Rosey Grier’s Needlepoint for Men

Rosey Grier’s Needlepoint for Men is a craft book written by Rosey Grier (b. 1932) and published by Walker & Co. in 1973. From the inner flap:

What happens when a tough cookie tackles the finer things in life? Will he leave people in stitches? Must he take a little gentle needling? Not if it’s Rosey Grier, former Los Angeles Rams and New York Giants tackle, who is putting down the pigskin and picking up stitchery. A sissy? Not a hulking, awesome, six-foot-five, three-hundred-pound chance. And if Rose’s massive hands can create lovely designs on canvas, then so can just about anyone’s.

Travis Boyer wrote about the book for Maharam:

Rosey Grier’s revolutionary aims are made clear in “Chapter 13: Other Men in Needlepoint.” Grier is brutally honest, discussing the shaming he received for his needlepoint, including numerous harassing phone calls. Naming and quoting friends and football players, Grier charges them with a kind of tacit homophobia: “cut that crap, Ro, you’ll have everyone who thought football players were rough and tough, looking at us like we are sissies or something else.”

Don’t cry. Rosey has all the answers. In time his shade-throwing football buddies all end up in his ever-growing sewing circle: “Every one of them does needlepoint now.”

Make sure to read the full article, which does a great job of providing the sociocultural context into which the book was published.

For the jacket design, Barbara Huntley worked with Photo-Lettering’s Accelera. The fat rounded caps are shown in blue, with a triple shadow in pink, red, and orange. “Needlepoint” is in caps from Jay H. Schechter’s Jay Gothic.