Year of the Rocket

[paulwoods13]

Hi all. The site's hosts have generously permitted me to start a thread about my new book. Year of the Rocket: John Candy, Wayne Gretzky, a Crooked Tycoon, and the Craziest Season in Football History tells the story of the 1991 Argonauts. Most of you will know that was the year the team was acquired by Candy, Gretzky and Bruce McNall (the crooked, it turned out, tycoon), signed Raghib "Rocket" Ismail to the largest contract in the history of football at the time, and won the Grey Cup in storybook fashion as Matt Dunigan led the team to victory despite two fractures in the clavicle of his throwing arm.

The book incorporates reporting I did from more than 100 interviews with just about everyone alive and connected to that team, including McNall, Gretzky, Candy's two kids, team execs, Mike McCarthy, Adam Rita, almost every player (with one very notable exception) and others who had valuable contributions to make to the research. I was, fortunately, able to interview Chris Schultz three times before his untimely death earlier this year -- he was, as you might expect, insightful, analytical and somewhat outspoken.

I also had access to hundreds of hours of video footage I recorded back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a lot of which I am now posting to a YouTube channel I created to accompany publication of the book.

After working on this for four and a half years, it's exciting to know the book will finally be on sale this Wednesday (Sept. 1). It is available now for preorders from all the usual places (Chapters/Indigo, Amazon, etc.) as well as from the publisher, Sutherland House, which is offering a generous discount on early orders. It will be in book stores across Canada and (I hope) in parts of the United States, and should be available in merch kiosks at BMO and the main RealSports store at Scotiabank Arena.

I have created two linktrees that provide links to the project:

1. Where the book can be ordered: https://linktr.ee/PaulWoods

2. Media coverage: https://linktr.ee/PaulWoodsMedia

The YouTube channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMe...Me17zGA/videos -- If I can get 100 subscribers, I will be able to give it a better channel name than that randomly generated string of characters. There are close to 200 videos on the channel at the moment and I will be adding more most days for quite some time to come.

Some folks like signed copies of books. It feels silly even mentioning this, but if anyone buys the book and would like me to sign their copy, I'd be happy to meet up before an upcoming Argo game -- just DM me here or via Twitter (@pxw13).

[RB957]

Congratulations on finishing your new book, and best wishes for success in its publication. I just subscribed to your channel, the first one I ever subscribed to, which shows how non-savvy I am social-media wise, lol. Hope it helps.

I look forward to reading this interesting story.

[Will]

I've gotten lost in the You Tube videos over the past couple of days.

The Home Boys Network featuring Pinball and Doran Major is interesting to say the least.

The bit with Paul Masotti, Andrew Murray and John Candy was also great! Billy Ray Huroc LOL.

[OV Argo]

Congrats on the book Paul, and good luck / hope it gets read lots.

I have a copy of Jay Tietel (SP?)'s book The Argo Bounce - got it back in the day - which was excellent IMO; and also a copy of Good-Bye Leo (?) - by Scott Young (Neil's dad) wasn't it (given to me by a guy who saw me wearing Argo gear in a store i worked at - he started chatting Argos and later returned to gift me the old book) ; but both are buried somewhere in a box or bin of old sports stuff since I moved and down-sized - have to dig them out, and get a copy of your Argo books (BTW - are there any other full length books on Argo history ?)

[Will]

[DanTheFan]

Thanks for sharing, Paul. As far as Argos books go, I've only got Double Blue in my collection, so I'm looking forward to learning more about the '91 team. I was only 6 at the time the Rocket launched in Toronto, and wasn't really paying attention to sports.

I ordered the book yesterday after someone shared it on Facebook. I just subscribed to the Youtube channel as well. So much quality footage from the time. Great to see!

[Argo57]

Wishing Paul well on his latest book.
His last book “Bouncing Back” was a must read for any Argonaut fan, I am sure this book will be no different.
Can’t wait for my copy to arrive!

[AngeloV]

Congratulations Paul. I hope you sell a ton of these. Looking forward to adding it to my collection with Bouncing Back.

[Stevoman]

Awesome! I have pre-ordered and look forward to watching all of these videos while I wait for the book! Thanks for helping commemorate such a special season!

[paulwoods13]

Congrats on the book Paul, and good luck / hope it gets read lots.

I have a copy of Jay Tietel (SP?)'s book The Argo Bounce - got it back in the day - which was excellent IMO; and also a copy of Good-Bye Leo (?) - by Scott Young (Neil's dad) wasn't it (given to me by a guy who saw me wearing Argo gear in a store i worked at - he started chatting Argos and later returned to gift me the old book) ; but both are buried somewhere in a box or bin of old sports stuff since I moved and down-sized - have to dig them out, and get a copy of your Argo books (BTW - are there any other full length books on Argo history ?)

Thanks OV. The closest to a full-length history is Double Blue: An Illustrated History of the Toronto Argonauts. It was published in about 2005 by ECW Press, edited by Jim O'Leary and Wayne Parrish. I think the venture might have been supported financially by the Argo owners at the time. It has fantastic pictures and some good writing, but is not really a definitive history. Most subjects get fairly short writeups. Pix are the main emphasis.

[Will]

That book was a season ticket holder gift if I recall.

[paulwoods13]

Update: I held the actual book in my hands today for the first time (printing moved a bit slower than we had anticipated). The good folks at Sutherland House have assembled an incredibly gorgeous package. Pre-orders were being shipped today, hopefully some of them arrive at people's doors in the next couple of days. I can't wait to get it out into the world!

[Stevoman]

Just got my copy! Looking forward to reading and it's a great looking product!

[OV Argo]

Nice feature on Paul's new book over on the CFL site.

[Will]

I picked up a copy of the book on Wednesday, and I am learning a lot of interesting things about the Argos.

I won't comment on them at this time for spoiler reasons.

[jerrym]

Many of my fondest memories of the Argos came from this year. Keep up the good work on the history of the Argos Paul.

[DanTheFan]

I pre-ordered from Amazon (I know, maybe not the best choice), but haven't had a shipping update. Are orders being prioritized through the publisher's site first?

[Will]

I pre-ordered from Amazon (I know, maybe not the best choice), but haven't had a shipping update. Are orders being prioritized through the publisher's site first?

There are physical copies of the book available at Chapters and Indigo stores. I ended up cancelling by Amazon order after buying the book in Belleville.

[Argo57]

There are physical copies of the book available at Chapters and Indigo stores. I ended up cancelling by Amazon order after buying the book in Belleville.

I just did the same thing this afternoon, Amazon had no confirmed delivery date several days after I ordered the book so went to Indigo and picked up my copy.
Can’t wait to start reading it.👍

[paulwoods13]

It's not my fault, obviously, but I do want to apologize for the problems with Amazon. I'm not sure what's going on, but I think it is likely related to a late change of plans (forced by a global shortage of certain paper stocks) to make the book a "premium softcover" instead of a hardcover. While this change was conveyed weeks ago to Amazon, they have not yet changed the info on their site, which still lists the book as hardcover. My guess is that Sutherland House delivered a pile of books to Amazon, but Amazon does not think this is "the" book because it is softcover and their paperwork expects hardcover. Sutherland is working to sort this out, but in the meantime it appears Amazon is not filling orders yet.

My advice for anyone who ordered through Amazon is to cancel the order and either order it through Sutherland House (https://sutherlandhousebooks.square....rue&cst=custom) or try your luck with Chapters/Indigo or an independent bookseller. I know some C/I stores have copies; others appear to be out of stock already. It can also be ordered online through C/I. Sutherland House offers free shipping in Canada, and they ship quickly.