Synopses & Reviews
What is it about sports that turns otherwise sane people into raving lunatics? Why does winning compel people to tear down goal posts, and losing, to drown themselves in bad keg beer? In short, why do fans care?
In search of answers, Warren St. John seeks out the roving community of RVers who follow the Alabama Crimson Tide from game to game. A movable feast of Weber grills and Igloo coolers, these are hard-core football fans who arrive on Wednesday for Saturday's game: The Reeses, who skipped their own daughter's wedding because it coincided with a Bama game; Ray Pradat, the Episcopal minister who watches the games on a television beside his altar while performing weddings; and John Ed, the wheeling and dealing ticket scalper whose access to good seats gives him power on par with the governor. In no time at all, St. John buys an RV (a $5,500 beater named The Hawg) and joins the caravan for a full football season, chronicling the world of the extreme fan and learning that in the shadow of the stadium, it can all begin to seem strangely normal.
Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer is not only a hilarious travel story, but a cultural anthropology of fans that goes a long way toward demystifying the universal urge to take sides and to win.
Review
"With perfect balance and deadpan humor...St. John brings a journalist's clarified sense of detail and narration to his story....The portraits of his fellow Bama fans are sharp, sneaky-funny, but not unlovingly drawn." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"Mr. St. John...can't pin down why fans behave like such fools....In the end, it is hard to be bothered by this omission because he writes so hilariously about such charmingly eccentric characters...Like college football itself, a road trip can be a pleasure pure and true." Franklin Foer, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"What does it really mean to be a sports fan? For the millions of us who are, Warren St. John captures our passion with hilarity, absurdity and poignancy. He just gets our religion. And Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer is a marvelous journey into the soul of sports in America. A great ride in the tradition of Hunter Thompson and an even better read." H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights
Review
"An ode to fandom." Newsweek
Review
"Sports fandom is a phenomenon that has so far baffled the field of psychology. The professionals haven't a clue. They should read this book. Warren St. John takes us to where the rubber meets the road." Tom Wolfe
Review
"St. John is never mocking and has no intention of turning the RVing Alabama football fan pack into a freak show....Existentialism of the purest sort that is, it includes laughter." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"A remarkable and funny book about obsession in America by a really fine writer." Gay Talese
Synopsis
Having purchased his very own RV and immersed himself in the life and crazy culture of Alabama Crimson Tide fans during the 1999 season, St. John pens a book about much more than football it is an enduring memoir about sport and culture in the U.S.
About the Author
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Warren St. John is currently a reporter for the New York Times. He has also written extensively for the New York Observer, The New Yorker, and Wired. He went to Columbia University and lives in New York.