High school players in a working-class neighborhood in the 1970s gain desperately needed structure and guidance from Jack "Clyde" Dempsey, a scrappy, charismatic coach who seems like nothing more than a football geek. But Coach also happens to be the toughest guy on the streets of Boston, with a temper to match, and it's his secret life as a mob enforcer/collector that forces him to flee the country, becoming one of America's most wanted.

In this memoir a devoted Dempsey disciple, who later became a dean at a private school outside Boston, tries 35 years later to understand his former coach, role model, and mentor - both his good side and his very dark side - and Dempsey's impact on his own life. A completely true story.