its population 3000 kind people which is about 10% of its peak population. Its Football team was once a national interest as well. In 1959 the Braddock Tigers had set out for a 6th Undefeated season under the great coach Chuck Klausing. Coach Chuck Klausing was 34 years old and a coaching phenomenon. He turned his team of undisciplined, substandard athletes into a …show more content…
The country needed for the building of girders, sewer gates, and thumbtacks. On another note the country also needed tanks and Polaris missiles. All of these products required steel to make and this would answer why President Eisenhower was most likely worried. All of the quantities of steel that all the companies had stockpiled up before the strike had now been used up and depleted. American automakers, which consumed upwards of 20% of the country’s steel had already began to lay off workers. General Motors alone as a company laid off 60,000 of its production line workers. The company had soon announced that another 60,000 lay offs of workers on the production line would very well be, soon on the way. The US economy had slowed tremendously and the Pentagon was now warning of declining military preparedness. This couldn’t be any worse timing because of the country heading into the new election year. A federal law called the Taft-Harley act that passed in the senate in 1947, gave the government enormous loads of power to use over the activities in the Labor Unions . In other things, it also gave allowance of the President to send all the workers who were on strike back to their working stations if their actions contributed and made an action
Striking Gridiron is a book written by Greg Nicholas and it tells about a football team in the town of Braddock, Pennsylvania . During this time was one of Americas biggest labor stoppages in history. Many workers went on strike, and with no money coming in they looked to their football team, the Braddock Tigers. This team was very talented and was looking for their 6th undefeated season and so were all the steel workers because they bet their last dollars on this team in hopes of them winning and getting out of the steel mills. They did in fact win their 6th season undefeated and this book not only portrays the football team but also a small American town during the hardest times of its people.
Chuck Klausing was the coach …show more content…
This sled was made by a manager of the Edgar Thomson Works, a local US steel plant, to make and weld this ginormous creation together. It was rare to see any sled over a two man compacity but this sled was ten yards wide and had a seven man compacity. Its weight, over a ton and had to be lifted onto the Braddock Tigers practice field by crane. Its first group of players to hit it simply bounced off. The steel mill, Edgar Thomson Works, is still around today making steel. It’s very rare and is a survivor in Western Pennsylvania, a region that lost a lot of its heavy industry due to it being the economic engine of the 20th century. Edgar Thomson is located in Braddock where many building have plants growing on them and their lots have been vacant for years. Its population 3000 kind people which is about 10% of its peak population. Its Football team was once a national interest as well. In 1959 the Braddock Tigers had set out for a 6th Undefeated season under the great coach Chuck Klausing. Coach Chuck Klausing was 34 years old and a coaching phenomenon. He turned his team of undisciplined, substandard athletes into a …show more content…
The country needed for the building of girders, sewer gates, and thumbtacks. On another note the country also needed tanks and Polaris missiles. All of these products required steel to make and this would answer why President Eisenhower was most likely worried. All of the quantities of steel that all the companies had stockpiled up before the strike had now been used up and depleted. American automakers, which consumed upwards of 20% of the country’s steel had already began to lay off workers. General Motors alone as a company laid off 60,000 of its production line workers. The company had soon announced that another 60,000 lay offs of workers on the production line would very well be, soon on the way. The US economy had slowed tremendously and the Pentagon was now warning of declining military preparedness. This couldn’t be any worse timing because of the country heading into the new election year. A federal law called the Taft-Harley act that passed in the senate in 1947, gave the government enormous loads of power to use over the activities in the Labor Unions . In other things, it also gave allowance of the President to send all the workers who were on strike back to their working stations if their actions contributed and made an action