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What: “Great Failures of the Extremely Successful.�

Author: Steve Young.

Publisher: Tallfellow Press.

Price: $24.95.

There are many books about success stories. Here’s one about failures. In compiling the book, Steve Young -- a Los Angeles writer, not the former quarterback -- interviewed more than 60 successful people from many fields. A number were from the sports world, including John Wooden, the late Johnny Unitas, Jim Marshall, Bill Walton and boxer Gabriel Ruelas.

Young’s book chronicles first-person tales of how prominent people used failure, mistakes and adversity toward a positive end.

Young interviewed Unitas this summer, not long before he died Sept. 11. Unitas, drafted in the ninth round out of Louisville in 1955, was cut by the Pittsburgh Steelers without playing in an exhibition game. He thought about giving up football and becoming a teacher.

But the following year, after a successful stint in semipro ball, he was signed by the Baltimore Colts as a backup quarterback. He became the starter when George Shaw, the former Oregon star, came down with pneumonia during training camp. Unitas was the starting quarterback for 16 seasons.

“I never felt that mistakes in life or in sports were a big deal,� Unitas said. “They happen.... You can’t worry about missing a pass. If you worried about stuff like that, you’d never do anything.�

Wooden talks about almost becoming a civil engineer. He also talks about his father. “I got my positive attitude from my dad,� he said. “He let me know that it’s never about being better than somebody else. My job was to never stop trying to be the best I could be.�

-- Larry Stewart