On This Page
Description
"Dan Jenkins is a comic genius." -- Don Imus Made into a hilarious and timeless film starring Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson, and Jill Clayburgh, and recently named number seven on Sports Illustrated's Top 100 Sports Books of All Time, Semi-Tough is Dan Jenkins's masterpiece and considered by many to be the funniest sports book ever written. The novel follows the outsize adventures of Billy Clyde Puckett, star halfback for the New York Giants, whose team has come to Los Angeles for an show more epic duel with the despised "dog-ass" Jets in the Super Bowl. But Billy Clyde is faced with a dual challenge: not only must he try to run over a bunch of malevolents incarnate, but he has also been commissioned by a New York book publisher to keep a journal of the events leading up to, including, and following the game. Infused with Dan Jenkins's characteristic joie de vivre and replete with cigarettes, whiskey, and wild women, Semi-Tough is an uproarious romp through a lost era of professional sports that will have any armchair quarterback falling out of his or her recliner in hysterics on a semi-regular basis. Dan Jenkins is the author of ten novels, including Semi-Tough, Dead Solid Perfect, The Money-Whipped Steer-Job Three-Jack Give-Up Artist, and Slim and None. He has also published seven books of nonfiction, most notably Fairways and Greens and The Dogged Victims of Inexorable Fate and writes an enduringly popular monthly column for Golf Digest. Jenkins is the recipient of the William D. Richardson Award from the Golf Writers Association of America, which recognizes those who have consistently made outstanding contributions to golf. He divides his time between his native Fort Worth, Texas, and New York City. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
This is a rare hoot of a novel, ribald, funny, and very politically incorrect - so much so that I wasn't sure after the first few pages I'd like it, and PC-incorrectness doesn't usually faze me. But irreverent is what I'd call it, with a flavor very similar to "M*A*S*H". This is about Billy Clyde Puckett of the New York Giants, his teammate and best bud from the same Texas high school, Shake Tiller, and Barbara Jane Bookman, "model and confidante, and incidentally the girl with whom almost everybody must fall in love". The events precede and include the days leading up to the Superbowl, but in a way that is incidental to the main focus of the book, which seems to be about how to be true to oneself and one's friends while satisfying all show more desires, and football crops up here and there also. This is Jenkins' one hit novel, but I may have to check out his others now. show less
With the recent passing of Dan Jenkins and his high praise among some of my favorite sports talking heads, I wanted to read his seminal work. A rather dated, straight out of the early 70s, take on football and partying and Texas and women.
One of Sports Illustrated's Top 100 Sports Books of all-time, some of the book was close to laugh out loud funny. Billy Clyde Puckett, star halfback of the New York Giants, is playing in the Super Bowl in L.A. against the god-ass Jets. Some of the jokes and language don't sit with 2019 sensibilities.
One of Sports Illustrated's Top 100 Sports Books of all-time, some of the book was close to laugh out loud funny. Billy Clyde Puckett, star halfback of the New York Giants, is playing in the Super Bowl in L.A. against the god-ass Jets. Some of the jokes and language don't sit with 2019 sensibilities.
Billy Clyde Puckett keeps an audio diary of his life and loves on the way to the Super Bowl. Lots of belly laughs, especially of the politically incorrect kind. Over the top descriptions of team-mates, Super Bowl parties, nightclubs, and dalliances of one kind and another. Oh, yeah, and a football game too.
This book is about... food, booze, music, dope, sex, money, Texas, New York, L.A., and football. It is just about the funniest thing I ever read.
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Read the book and saw the movie
1,170 works; 195 members
Sports Illustrated's The Top 100 Sports Books of All Time
51 works; 7 members
Publisher's Weekly Bestsellers - Part II - 1940 - 1979
355 works; 5 members
Author Information
30+ Works 1,309 Members
Dan Thomas Jenkins was born in Fort Worth, Texas on December 2, 1928. He graduated from Texas Christian University. In the mid-1950s, he became a writer and editor at The Fort Worth Press. He was promoted to sports editor before joining Sports Illustrated in 1962, where his main beats were golf and college football. His first novel, Semi-Tough, show more was published in 1972 and adapted into a movie in 1978. His other novels included Dead Solid Perfect, Baja Oklahoma, You Gotta Play Hurt, and Limo written with Bud Shrake. His memoir, His Ownself: A Semi-Memoir, was published in 2014. He later wrote for Playboy and was a senior writer for Golf Digest. He died on March 7, 2019 at the age of 90. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Distinctions
Series
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1972
- People/Characters
- Billy Clyde Puckett; Shake Tiller; Barbara Jane Bookman; Jim Tom Pinch
- Important places
- New York, New York, USA; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- Related movies
- Semi-Tough (1977 | IMDb)
- Epigraph
- I could halfway fall in love,
For part of a lonely night,
With a semi-pretty woman in my arms.
--from "Nuthin' Much to Want," a song by Elroy Blunt - Dedication
- Once more for June and the dumplings, who surrender their time.
- First words
- I guess by now there can't be too many people anywhere who haven't heard about Billy Clyde Puckett, the humminest sumbitch that ever carried a football.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And Barbara Jane said, "It sure as hell might. I'll be a sumbitch.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 230
- Popularity
- 141,092
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (3.68)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 12
- ASINs
- 11
