Description
Akron has borne its share of outsized personalities —Ray C. Bliss, LeBron James, Jack Knight. Don Plusquellic can hold his own with any of them and might likely be the first to tell you so. This is the biography he deserves, big and tumbling, profane and heartfelt, rough-edged and charming—just like the man himself. Kudos to Steve Love for tackling Akron’s greatest quarterback and living to give us the tale. This book will stand among the most important chronicles of our region’s history.
—David Giffels, author of The Hard Way on Purpose: Essays and Dispatches from the Rust Belt
Maybe we needed a former sportswriter, Steve Love, to unravel the enigma of the former quarterback, Don Plusquellic, the profane but pragmatic mayor who commanded the huddle for the city of Akron for twenty-eight and a half years. From the opening chapter we see Plusquellic’s drive, his passion, his willingness to risk a big loss for the chance to make a spectacular play for his team. From there, we are treated to seats on the fifty-yard line, where we watch Plusquellic’s transformation from the boy who wanted to lead the Cleveland Browns to the man who realized, instead, that his mission in life was to quarterback the city he loved. “This is always what I wanted to be when I grew up,” the mayor told Love. “I just didn’t know it.” But The Indomitable Don Plusquellic is much more than a play-by-play account of the mayor’s accomplished but controversial career. Love provides not only well-reported, nimbly written insights into the man but also takes us behind the scenes to show us what it takes to run a city. So whether you have booed or cheered the mayor, I think you’ll agree that Love scores a touchdown with this book.
—Stuart Warner, former Akron Beacon Journal associate managing editor
About the author
Steve Love
