Growing up in Ohio in the 1950s and 60s, young Chuck Ealey set his sights on getting an education, his hard-working mother’s dream. Chuck began throwing stones at passing coal trains as a childhood game, doing it over and over until he could always hit his target. When he started playing football he did the same thing, practicing over and over. Chuck was Black, making it a big deal when his high school coach asked him to play quarterback. Players from a rival team were angry, but Chuck remained focused and poised, leading his own team to victory. A vivid picture book account of the childhood and young adulthood of Chuck Ealey, written by his daughter, includes an author’s note in which she briefly recounts her father’s record-breaking, undefeated career in high school and college, and the college degree that was his greatest victory. Undrafted by the NFL in the early 1970s because of racism, Ealey went on to a successful career in the Canadian Football League. Expressive pen-and-ink and acrylic illustrations accompany the fine narrative. (Ages 6–10)

The African-American football player Chuck Ealey grew up in a segregated neighborhood of Portsmouth, Ohio. Against all odds, he became an incredible quarterback. But despite his unbeaten record in high school and university, he would never play professional football in the United States.

Chuck Ealey grew up poor in a racially segregated community that was divided from the rest of town by a set of train tracks, but his mother assured him that he wouldn’t stay in Portsmouth forever. Education was the way out, and a football scholarship was the way to pay for that education. So despite the racist taunts he faced at all the games he played in high school, Chuck maintained a remarkable level of dedication and determination. And when discrimination followed him to university and beyond, Chuck Ealey remained undefeated.

This inspirational story is told by Chuck Ealey’s daughter, author and educator Jael Richardson, with striking and powerful illustrations by award-winning illustrator Matt James.