When the Men Were Gone: A Novel

By Marjorie Herrera Lewis

“…Sublimely ties together the drama of high school football, gender politics, and the impact of war on a small town in Texas.” – Sports Illustrated

A 2019 One of the Best Books So Far--Newsweek.com

A cross between Friday Night Lights and The Atomic City Girls, When The Men Were Gone is a debut historical novel based on the true story of Tylene Wilson, a woman in 1940's Texas who, in spite of extreme opposition, became a female football coach in order to keep her students from heading off to war.

Football is the heartbeat of Brownwood, Texas. Every Friday night for as long as assistant principal Tylene Wilson can remember, the entire town has gathered in the stands, cheering their boys on. Each September brings with it the hope of a good season and a sense of unity and optimism.

Now, the war has changed everything.  Most of the Brownwood men over 18 and under 45 are off fighting, and in a small town the possibilities are limited. Could this mean a season without football? But no one counted on Tylene, who learned the game at her daddy’s knee. She knows more about it than most men, so she does the unthinkable, convincing the school to let her take on the job of coach.

Faced with extreme opposition—by the press, the community, rival coaches, and referees and even the players themselves—Tylene remains resolute. And when her boys rally around her, she leads the team—and the town—to a Friday night and a subsequent season they will never forget.           

Based on a true story, When the Men Were Gone is a powerful and vibrant novel of perseverance and personal courage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 2, 2018
• ISBN: 9780062836045

Marjorie Herrera Lewis

Marjorie Herrera Lewis knew early on she wanted a career related to sports. After several years at small newspapers, at age twenty-seven she began working at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Soon after, she was named a beat writer for the Dallas Cowboys and eventually joined the Dallas Morning News sportswriting staff. While writing When the Men Were Gone, she became inspired to try her hand at coaching football and was added to the Texas Wesleyan University football coaching staff. She presently teaches media ethics at the University of North Texas. When the Men Were Gone was the winner of the Best Book - New Fiction and Best Book - Historical Fiction Awards from the American Book Fest and was a finalist for the New Mexico-Arizona Best Book Awards.

Book preview

Dedication

With love, for my family and for Tylene’s grandniece Jean and mother, Mary

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Acknowledgments

P.S. Insights, Interviews & More . . .*

About the Author

About the Book

Praise

Copyright

About the Publisher

Prologue

Brownwood, Texas: 1910

My father and I climbed into our horse-and-buggy and began our three-mile trek. We had prepared for a squall moving through town, but we couldn’t have known that the wind and rain would swirl so heavily that it would nearly toss me from the cart. At one point, my father had to catch me by my wrist to keep me on board. Just as he steadied me, the wind about swept away his cowboy hat. He clutched it, continuing to steer both horses with his left hand while holding his hat firmly on his head with his right. I hunkered down beside my father beneath the comfort and protection of my mother’s homemade quilt.

You okay under there, Petunia? he shouted.

I pulled the cover back a bit, fought the rain from my eyes by squinting up at my father, and assured him all was well. The only thing that bothered me about the weather was that it slowed us down.

Once we arrived at the high school, he lifted me from the wagon. Perfect timing, he said. He squeezed the quilt to rid it of some water and then hung it over the buggy’s wooden side. Looks like the worst has passed.

He was right. The rain had stopped, the wind had subsided, and the Brownwood Lions had yet to kick off.

I ran to the field’s entrance ahead of my father, a giant of a man in my eyes, though slender and probably not quite six feet tall. He had a distinguished look about him, with his deep-set blue eyes, wavy jet-black hair, and Grover Cleveland mustache, as my mother, with her keen sense of humor, had described it. I’d laugh when I’d hear her remind him, Time to trim the Grover, George.

My father, slowed by a hip injury he had sustained a year earlier, eventually caught up with me. We entered and wove our way up the packed wooden bleachers to our regular spot, right off the press box near the far corner, if you’re looking up from the field. We settled in, and when the Lions dashed out, I jumped to my feet. Soon after, the crowd of what I figured was nearly half the town’s seven thousand residents also stood while the band led us in the school fight song:

For when those Brownwood Lions come down the field

They look a hundred per from head to heel . . .

And then the game began.

Shorty Wilkerson took the opening handoff. He was Brownwood’s best running back, but on that night, he drove me crazy.

Keep your knees high, Shorty! I shouted. I knew he couldn’t hear me above the cheers, the band, and the shouts of grown men yelling at the refs. But that didn’t stop me. Although I was merely ten years old, my father and I hadn’t missed a Lions football game together since 1907, and I knew right off that Shorty was far too sluggish.

Come on, Shorty! Draw in your tackler and either speed up or slow down! Change your pace!

I gnawed at my fingernails. I blamed it on Shorty. Then I turned to my father. If he doesn’t sidestep or accelerate, he’ll never get into the open field.

The men around us began laughing.

"When are you going to call the shots out there, Tylene?" Mr. Periwinkle asked.

I’ll go down there right now if they’ll let me, I said.

My father turned to the men. Don’t kid yourselves. She might just take over before the second half.

Chapter 1

1944

Wednesday

Hit a bull’s-eye on a Texas map, and you’ve found my home. Brownwood, located in the heart of the Pecan Shell, three hours southwest of Fort Worth. It’s a small town, where people praise Jesus, fix home-cooked meals for suffering neighbors, and play ball with kids in the streets. I’ve lived here since 1909. By then, my big sister, Bessie Lee, had already married and moved to south Texas, so when we arrived in Brownwood, it was just my father, mother, and me. Shortly thereafter, we were joined by Spot, our dalmatian. Well, he wasn’t really a dalmatian; he was a mutt with spots. And he wasn’t really ours. He belonged to the neighbors, but he was more often than not at our house. Brownwood is that kind of town. You share what you have. Sometimes that means sharing a dog. Other times, it means sharing the pain. We shared the pain last week when we got word that our football coach, Burl Young, had been killed in France while laying wire behind enemy lines.

Burl had been drafted in 1942, a week after his high school graduation, but the army opted not to take him once it discovered that he was the family’s lone provider and the only son of a disabled father who had never recovered from a stroke. Burl stayed home and began coaching to provide for his father, Earl; mother, Mena; and two younger sisters. An assistant for one year, he had taken over the team last season soon after legendary local coach Gene Fox had taken a job in Dallas, his wife’s hometown. But in the two years since he was drafted, Burl’s sisters had proved they could care for themselves and their parents, too. Then one June morning when Burl read a newspaper account describing the heroics of the Normandy Invasion, he told his family he could no longer stay home. He packed a duffel and caught the first train out.

In his stead, Joseph Francis, a young fellow from a west Texas outpost who had answered a newspaper advertisement, had been hired in July. Two days after the publication of advertisements our principal, Ed Redwine, had placed in several Sunday-edition newspapers throughout central and west Texas, we got a call at the high school from a man who said he had seen the ad and had just arrived by train from a tiny town south of Lubbock. Mr. Redwine was off-campus attending a meeting, so I drove out to the station to pick up Mr. Francis. As I approached, I saw a tall fella, all gussied up, wearing a fedora and a pair of spit-shined shoes. He was carrying a small green suitcase in his left hand, and with his right hand, he was tossing a coin into a cup that belonged to a pair of little girls who looked like sisters—one playing an accordion and the other dancing to its melody. When I got out of my truck to greet him, he introduced himself.

Joseph Francis, ma’am, he said as he tipped his hat. He said he had had a fine trip out and hoped the school had not yet found its man. Mr. Francis told me he had enlisted in the army in the fall of 1939, served for four years, and had come to town to begin his coaching career.

I brought Mr. Francis to the school, and for the following three hours he waited for Mr. Redwine. Upon arriving, Mr. Redwine hired the twenty-three-year-old Johnny-on-the-spot. I volunteered to show Coach Francis the lay of the land.

This is a dream job for me, Miss Tylene, he said as we walked to the field house. When I was a little boy, my dad introduced me to football, and I’ve been hooked on it since. Played three years for Post. Some of the best days of my life.

I told Coach Francis that I, too, had been taught the game by my father. We then discussed what football meant to a community, and I made it clear to him that while football reigns in Texas, there is no place better to be on a fall Friday night than in the stands of the Brownwood Lions football stadium—unless, of course, you’re on the field.

I guess that makes me the luckiest fella in Texas, he said.

Then just as unexpectedly as he had arrived, Coach Francis was gone. Last week, when he got word that his kid brother had been taken as a POW, he reenlisted.

SO ON THAT first Wednesday of September, there was no coach, no team, and no hope. Still, just as I had for every inaugural practice date in the three years since becoming the school’s assistant principal, I moseyed on down to the field at three thirty. I expected to see nothing more than our crossbars standing tall in each end zone hovering over an empty playing field like parents at the dining table waiting for their children to fill the seats between them. I wanted to sit for a moment. To imagine the boys preparing for the season. To deal with my emotions of fear and uncertainty—without a football season to look forward to, sixteen- and seventeen-year-old boys may prematurely go off to war.

When I arrived at the field, I was surprised to find two seniors, Jimmy Palmer and Bobby Ray Brashears, playing catch. As I sat on the bottom bleacher, neither appeared to notice me. Jimmy, the senior quarterback, had been designated captain during team meetings last spring. He was throwing deep to Bobby Ray, a senior flanker who had gained the attention of the University of Tulsa Golden Hurricane, a perennial New Year’s Day bowl team. Jimmy and Bobby Ray were in blue jeans rolled up at the ankles, Keds sneakers, and plain white T-shirts, playing on an unlined field of grass, brown and beaten by the sun.

At one point, when Bobby Ray ran a route, Jimmy overthrew him, and the ball rolled end over end, skidding off the grass and across the dirt track, heading straight for the stands. It stopped directly in front of me. As Bobby Ray started my way, I picked up the football and gripped it tightly in both palms.

Stay back! I yelled. He stopped. I held the ball in my right hand and used my left hand to adjust both sides of my dress, then I kicked off my heels and stepped onto the field in my stocking feet. Run five yards out and cut right! I shouted. He appeared confused, but he did as I asked. I pulled the ball back in my right hand, and as I let it fly, my string of pearls slapped up beneath my chin. Bobby Ray caught the spiral in stride.

Stunned, Bobby Ray looked at me. Nice pass, Miss Tylene! Where’d you learn to throw like that?

My father, I said. I adjusted my horn-rimmed glasses.

Jimmy ran toward us. "Wow, Miss Tylene! Any chance you can teach me to throw like that?" I was flattered for a moment, but mostly I was reminded of Jimmy’s southern charm. I reached down to grab my heels, and at that second, Jimmy, Bobby Ray, and I heard a plane, and our smiles disappeared.

President Roosevelt had converted the town municipal airport and placed it under control of the Brownwood Army Airfield, and though its purpose was to train and prepare ground combat crews for overseas deployment, it was also used to receive the bodies of the central and west Texas deceased. Until the Brownwood Bulletin reported that week that Coach Young’s body would arrive soon, no one had been certain when to expect his return. Not even his mother, Mena. But on the rare occasions when a plane was spotted making its way to our tiny airfield, folks were pretty sure a body would be aboard, whether it be from Brownwood, or San Angelo, or Big Spring. Knowing that Burl’s body would be next, when Jimmy, Bobby Ray, and I looked up this time, we knew our coach was on his way home.

The boys and I walked off the field. I then jumped into my truck and headed for Mena’s. I found her on her front porch swing, facing west in the sweltering heat. She wasn’t crying. She was rocking slowly with her eyes locked on the cloudless blue sky. A couple of neighborhood women were leaving as I arrived.

Hasn’t said a word, one told me as we passed on the front yard walkway.

I was determined to wait my dear friend out, so I sat beside her. Back and forth on that swing, neither of us spoke. Finally, perhaps thirty minutes later, while her eyes were still locked skyward, she whispered.

Best we go get him.

Mena had never learned to drive. Her husband, Earl, had suffered the stroke five years earlier, and in an instant my dear friend’s husband had gone from someone who could spin a yarn with the best of them to silent and bedridden. Because his face was without expression and he could no longer speak, we could not have known if he was aware that the body of his only son, at last, was home. Earl stayed behind.

By the time Mena and I arrived at the airfield, nearly a hundred townsfolk had jammed into the hangar. Mena and I weaved our way through the crowd of mourners and stood silently up front as Burl’s body, forever tucked away in a plain wooden box, was carried from the cargo bay. Across the way, I spotted Jimmy and Bobby Ray.

That night, my husband, John, sat at the kitchen table while I prepared supper. At six feet, two inches tall, he looked uncomfortable and oversized for our wooden kitchen chairs, which he and his auto shop buddy, Walter, had built about five years earlier. John had a slender but muscular build, likely because of all the heavy lifting required at the auto repair shop he purchased just months after high school. As I chopped the vegetables, we talked about Burl, and then the room fell silent for several minutes, my mind wandering in so many directions. Finally, in an effort to lighten the mood, I told John about the spiral I’d thrown to Bobby Ray.

I suspect he’d never caught a spiral from a lady, John said, wiping sweat from his thick, wire-framed glasses. Then he smiled, and I went on to remind him of the first time we had thrown a football together—the first time he caught a spiral from a girl.

I was a junior in high school, working after class crunching numbers at the rolltop desk on the second floor of his auto shop, when he shouted up, asking if I wanted to take a break to toss a football outside. I agreed and ran down the tight, wooden spiral staircase to meet up with him. We stood about ten feet apart, and John, four years my senior and the most handsome boy I had ever met, flipped it to me. Underhanded.

John had cupped his hands in front of his gut and said, Try to get it here. Instead, I dropped back. I looked left. Looked right. Bam! I smacked him with a pass John compared to a Jack Dempsey gut punch. We laughed at the memory.

I looked down at the ball, and then up at you, and I knew, he said. I was in love.

Thursday

The next morning, I drove to campus in my black Ford pickup. John and I had bought it off the lot in 1938, and I’ve kept it as clean as my freshly polished silver. Unlike a usual morning, I wasn’t much in the mood for singing that day, but when my favorite song, Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive, came on the radio John had installed just a few months earlier, I figured it was just what I needed, so I cranked up the volume and joined in with the Andrews Sisters.

I approached the school and spotted Jimmy in the school parking lot. I gunned it, not so hard that I’d send gravel airborne—didn’t want to hurt anyone or scratch the truck—but enough to get me to a spot in time to catch up. I parked, grabbed my handbag, and dashed. He had just lifted a box from his truck bed and was hightailing it to the field house.

Jimmy, I shouted above the steady hum of machines churning at the nearby cotton plant, the largest in Texas west of Fort Worth.

He turned back and smiled as he saw me weaving hastily through the gravel in my one-inch pumps. He stopped and waited.

Morning, Miss Tylene, Jimmy said. Me and Bobby Ray intended to return the footballs after messing with them yesterday. We just forgot.

I wasn’t concerned about the footballs. I saw you and Bobby Ray at the airfield, I said.

Jimmy nodded and looked down. We began walking side by side toward the field house when Jimmy broke the silence.

I got a letter from Stanley, he said.

Stanley, Jimmy’s older brother, had played Brownwood football just

Reviews for When the Men Were Gone

[keiffer-11 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"So she wears a dress. She knows the game and she can kick ass."
"When The Men Were Gone," by Marjorie Herrera Lewis is a sweet historical fiction novel of overcoming obstacles and not giving into the negative. The novel tells a story of a female coach, Tylene Wilson, stands up to coach the Brownhood Lions High School Football team. Football is the heart of Texas and when World War II takes every man between the ages of 18-45years old, the upcoming 19944-1945 football season is being threaten to be cancel because no man is available to coach. English teacher and Administrator decides to coach the season so the team have something to forward while the US fights a war. The only problem, can a woman coach football? Most importantly, are the people of Brownhood Texas ready for the idea of a woman coaching football?

[jenarbucci · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a great feel good novel for women who love football. Tylene was very strong and encouraging. I loved the extra PS this book has.

[etxgardener · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Based on a true story this slim novel tells the story of a woman who steps out of her role as high school administrator to coach the football team in Brownwood, Texas after the school's coaching staff is drafted into World War II. She has to fight the prejudices of a small town that would rather cancel the football season than suffer the ignominy of having a woman coach the team.Even though the reader knows the outcome of this story before it arrives, one cannot help to be outraged for the blatant misogyny that Miss Tylene faces as she tries to give the town a season of their favorite sport.

[khal_khaleesi · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

(This review will be on my blog All the Ups and Downs soon.)
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There was something about the synopsis of When the Men Were Gone by Marjorie Herrera Lewis that really reeled me in. Perhaps it's because this story takes place in Brownwood, Texas which is a place I've visited and loved. Perhaps it was because it was based on a true story and about a woman rising up to a challenge to take on a man's role back in the day when things like that were unheard of. Either way, I must say that I really enjoyed this book.

Tylene Wilson loves football. In fact, football is all she's ever really known since she was a very little girl thanks to her father. When both male football coaches for the high school she works at go off to war in the Autumn of 1944, she desperately tries to find another male coach to take the job. If she doesn't, the Brownwood Lions football season will be over before it even began, and all the senior boys will more than likely end up enlisted fighting in World War II. After struggling to find a suitable coach, Tylene decides to coach the football team herself. When word gets out that a woman will be coaching a football team, people in and around Brownwood let it be known that they are very opposed to the idea. Even Tylene's close friends snub their nose at the idea. People try to get the Brownood Lions' football season cancelled, but Tylene will not let that happen if she can help it. Will Tylene be able to convince everyone that a woman can coach football just as good as a man?

I found the plot for When the Men Were Gone to be solid. As I've stated previously, this book is based on a true story. I had never heard of Tylene Wilson until I read Marjorie Herrera Lewis' book. I found it extremely interesting to have a glimpse into what Tylene Wilson may have had to go through. Lewis does a fantastic job at imagining what Tylene's life was like and what life in the small town of Brownwood would have been like around 1944. I could not find any fault with the story telling. In fact, I felt like I was transported into the book and was amidst all the action watching the story unfold. I will admit that I did not understand most of the football jargon though, but that didn't really take too much away from the story. As with most historical fiction novels, there were no major plot twists, but all my questions were answered. There was not cliffhanger ending.

I enjoyed the character of Tylene. Lewis did an amazing job at making me feel as if I knew Tylene. At times, I felt like I was Tylene. I could feel how stressed she was at times and how much her students and football meant to her. Tylene was such a strong female character. I just loved her and her determination! Moose was another character I loved. I admired his loyalty even though he was aware of the backlash. Jimmy was another interesting character to read about. I was intrigued to read about his struggles to play football for a "lady coach." On one hand, he admired Tylene and knew that she knew her stuff when it came to football. On the other hand, he was still a teenage boy open to peer pressure living in a time when woman were doing the traditional roles.

The pacing for When the Men Were Gone starts out a bit slow. There were a bunch of character names thrown out in the first few chapters which left me feeling confused about who was who. However, I quickly caught on, and the pacing picked up decently.

Trigger warnings for When the Men Were Gone include sexism, bigotry, misogyny, drunkenness, and some war violence.

All in all, When the Men Were Gone is a short read that packs a huge punch! Based on a true story, this novel has a fantastically strong female lead and plenty of drama that will definitely keep its reader hooked. I would definitely recommend When the Men Were Gone by Marjorie Herrera Lewis to those aged 15 who enjoy football and love a story with a very strong female lead. I would give this book a 4 out of 5.
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(Thanks to the Marjorie Herrera Lewis for providing me with a paperback of When the Men Were Gone in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.)

[thewanderingjew_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When the Men Were Gone, by Marjorie Herrera LewisThis short, tender novel is based on an interesting moment in history. It takes place during World War II when a woman’s place was considered to be in the home and nowhere else, regardless of the circumstances. It is an easy read written by a woman who among other jobs held, was once a modern day football coach like the star of the novel, Tylene Wilson, a woman of character and courage.Tylene is charming and authentic for the time period. The standards and expectations of that mid-century, war-time era are laid out honestly and even brutally at times. The war has taken a terrible toll on the people of Brownwood as it has on the rest of the world. However, unlike today, then patriotism was a badge of honor, not a walk of shame. No one would take a knee while the National Anthem was playing. No one would even think of not standing up and crossing their hearts.The time is 1944 and all the men have gone to war or become casualties of it. The Brownwood football time, the Lions, have no coach and the only one qualified and willing to step up to do the job is Tylene Wilson. Tylene really did exist, and she did become the coach of the team, perhaps under undue duress, but it was to be expected at that time because in this time period, women were supposed to wear aprons and stay at home, cooking, cleaning, caring for a husband and rearing children. A woman in a position of power and authority in sports was considered anathema and even more so, shameful. It was humiliating for a man to even have to consider working with a woman and as a subordinate to her.The backlash from the town shocked Tylene Wilson when she was made the coach. She and her husband faced the meanness of those that did not believe a woman should be so unladylike. The scuttlebutt was that her power would weaken her husband’s. The narrow minded would rather see the season go by without a team or a game then have a woman do what they perceived was a man’s work. This book proves how wrong headed they were.While the story is a bit syrupy, I think it is better defined as endearing. Similar to the feel-good, honest moments readers have come to expect from the novels written by Fredrick Backman, this book expresses the feelings and values of a time gone by. It is a warm hearted novel that is filled with the values we once held dear, but lately seem to have forgotten. For a walk down memory lane into a world where Tylene comes into her own, proves her worth as a woman and makes the world an even better place because of it, read and lose yourself in this inspiring story.

[peggy.s · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book is an historical novel based on the life of Tylene Wilson, a school administrator in Brownwood, Texas in the early 1940’s. As in every small (and large) town in Texas during that time, high school football was “king.” As the story opens, the Brownwood Lions’ coach had just been killed fighting in the war – and the school was without a replacement. Miss Tylene’s father had raised her to love football. She learned everything she could about it. She was never allowed to play the game – after all – she was a woman – and a woman’s place was not on the football field. It looked like Brownwood was going to have to cancel their football program for the year because there was no one to coach the team. After overhearing some of the senior boys saying they were going to quit school and join the Army to go fight the war if they couldn’t play football, Tylene knew she had to do something. After unsuccessfully trying to find a male coach, she decided to do it herself. This book tells about the problems she encountered while trying to be the best coach she could be.My only problem with this book is that it is too short. I wish the author would not have ended the story when she did. I would have liked to learn more about Ms. Wilson, and how the rest of her life went. I received the book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer’s program.

[texasbooklover · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

HISTORICAL FICTIONMarjorie Herrera LewisWhen the Men Were Gone: A NovelWilliam Morrow PaperbacksPaperback, 978-0-0628-3605-2 (also available in hardcover, as an e-book, and an audio-book), 240 pgs., $15.99October 2, 2018The year is 1944 and the Brownwood Lions may have to cancel their football season because their coach has just been killed in France. As World War II rages on, the men are either gone, in the process of leaving, or have returned from away, worse for wear or in a pine box. Tylene Wilson, who has learned football at her father’s knee, is the assistant principal of Brownwood High School. Worried that the senior boys — without the distraction, pomp, and circumstance of Texas high-school football — will quit school and enlist before their time, Wilson forms a committee and searches for a suitable man to recruit as the Lions’ football coach. When that plan comes to naught, Wilson decides to take on the role herself.Though Wilson is a fixture of Brownwood society, intelligent, thoughtful, and respected, these qualities are not enough to insulate her from the disdain and disapproval of those she thought her friends and the threats and intimidation from those she thought might be thankful that someone — even a woman — has cared enough to risk friendships, finances, career potential, and even physical safety in order to preserve the town through the communal ritual and save the football season and the boys who would play it.When the Men Were Gone: A Novel is debut historical fiction from Fort Worth’s Marjorie Herrera Lewis. Lewis is a former reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Dallas Morning News and beat writer covering the Dallas Cowboys—and now a member of the Texas Wesleyan University football coaching staff. Lewis has potential as a novelist. When the Men Were Gone is a good first effort, a quick read and a compelling story.Lewis was inspired by the story of the real Tylene Wilson, an educator and principal for Brownwood ISD during World War II, who took on the role of head football coach at Daniel Baker College when their coach left for the war. Lewis’s research is evident, the details of the era abundant, and the atmosphere simultaneously tense and weary as President Roosevelt has converted the municipal airport into an army airfield and opened Camp Bowie a mere mile outside the Brownwood city limits, where troops train, prisoners of war are housed, and airplanes deliver the bodies of the killed in action.Wilson’s first-person narrative takes place over the course of two weeks at the beginning of the school year, in the heat of a Texas August. Lewis’s style is a little AP, which is probably to be expected from a journalist in first fiction. The prose is simple and unaffected and is appropriate even for middle-graders. While Lewis provides Wilson with a complex, absorbing backstory dealing with childhood illness and loss, the frequent flashbacks can interrupt the narrative flow, and Wilson as an adult is improbably lacking flaws.Lewis captures well the peculiar nature of a certain type of old-fashioned Texas “gentleman,” the kind that is all solicitous charm until the offered pedestal is declined and that charm morphs into insults and indignities. As an assistant principal, Wilson must assume responsibilities including academic issues, curriculum updates, textbook review, and the hiring and evaluation of staff. How can she possibly coach a game? Possibly because she is exhausted from everything else she does.Wilson battles through boycotts by referees, illegal school-board meetings, threats of forfeit from opposing teams, and the doubts of her own team. The first time a player calls Wilson “coach” is sweetly touching. The climactic scenes are active, dramatic, and exciting, complete with a twist at the end.Y’all remember, when someone says women are too emotional due to the hormones, that testosterone is a hormone, too.Originally published in Lone Star Literary Life.

[maydacat_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Football was part of everyone’s life in Brownwood, Texas. The men taught their sons, the coaches led their teams, the girls cheered them on, and everyone came to the games every Friday night during football season. High school football meant everything to this town, and everyone knew their place. At least that’s the way it was until the war took the men. Now, most of the men eligle to coach the high school team were either serving overseas or had paid the ultimate price of freedom with their lives. Without a coach, the school board would have to cancel the season. Tylene Wilson, school administrator, had grown up learning about football from her dad, and knew the boys, especially the seniors, needed football as much as the town did. But when her efforts to find a male coach fell through, she decided to step up to the plate. She knew she could coach, if she were allowed to coach. But being accepted as a coach was another thing entirely. Though met with resistance from nearly every corner and everyone, she persevered. Base on a true story, this novel is a tale of one woman’s stubborn desire to do what was needed and what was right, to show “her boys” - the team - the true meaning of sportsmanship and what playing football really meant. Well written with strong characters, especially with a strong female character, author Marjorie Herrera Lewis has penned an inspirational story that has lessons for us all in its pages.

[bookchickdi · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Football season is upon us and if you are a fan of the game and fiction set during WWII, Majorie Herrera Lewis' When the Men Were Gone will hit the spot. It's 1944 in Brownwood, Texas, where football is king and WWII has taken its toll on the small town.When their football coach is tragically killed in action in France, and the replacement coach up and enlists after his brother is taken as a POW, it looks like the football season will be cancelled. This greatly upsets Assistant Principal Tylene Wilson.In addition to being a big football fan since she was a little girl, Tylenes fears that without football to keep the senior boys in school, they will enlist in the armed forces and go to war a year sooner than if they stayed in school.Brownwood is located near an airfield where the bodies of the soldiers killed in action are returned. The people of Brownwood learn to fear the sound of the planes overhead that mean another of their young men are aboard.When it looks like no one else will do it, Tylene proposes that she be allowed to coach the team. This causes an uproar in the community; many people, especially men, are apoplectic over it. Some of the players are afraid of the scorn of opposing teams and refuse to play.Eventually Tylene manages to win over enough of the players, and the team prepares to take the field for their first game. When word gets out in the Texas football community, Tylene is the the subject of newspaper and radio stories. (Imagine if it were today, and she were subjected to online harassment that this would engender.)The last section of the book is gripping, as Lewis describes Tylene's first game in vivid detail. You feel like you are right in the stands with the entire town of Brownwood, holding your breath with each play.If you are a fan of the dear, departed TV series Friday Night Lights, When the Men Were Gone is a good read for you. It's also a good read for high school young women interested in seeing a strong female protagonist in a story that is not set in a dystopian future but a realistic past.

[amazzuca26 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An easy read, this was a fun book to read during football season. I really enjoyed this book and a look at high school football during the war. All of the men between 18 and 45 are away fighting and there is no one left to coach football. High school football is the heartbeat of this small Texas community and Miss Tylene recognizes the need to keep the season going. This was an interesting look at football in Texas and an educator that wanted to save her students.

[tamidale · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The perfect story to read in October, which is a big month for football. I loved the setting and the characters, however the book was a bit slow moving. The main character, Tylene, was a woman ahead of her time. Just shows how far women have come from the 1940's.I loved the small town feel of the book, but was somewhat taken aback at the animosity from the men over having a woman coach. I kept wondering why none of the other men in town would step up?The book was a bit overly sentimental for my tastes, but it was an enjoyable, light-hearted read.

[mishker-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Tylene Wilson was born and bred in Texas, a football fan through and through. More than that, she fully understood the game and the players thanks to her father's lessons. Tylene is now the assistant principle in Brownwood, TX, the year is 1944 and most of the men have gone to war, including some of her students and their football coach. Tylene knows the importance of football for the boys and the town; with the threat of the football season being cancelled, she is determined to find a worthy coach for her boys. After scouring the town, she finds that the best football coach may be herself. Although the decision to take on coaching the football team was a tough on Tylene, it is even more difficult for those around her to accept that a woman will be coaching football. When the Men Were Gone is a heartfelt story of a real woman in our history, Tylene Wilson. Though her actions may not have helped to win the war, she showed immense bravery and compassion as she stepped up to do a job that not many believed she could do while protecting the male students from leaving for war too early and reinvigorating her small town. Tylene's story is so genuinely portrayed using many facts from her life told to the author by Tylene's grand-niece. Sharing the connection of being a female football coach, author Marjorie Herrara Lewis was easily able to relate with what Tylene must have been feeling as she navigated through a job that only men had previously done. I am not really a football fan, however Tylene's passion for the game and her students carried me through the story as well as the author's understanding of the game and ability to describe what is happening. I could feel Tylene's need to keep the boys safe over her need to prove herself as a coach among the men. Her personal story was touching and I could see how she saw all of the football team as her own sons. I was surprised at just how much opposition she faced when she decided to take on coaching, but even more surprised at how much support she received as well. This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

[kimaoverstreet · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This debut novel is based on the real life story of Tylene Wilson. Tylene was a football loving wife and school administrator, who became the coach of the high school football team in her small Texas town during World War II. The lack of available men to coach meant the school would have to cancel its 1944 football season. Tylene offers to take on the role and is met with skepticism and resistance. This novel offers a fictionalized account of the period between Tylene’s decision to coach and her ultimate acceptance in that role. This is a good story, and I am glad it is being told. I didn’t love the first person narration, nor the many backstories of very minor characters, though perhaps they mirror actual small town gossip. Tylene comes across as too good to be truly believabe, and she never seems to sleep! I also would have liked an epilogue - How did the rest of that season go? Who coached in 1945?All in all, this is a very readable feel-good story with a strong female protagonist.

[gingersnap000 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Life during World War II was difficult for the women who were left behind for various reasons but none as difficult as what faced Assistant Principal, Tylene Wilson. She was a woman with a passion for football, a man's game.When all options for a new coach spent, Tylene knew she could be the replacement coach. She knew to cancel the season would be another disappoint to the team who have lost their coach, brothers, and fathers. The town and the students needed hope that Tylene could deliver but it is 1944 and women do not perform a man's job. I understand the way society thought back in this time period; women were told to stay in the kitchen with the babies.Tylene became coach not for her own sake but for the boys on the team to give them hope and pride until the day they would march off to war. Although this story is fiction, Tylene was a real person who fought for the right to coach. This book should be read by Young Adults who can understand life in America during the 1940s.

[m.belljackson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Based on the true story of a Texas woman who surprised herself and her community by evolving into the position of head high school football coachafter the death of her school's beloved coach during World War II. Her expertise and her deep love of the game combine movingly with the support ofher loyal husband, and the willing football players.