The National Rugby League premiership enjoyed its 25th season in 2022 - a milestone marking a period of extraordinary change, progress, triumphs, heartache, controversy and indelible highlights.
Jackie Robinson famously said that a life is not important except for the impact it has on other lives. As we celebrate Robinson's 100th birthday in January 2019, Stealing Home profiles nine figures whose lives were altered by the "great experiment," as the integration of baseball was called then. Profiled here are Rachel Robinson, the stoic but ......
This book examines the competitive landscape of Major League Baseball during the wild-card era, including the major storylines for all 30 teams, division races, and the state of dynasties in a new age of baseball.
Baseball's spread across Illinois paralleled the sport's explosive growth in other parts of the country. Robert D. Sampson taps a wealth of archival research to transport readers to an era when an epidemic of "base ball on the brain" raged from Alton to Woodstock. Focusing on the years 1865 to 1869, Sampson offers a vivid portrait of a game where ......
Baseball's spread across Illinois paralleled the sport's explosive growth in other parts of the country. Robert D. Sampson taps a wealth of archival research to transport readers to an era when an epidemic of "base ball on the brain" raged from Alton to Woodstock. Focusing on the years 1865 to 1869, Sampson offers a vivid portrait of a game where ......
The Scandals of 1926, Babe Ruth, and the Unlikely Savior Who Rescued a T
Baseball at the Abyss is the story of one of baseball's darkest days and how innovative, behind-the-scenes work of the first-ever player agent pushed the game's greatest player to a history making season, one which rescued a tarnished game.
Up Close and Personal, What It Was Really Like in the Major Leagues
A behind-the-scenes look at baseball history, as told through timeless interviews with major leaguers
For fifty years, bestselling author Peter Golenbock has been interviewing some of the most fascinating figures in baseball. Their conversations are a journey back in time to the days of Ruth and Gehrig, Gehringer and ......
Timeless and Compelling Tales of Our National Game
As abundant and layered as the National Pastime itself, Baseball Stories takes the reader on a rich journey that circles the bases of the game's history and literature--its Giants, its dramas, its tragedies, and its laughs--as it rolls through the typewriters of some of the game's mightiest scribes, from Walt Whitman and Mark Twain to Grantland ......
Candid Stories of Ballplayers Who Didn't Live Up to the Hype
Baseball's Great Expectations features the fascinating stories of baseball players who were on the cusp of greatness, who everyone expected to be the next superstar, but never quite lived up to the hype-or through tragic circumstances, never had the chance.
This book is the first complete history of swimming that looks at multiple aspects of the sport, including the top swimmers, major moments, controversies, developments, innovations, and more. Leading up to the 2020/2021 Olympic Games, it is the most up-to-date resource on competitive swimming.
The Story of African Americans in Major League Baseball, Past, Present,
Beyond Baseball's Color Line celebrates Black players throughout the history of Major League Baseball. The book not only provides a comprehensive history dating back to the 1800s, but also highlights accomplishments, personalities, participation trends of African American players, and insight into what the future may hold.
Billy Martin and the Resurrection of the Oakland A's
In the early 1970s, the Oakland Athletics became only the second team in major-league baseball history to win three consecutive World Series championships. But as the decade came to a close, the A's were in free fall, having lost 108 games in 1979 while drawing just 307,000 fans. Free agency had decimated the A's, and the team's colorful owner, ......
Cycling emerged as a sport in the late 1870s, and from the beginning, Black Americans rode alongside and raced against white competitors. Robert J. Turpin sheds light on the contributions of Black cyclists from the sport's early days through the cementing of Jim Crow laws during the Progressive Era. As Turpin shows, Black cyclists used the bicycle ......
Cycling emerged as a sport in the late 1870s, and from the beginning, Black Americans rode alongside and raced against white competitors. Robert J. Turpin sheds light on the contributions of Black cyclists from the sport's early days through the cementing of Jim Crow laws during the Progressive Era. As Turpin shows, Black cyclists used the bicycle ......
African American Athletes, Race, and the Modern Olympic Games
This book chronicles the struggles and triumphs of African American athletes in the Modern Olympic Games, from 1896 through the 2020 Tokyo Games. It explores the lives and careers of both legendary and little-known Black Olympians as they sought to honor themselves, their race, and their nation on the world stage.
This book is a sociocultural and historical analysis of nineteenth-century African American cowboys. The author examines their role in rodeo and the development of the Texas cattle industry.
Sport often mirrored the racial climate of the time, but it also informed and encouraged equality on and off the field. In Boston, the Black athletic body historically represented a challenge to the city's liberal image. Boston's Black Athletes: Identity, Performance, and Activism interprets Boston's contested racial history through the diverse ......
Remembering the Eastern Professional Basketball League
This book tells the story of the Eastern Professional Basketball League, a pro basketball institution for over 30 years. The league featured top players who just couldn't make the NBA-many because of scandals or because of unofficial quotas on Black players-with games played in tiny gyms across the northeast.
Remembering the Eastern Professional Basketball League
This book tells the story of the Eastern Professional Basketball League. Formed in the 1940s, it was a pro basketball institution for over 30 years, featuring top players who just couldn't make the NBA-because of scandals, because they weren't quite good enough, or because of unofficial quotas on black players.
Bringing The Monster to its Knees: Ben Hogan, Oakland Hills, and the 1951 U.S. Open is the first full-length book on a victory that the four-time U.S. Open champion always maintained was the "most satisfying" of his long and storied Hall of Fame career. It fills an important void in previous books on Hogan's tournament play, books covering his ......
The Legendary Story of the NFL's Greatest Two-Way Fullback
This book tells the remarkable story of a small-town athlete from the farming plains of Minnesota who became one of the greatest players in NFL history.
You can't separate football from the man. The game gave him everything and "Bullet Bill" Dudley said as much. But you can separate the man from football. As a husband, father, businessman and citizen, he put far more into this world than he took out. Three years before Bill died, he asked his son-in-law Steve Stinson to write his story. William ......
The untold story of one of the first Black players for the St. Louis Cardinals, who dreamed of leaving a lasting impact on Major League Baseball. Charlie Peete was poised for greatness. After a meteoric rise through the minor leagues, the rookie outfielder appeared in twenty-three games for the St. Louis Cardinals during the summer of 1956 and ......
This Chelsea Scrapbook is packed with rare photographs and on the page facsimile memorabilia and provides an insight into the journey of one of the most famous football club's in the world Chelsea FC.
Call it the forgotten rivalry. The Cincinnati Reds and the Los Angeles Dodgers may not share geographical boundaries, and today they don't even play in the same division, but for a period of time in the 1970s Dodgers vs. Reds was the best rivalry in Major League Baseball. They boasted the biggest names of the game--Johnny Bench, Steve Garvey, Pete ......
This collection of timeless baseball stories can be read again and again for its poignancy, humor, and celebration of the national pastime, whether it be John Roseboro forgiving Juan Marichal for clubbing him in the head with a bat, Elston Howard integrating the Yankees, or baseball played on snowshoes in a remote Wisconsin town.
How Women's Gymnastics Rose to Prominence and Fell From Grace
How the Cold War era changed the trajectory of women's gymnastics Electrifying athletes like Olga Korbut and Nadia Comaneci helped make women's artistic gymnastics one of the most popular events in the Olympic Games. But the transition of gymnastics from a women's sport to a girl's sport in the 1970s also laid the foundation for a system of ......
How Women's Gymnastics Rose to Prominence and Fell from Grace
How the Cold War era changed the trajectory of women's gymnastics Electrifying athletes like Olga Korbut and Nadia Comaneci helped make women's artistic gymnastics one of the most popular events in the Olympic Games. But the transition of gymnastics from a women's sport to a girl's sport in the 1970s also laid the foundation for a system of ......
Baseball and America in the Groundbreaking Year of 1966
This book offers a unique look at a pivotal year in American history, tracing the significant events of 1966 by using the baseball season as its narrative arc, but also examining the Space Race, television, film, politics, music, and more.
The intersection of sports and politics has been making headlines over the last few years, but the reality is that this clash has been going on for decades. This book examines the history of sports as a means to advance social change and connects that history to today's world.
This book is the exciting story of how one of the most infamous scandals in American history-the Black Sox scandal-continued for over a year following the "fixed" World Series of 1919 until the truth began to emerge. It is a story of gamblers and crooks; a story of teammates betraying one another; a story of investigations and cover-ups.
In 1926, Harvard athletic director Bill Bingham chose former Crimson All-American Arnold Horween as coach of the university's moribund football team. The pair instilled a fresh culture, one based on merit rather than social status, and in the virtues of honor and courage over mere winning. Yet their success challenged entrenched ideas about who ......
In 1926, Harvard athletic director Bill Bingham chose former Crimson All-American Arnold Horween as coach of the university's moribund football team. The pair instilled a fresh culture, one based on merit rather than social status, and in the virtues of honor and courage over mere winning. Yet their success challenged entrenched ideas about who ......
How Larry Bird and the 1984 Boston Celtics Conquered the NBA and Changed
A historic look at the fabled 1983-84 Boston Celtics and an unforgettable season. Ronald Reagan declares the Soviet Union an Evil Empire. The Apple Macintosh personal computer makes its debut. Michael Jackson's Thriller album dominates the pop charts. And Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics capture the NBA championship over Magic Johnson, Kareem ......
Updated for the Womens World Cup 2023 Information. The companion volume to the Encyclopedia of Socceroos Centenary Edition (2022), this is a 120,000-word Encyclopedia, with players and data to end March 2023 just in time for the Womens World Cup to be held in Australia and New Zealand.
No matter the amount of losses, dysfunction, or controversy, the Cleveland Browns remain one of the most popular franchises in professional football. First and Ten covers the "new" history of the Browns after their return to the NFL in 1999, focusing on the positives without shying away from the negatives, for a fresh look at this storied team.