Menzer, Joe

PERSONAL: Born in OH; married; children: four.

ADDRESSES: Office—Winston-Salem Journal, 418 N. Marshall St., Winston-Salem, NC 27101. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Simon & Schuster, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. E-mail—jmenzer@wsjournal.com.

CAREER: Winston-Salem Journal, Winston-Salem, NC, sportswriter, 1995–.

WRITINGS:

(With Burt Graeff) History of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Sagamore Publishing (Champaigne, IL), 1994.

(With Bob Condor) The Carolina Panthers: The First Season of the Most Successful Expansion Team in NFL History, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1996.

Four Corners: How UNC, N.C. State, Duke, and Wake Forest Made North Carolina the Center of the Basketball Universe, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1999.

The Wildest Ride: A History of NASCAR; or, How a Bunch of Good Ol' Boys Built a Billion-Dollar Industry out of Wrecking Cars, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2001.

Buckeye Madness: The Glorious, Tumultuous, Behind-the-Scenes Story of Ohio State Football, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to periodicals, including Sporting News, Inside Sports, Hoop, and Basketball Weekly.

SIDELIGHTS: Sportswriter Joe Menzer has written a number of books on a variety of sports. His Four Corners: How UNC, N.C. State, Duke, and Wake Forest Made North Carolina the Center of the Basketball Universe is a fifty-year history of North Carolina college basketball beginning in the 1950s and 1960s, when college basketball first attracted national attention through television coverage. Menzer profiles some of the most memorable coaches of that period, including North Carolina State's Everett Case, Norm Sloan, and Jim Valvano; Duke's Mike Krzyzewski; Wake Forest's Bones McKinney; and the University of North Carolina's Dean Smith and Frank McGuire. Case, nicknamed the "Old Gray Fox," was the first to install an applause meter and make a production of pregame introductions. McGuire ensured his 1957 championship by recruiting players from his native New York. McKinney relied on cola and barbiturates to contain the pressure as the competition grew. Booklist contributor Wes Lukowsky felt that this book will bring back memories for older fans "and provide younger ones with a context in which to understand one of sports's most impassioned rivalries."

The Wildest Ride: A History of NASCAR; or, How a Bunch of Good Ol' Boys Built a Billion-Dollar Industry out of Wrecking Cars is Menzer's study of the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing. NASCAR began when Southern moonshiners souped up cars to evade federal agents from the Internal Revenue Service during the 1940s. Today, stock-car auto racing is the fastest-growing sport in the country. Menzer interviews prominent figures and profiles the superstars of NASCAR, including Junior Johnson, Darrell Waltrip, and Richard Petty. "Menzer tells dozens of great stories …, stopping to linger over several key moments and personalities that shaped the sport over the years," noted David Pool in the Charlotte Observer. Rob Cline commented in Bookreporter.com that "the strength of Menzer's book is his storytelling ability…. Menzer's casual, talky style makes for exciting and easy reading." Eric C. Shoaf noted in Library Journal that the book is "highly entertaining and full of facts rather than fluff." A Book reviewer wrote that Menzer "is critical where he should be, but his affection for the only sport that still lets you bring your own beer shines through."

Menzer, who was born in Ohio, writes about his home team in Buckeye Madness: The Glorious, Tumultuous, Behind-the-Scenes Story of Ohio State Football. The book opens as the Buckeyes win the 2003 Fiesta Bowl and then goes back in time five decades to when coach Woody Hayes joined the team. Hayes was notable for his volatility, for physically abusing his players during practice, and for encouraging the team to employ dangerous tackling maneuvers. He was eventually fired for attacking an opposing player. A Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote that "you don't have to be a Buckeye to like Menzer's tale, one of the more readable football books of recent years."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Book, July, 2001, review of The Wildest Ride: A History of NASCAR; or, How a Bunch of Good Ol' Boys Built a Billion-Dollar Industry out of Wrecking Cars, p. 27.

Booklist, January 1, 1999, Wes Lukowsky, review of Four Corners: How UNC, N.C. State, Duke, and Wake Forest Made North Carolina the Center of the Basketball Universe, p. 819; July, 2001, David Rouse, review of The Wildest Ride, p. 1968.

Charlotte Observer, July 17, 2001, David Poole, review of The Wildest Ride.

Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2005, review of Buckeye Madness: The Glorious, Tumultuous, Behind-the-Scenes Story of Ohio State Football, p. 578.

Library Journal, February 1, 1999, Terry Jo Madden, review of Four Corners, p. 100; June 15, 2001, Eric C. Shoaf, review of The Wildest Ride, p. 80.

Publishers Weekly, December 21, 1998, review of Four Corners, p. 45; June 11, 2001, review of The Wildest Ride, p. 76; May 30, 2005, review of Buckeye Madness, p. 50.

ONLINE

Bookreporter.com, http://www.bookreporter.com/ (September 28, 2001), Rob Cline, review of The Wildest Ride.