Eustace Cockrell was a pioneer television writer who contributed to many of the early western shows including Have Gun Will Travel and Gunsmoke. He also wrote for such high-profile television programs as Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Naked City.

Prior to his Hollywood career Cockrell was a prolific writer of short stories. Over a 25-year period beginning in 1932, his works appeared regularly in pulp fiction magazines including Blue Book and Argosy and in "slicks" like Collier's and Saturday Evening Post.

While Cockrell's short stories covered a broad range of fiction categories - detective, adventure, romance and even science fiction - he was primarily a writer of sports stories.

Game As They Make 'Em is a collection of 22 sports tales written between 1934 and 1950. Featured are a variety of settings including football, baseball, wrestling, tennis, golf and horse racing. (Cockrell's boxing stories are contained in Vol. III of his collected works, Refugee Smith and Other Stories of the Ring, published by Mission Point Press in 2022.)