Shawn's blogging. www.shawnfury.blogspot.com. Check out the new FAQ page. NFL.com writer Gregg Easterbrook labels Keeping the Faith a "must read" sports book. Read more Booklist gives positive review to Keeping the Faith. Read more Publishers Weekly calls Keeping the Faith a "heartfelt tale." Read review Keeping the Faith is now available on Kindle. Read more. Shawn's story on Mike and Matt Fasnacht appears in the February issue of Minnesota Monthly, which can be read here. Shawn's essay on home-state memories appears in the current Sports Scoop. Read More Shawn's story on high school basketball is in the current issue of Minnesota Basketball News. Read More The Daily News of Iron Mountain, Michigan, reviews book. Read review New Ulm Journal story features Trinity football team, discusses impact of book on school, team. Read more

Gregg Easterbrook's NFL.com review of Keeping the Faith

Obscure College Book: Surely the worst college football team in the United States is that of Trinity Bible College of Ellendale, N.D. The school is 31-160-1 since it first fielded a team in 1984. Last Saturday, Trinity was shut out 41-0 by Blackburn, which had lost its previous two games by a combined 77-13. In 2003, Trinity Bible suffered what is believed to be the worst defeat in football history, if not in the history of team sports, losing to Rockford College by a final of 105-0. Considering Trinity has only about 150 male students, a weak football presence may be inevitable. But now Trinity Bible has a distinction that can be claimed but by a handful of the biggest and most successful football programs, namely, it is the subject of a book. Keeping the Faith: In the Trenches With College Football's Worst Team, by Shawn Fury, is among the must-read sports books of the year. Fury profiles Trinity's quixotic football program, delves into the question of why athletes play on a team they know will lose and ponders the extent to which getting clobbered in sports actually may be character building. "Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning, give me the man who has pluck to fight when he’s sure of losing," the English novelist George Eliot wrote. All college sports aficionados will want to own Keeping the Faith.

Note one: Trinity actually won a game this season, against Principia. Next to the result appears a bright red YAHOO!! on the school's website.

Note two: Did Rockford run up the score in the 105-0 game? The victor attempted only two passes. But Rockford's star running back remained in the game through the third quarter, when the school was "clinging to a 91-0 lead," Fury writes.