Beau Riffenburgh

Beau Riffenburgh (born 1955) is an author and historian specializing in polar exploration. He is also an award winning American Football coach and author of books on football history.

Early career

A native of California, Riffenburgh was the Publications Director for the National Football League in the late eighties and early nineties. While there, he wrote or edited a number of books, including the NFL's official encyclopedia. He served briefly as Managing Editor for Total Sports Publishing.

Polar research

Riffenburgh earned his doctorate degree at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge. He has written several books on polar exploration, including "The Myth of the Explorer" and "Shackleton's Forgotten Expedition" the story of the Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition, the first successful journey to the magnetic south pole.

Since 1994, Riffenburgh has served as the editor of "Polar Record", the world's oldest journal of polar research. He has served as the head of the Polar History Group at the Scott Polar Research Institute and as a lecturer in the history faculty of the University of Cambridge.

Coaching career

While at Cambridge he put his expertise in American football to use as the head coach of Cambridge's team in the British Collegiate American Football League. He was named Coach of the Year twice in his five seasons (1991–1996). After Cambridge dropped their team, Riffenburgh spent one season as head coach of the University of Hertfordshire Hurricanes. The team went undefeated and won the National Championship during the 1997–1998 season. [http://www.hurricanes.org.uk/history/1997/season.php]

Riffenburgh was named as head coach of the Great Britain Bulldogs, winning the first two European Championships in 1994 and 1998.

He was inducted into the BCAFL's Hall of Fame in 2000 as part of the Hall's founding class. [http://www.bcafl.org/halloffame/class0000/]

Partial bibliography

Books on exploration

*Encyclopedia of the Antarctic (2006)
*Shackleton's Forgotten Expedition : The Voyage of the Nimrod (2005)
*With Scott to the Pole: The Photographs of Herbert Ponting. (1998, with Elizabeth Cruwys)
*The Myth of the Explorer : The Press, Sensationalism, and Geographical Discovery (1994)

Books on football

*20th Century Sports : Images of Greatness (1999, with Mike Meserole)
*The American Football Almanac (1992)
*NFL : Official History of Pro Football (1990)
*Great Ones: NFL Quarterbacks from Montana to Baugh (1989)
*Official NFL Encyclopedia (1986)
*Running Wild: A Pictorial Tribute to the NFL's Greatest runners (1984)

External links

* [http://www.bloomsbury.com/authors/default.asp?id=753&section=2 Riffenburgh bio from publisher]
* [http://www.bcafl.org/cgi-bin/showdoc.pl?section=/halloffame/class0000&article=D69564D6B47573F697955483248535D6034666442455371493735626D405E41415 Riffenburgh's Entry at BCAFL Hall of Fame]