Marty Glickman: The Life of An American Jewish Sports Legend by Jeffrey Gurock (review)

Reviewed by: Marty Glickman: The Life of An American Jewish Sports Legendby Jeffrey Gurock William M. Simons Jeffrey Gurock, Marty Glickman: The Life of An American Jewish Sports Legend. (New York: New York University Press, 2023. 239pp. Hard-cover, $28. 978-1479820870) Historian Jeffrey Gurock presents the first book-length, academic biography of athlete and sportscaster Marty Glickman. Described by its author as a "comprehensive account" (page 10), Marty Glickman: The Life [End Page 61] of An American Jewish Sports Legendfollows its protagonist from his 1917 birth until his death in 2001. Depicting Glickman's life as representative of the experience of second-generation Jewish Americans, Gurock relates an ethnic history that is both individual and collective. Glickman, as depicted by Gurock, is the voice and exemplar of twentieth-century New York Jewry. Even as Glickman and his generation of New York Jews evolved and experienced socioeconomic mobility, they carried the burden of history. Gurock, specializing in Jewish, New York, and sport history, appeared destined to write a Glickman biography. He is Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies of Yeshiva University. Gurock's prolific publications frequently analyze the intersection of Jews and athletics. Like Glickman, Gurock is a native of New York City, a Jew, an athlete, a teacher, and a student of sports. In 2000, as an officer of the American Jewish Historical Society, Gurock stood in for Glickman when the latter was too ill to attend that organization's ceremony honoring him. The subtitle of the book under review, The Life of An American Jewish Sports Legend, makes clear Gurock's orientation toward Glickman. As detailed notes evidence, the research, albeit absent systemization in a bibliography, is impressive. Drilling deep into metropolitan and Jewish newspaper articles about Glickman's athletic and media prime, Gurock captures granular details, debates, and ambiance of that era. Media created by Glickman and about him receives close attention, and a myriad of secondary sources are cited. Gurock conducted revealing original interviews with those who knew Glickman. Building on key antecedent works—"Marty Glickman History Memoir, October 3-4, 1979," at the New York Public Library; Peter Levine, '"My Father and I, We Didn't Get Our Medals': Marty Glickman's American Jewish Odyssey" in Ellis Island to Ebbets Field(1992); Marty Glickman with Stan Isaacs, The Fastest Kid on the Block(1999); and James Freedman (Director), Glickman(2014), HBO Documentary Films—Gurock provides layers of detail, critical perspective, and historical context not present in the interview memoir, as-told-to autobiography, or HBO video. With its tight focus on the Berlin Olympics and its consequences for Glickman, the Levine chapter lacks biographical scope. By contributing an academic biography, augmented by the preceding works and many other sources, Gurock ratchets up the Glickman oeuvre by several notches. [End Page 62] Gurock moves briskly and chronologically through the narrative of Glickman's life. Marty's parents Harry and Molly, Jewish immigrants from Romania, left the Lower East Side for better neighborhoods in the Bronx and then Brooklyn. Despite Harry's incarceration for business fraud, bitterness, and underemployment, Marty's family never knew deprivation due to Molly's work as a seamstress. Growing up in the Jewish, albeit increasingly secular, neighborhoods of the outer boroughs, it soon became apparent that young Marty was an outstanding athlete. Gurock does an excellent job bringing to life the streets, schools, and apartments of the interwar Jewish neighborhoods. At Brooklyn's James Madison High School, Glickman became a celebrated track and football phenom. Gurock dramatizes the mid-1930s gridiron schoolboy matchups between Glickman and his Jewish rival Sid Luckman, Erasmus Hall's star and future Chicago Bears Hall of Fame quarterback. At Syracuse University, Glickman continued to excel in track and football but experienced two disappointments. During the 1936 Olympics, Glickman was unexpectedly pulled from the U.S. 4 ×100 meters relay team, a defining episode. Although less central to his life course, Glickman also deeply regretted not speaking up for Syracuse football teammate Wilmeth Sidat-Singh, an African American, who was benched in a game against the University of Maryland due to his race. Glickman's...