You beat me to the punch, Ron
For the record, here's the post I wrote just for the PFRA forum.
If I were a movie producer in Hollywood's Golden Days, the headline would have been "45 Years in the Making!!!!!" My long-awaited (by me) biography of Johnny Blood is now available from CreateSpace. And it all began in February of 1972. I thought some of you might be interested in the back story.
I heard so many stories about Johnny Blood when I was growing up in Green Bay that I long felt someone should write a book about him. After my first book, Who Was Who in American Sports, was published in late 1971, I felt I had the credentials, so I wrote to Blood's alter ego, John V. McNally Jr., in St. Paul and suggested collaboration. I mailed the letter on a Tuesday afternoon in February. At the time, I was the Sunday magazine editor for the Standard-Times in New Bedford, MA. Five days later, on Sunday afternoon, I got a phone call. "Ralph, this is John McNally. You know me as Johnny Blood." Of course, I was thrilled that he responded so quickly. He went on, "I'm parked outside your newspaper office, but the building's all locked up. How do I get to your house from here?"
He was about eight blocks away. I gave him directions and a few minutes later he was at the house. That was the first of many meetings over the next four years. He'd visit New Bedford five or six times a year for a week or so at a time. In 1972, we traveled what I call the "Johnny Blood Trail," from Green Bay to New Richmond (his birthplace) to Minneapolis-St. Paul to Duluth to Ironwood, Michigan, then back through Green Bay and down to Milwaukee. I interviewed people ranging from his first-grade teacher(!) to Mike Michalske and Ole Haugsrud, the owner-manager of the Duluth Eskimos.
A year later, we spent four days in Canton for the Hall of Fame's 10th anniversary celebration. During that visit, I interviewed George Halas, Red Grange, Ernie Nevers, and Duke Osborn. (Years earlier, in anticipation, I had interviewed Cal Hubbard at the American League offices in Boston, where he served as the AL's supervisor of umpires.
After I finished writing the book in 1976, John told me that he didn't want it published until after his death, so I put it aside. He died in November of 1985, so I got the manuscript out, reworked it a little, and sent it to my literary agent. He couldn't sell it to a publisher, though, so I put it aside once more. (The publishers were just about unanimous in saying that the book would never sell because he had never played for the Giants or the Jets.)
A couple of years ago, I was asked to be the featured speaker at my high school reunion and I was told I could talk about anything I wanted to do. I chose to talk about my experiences with Johnny Blood and the talk was well received. Several classmates were interested in the book and it occurred to me, belatedly, that I could now publish it myself. Thanks largely to the Internet, I was able to do research in some sources that hadn't previously been available, so I did some more rewriting and now it's an actual book.
Incidentally, the front cover illustration was done by John Gordon, who was my best friend when we were kids and our families lived next door to one another, a couple of blocks from Tony Canadeo’s house. John is an outstanding artist; he designed the original Packer logo in 1961.
The book is available directly from CreateSpace or the Amazon website. Here are the links:
https://www.amazon.com/Vagabond-Halfbac ... 434830306/
https://www.createspace.com/3333721