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Kid Olympians: True Tales of Childhood from Champions and Game Changers (Kid Legends #9)
By Robin Stevenson. 2024
Triumphant, relatable, and totally true biographies tell the childhood stories of a diverse group of international athletes who have captured…
the world’s attention at the Summer Olympics and Paralympics, like Simone Biles, Jesse Owens, Naomi Osaka, Tatyana McFadden, and 12 other incredible olympians.Athletes throughout history have dreamed of competing in the Olympics—and some were kids themselves when those dreams and plans began! In Kid Olympians: Summer, discover the childhood stories of legends such as: Usain Bolt, who used to skip practices to go to the arcade and play video games.Serena Williams, who sometimes hit her tennis ball over the fence on purpose!Tatyana McFadden, who had to fight to be allowed on her school’s track teamFeaturing kid-friendly text and full-color illustrations, you’ll be inspired to dream bigger, faster, and higher than ever before! The diverse and inspiring group also includes Michael Phelps, Yusra Mardini, Dick Fosbury, Ibtihaj Muhammad, Gertrude Ederle, Nadia Comaneci, Ellie Simmonds, Tommie Smith, Wilma Rudolph, and Megan Rapinoe.Undisputed: A Champion's Life
By Donovan Bailey. 2023
A memoir of Olympic glory, the value of mentorship and the courage to champion your own excellence, from the long-reigning…
world's fastest man, Canadian sprinting legend Donovan Bailey.From the lush fields of his boyhood in Jamaica, to the basketball courts of Oakville, where he came of age in one of Canada’s most thriving cultural mosaics, to his sprint toward double Olympic gold for Canada in Atlanta in 1996, Donovan Bailey got a long way on natural talent. But he also learned that in the bureaucratic world of Canadian sports, an athlete who didn't come up in the system needed to take charge of his fate if he was going to become the world’s best. As he ascended from outsider to dominant athlete, others didn’t always understand the rigour at work behind Bailey’s confident demeanour. He’d learned from watching Muhammad Ali that a champion needed to act like a champion. But media grew fixated on the sprinter’s immodesty, the likes of which they never saw from Canadian athletes, especially track athletes in the wake of the Ben Johnson doping scandal at Seoul in 1988. Bailey was having none of it, and when he called out Canada's subtle racism and contradicted the prevailing idea most Canadians had of their country, he left in his wake a media uproar and cracked wide open the nation’s moral complacency. In addition to his unforgettable 100-metre and 4x100 relay gold-medal sprints in Atlanta, Bailey's track career was a litany of records and rare accomplishments, including his audacious 1997 race in Toronto's SkyDome against American 200-metre Olympic champion Michael Johnson to determine who was really the world’s fastest man. There was no disputing the result. Bailey had been coached in success before he was seriously coached in athletics. Following the lead of his father, a machinist-turned-real estate investor, Bailey became a millionaire by the age of 21, an experience he continues to draw on as an entrepreneur and philanthropist. Frank about his dominance on the track and unapologetic for expecting as much of those around him as he expects of himself, Undisputed is an athlete's story that refuses to settle for second best.Calling the Shots: Ups, Downs and Rebounds – My Life in the Great Game of Hockey
By Kelly Hrudey, Kirstie McLellan Day. 2017
Few people have had a better front row seat to hockey history than Kelly Hrudey, whose former teammates include Mike…
Bossy, Denis Potvin, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey and Wayne Gretzky, among many others of the game’s greats. In 1987, he stood tall in net during the Easter Epic, the longest playoff game in Islanders history. Kelly made seventy-three saves (to this day an NHL record for most saves made in a playoff game) against the Capitals before Pat LaFontaine scored the winner in the fourth overtime period of Game Seven at two o’clock in the morning. Later that year, Kelly was in the Canada Cup lineup of one of the most talented teams ever assembled on ice. In 1989, he joined Wayne Gretzky and Marty McSorley on a team that took Los Angeles by storm: the Kings went all the way to the Stanley Cup final against the Canadiens in 1993. Hrudey is now a well-respected hockey analyst and broadcaster and has watched with a keen eye as the game continues to evolve. Through it all, he has seen greatness and missed opportunities, inspiring moments and outright craziness. Working with bestselling author Kirstie McLellan Day, Kelly delivers a lively and thoughtful memoir, rich in behind-the-scenes anecdotes, humour and insight.The Race to Be Myself: A Memoir
By Caster Semenya. 2023
World champion runner Caster Semenya offers an empowering account of her extraordinary life and career, and her trailblazing battle to…
compete on her own terms. Olympian and World Champion Caster Semenya is finally ready to share the vivid and heartbreaking story of how the world came to know her name. Thrust into the spotlight at just eighteen years old after winning the Berlin World Championships in 2009, Semenya’s win was quickly overshadowed by criticism and speculation about her body, and she became the center of a still-raging firestorm about how gender plays out in sports, our expectations of female athletes, and the right to compete as you are. Told with captivating speed and candor, The Race to Be Myself is the journey of Semenya’s years as an athlete in the public eye, and her life behind closed doors. From her rural beginnings running free in the dust, to crushing her opponents in record time on the track, to the accusations and falsehoods spread about her in the press, the legal trial she went through in order to compete, and the humiliation she has been forced to endure publicly and privately. This book is a searing testimony for anyone who has been forced to stop doing what they love.Bottom of the 33rd: Hope and Redemption in Baseball's Longest Game
By Dan Barry. 2011
In “a worthy companion to . . . Boys of Summer,” a Pulitzer prize winning journalist “exploits the power of memory and nostalgia…
with literary grace” (New York Times).From award-winning New York Times columnist Dan Barry comes the beautifully recounted story of the longest game in baseball history—a tale celebrating not only the robust intensity of baseball, but the aspirational ideal epitomized by the hard-fighting players of the minor leagues.On April 18, 1981, a ball game sprang eternal. For eight hours, the night seemed to suspend a town and two teams between their collective pasts and futures, between their collective sorrows and joys—the shivering fans; their wives at home; the umpires; the batboys approaching manhood; the ejected manager, peering through a hole in the backstop; the sportswriters and broadcasters; and the players themselves—two destined for the Hall of Fame (Cal Ripken and Wade Boggs), the few to play only briefly or forgettably in the big leagues, and the many stuck in minor-league purgatory, duty bound and loyal forever to the game.With Bottom of the 33rd, Barry delivers a lyrical meditation on small-town lives, minor-league dreams, and the elements of time and community that conspired one fateful night to produce a baseball game seemingly without end. An unforgettable portrait of ambition and endurance, Bottom of the 33rd is the rare sports book that changes the way we perceive America’s pastime—and America’s past.“Destined to take its place among the classics of baseball literature.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)“Bottom of the 33rd is chaw-chewing, sunflower-spitting, pine tar proof that too much baseball is never enough.” —Jane Leavy, author of The Last Boy and Sandy KoufaxGeorge Allen: A Football Life
By Michael Richman. 2023
George Allen was a fascinating and eccentric figure in the world of football coaching. His remarkable career spanned six decades,…
from the late 1940s until his sudden death in 1990 at the age of seventy-three. Although he never won a Super Bowl, he never had a losing season as an NFL head coach and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2002. In George Allen: A Football Life, Mike Richman captures the life and accomplishments of one of the most successful NFL coaches of all time and one of the greatest innovators in the game. A player&’s coach, Allen was a tremendous motivator and game strategist, as well as a defensive mastermind, and is credited with making special teams a critical focus in an era in which they were an afterthought. He had a keen eye for talent and pulled off masterful trades, often for veteran players who were viewed to be past their prime, who then had great seasons and made his teams much better. In addition to his coaching feats, Allen had an idiosyncratic and controversial personality. His life revolved around football 24-7. One of his quirks was to minimize chewing time by consuming soft foods, giving himself more time to prepare for games and study opponents. He lived and breathed football; he compared losing to death. Allen had contentious relationships with the owners of the two NFL teams for which he was the head coach, the Washington Redskins and Los Angeles Rams. Richman explores why he was fired by those teams and whether he was blackballed from coaching again in the NFL. Based on detailed research and interviews with family, former players, and coaches, George Allen is the definitive biography of the football coach who lived to win, loved a good challenge, and left a lasting legacy on pro football history.Rick Pitino, Jim Calhoun, and Gary Williams played no small role in the making of modern college basketball. Collectively, they&’ve…
won more than 2,300 games and six national championships and reached thirteen Final Fours. All three have been enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Pitino, Calhoun, and Williams each spent more than two decades on the national stage, becoming celebrities in their own right as college basketball and March Madness became a multi-billion-dollar industry. Before Pitino became the face of the Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville programs, before Calhoun turned UConn into a national power, and before Williams brought Maryland to its first national championship, all three of these coaches cut their teeth in front of modest-sized crowds in the crumbling college gymnasiums of Boston during the 1970s and early 1980s.Boston Ball charts how this trio of coaches, seemingly out of nowhere, started a basketball revolution: Pitino at Boston University, Calhoun at Northeastern University, and Williams at Boston College. Toiling in relative obscurity, they ignited a renaissance of the &“city game,&” a style of play built on fast-breaking up-tempo offense, pressure defense, and board crashing. Part of a fraternity of great coaches—including Mike Jarvis, Kevin Mackey, and Tom Davis—they unknowingly invented Boston Ball, a simultaneously old and new path to the top of college basketball. Pitino, Calhoun, and Williams took advantage of the ample coaching opportunities in &“America&’s College Town&” to craft their respective blueprints for building a winning program and turn their schools into regional powers, and these early coaching years served as their respective springboards to big-time college basketball.Boston Ball is the story of how three ambitious young coaches learned their trade in the shadow of the dynastic Celtics, as well as the story of how the young players—in their recruitment, relationships, and basketball lives—made these teams into winners.Nazaré: Life and Death with the Big Wave Surfers
By Matt Majendie. 2023
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR JOIN THE QUEST TO SURF THE BIGGEST WAVE IN…
HISTORY.In a small fishing village on the coast of Portugal, a select band of surfers take unimaginable risks, pushing the boundaries of their death-defying sport as they seek to go bigger than ever before.Their goal? To ride the Everest of the ocean - the 100-foot wave.Sports journalist Matt Majendie is welcomed into the inner circle of Nazaré's tight community of big-wave surfers and extreme thrill-seekers, living among them for a season as he chronicles their incredible highs and terrifying lows.Follow the endeavours of Britain's leading big-wave surfer, a former plumber from Devon, Andrew Cotton; trailblazing Brazilian female surfer Maya Gabeira; current World Record holder German Sebastian Steudtner; Portuguese Nic von Rupp and jet-ski driver Sérgio Cosme, nicknamed 'the Guardian Angel of Nazaré' for his daring rescues, in this gripping read.War Room: The Legacy of Bill Belichick and the Art of Building the Perfect Team
By Michael Holley. 2011
Bill Belichick is one of the titans of today’s game of football. Now, sports commentator and bestselling author Michael Holley…
follows three NFL teams—the New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs, and Atlanta Falcons—from training camp 2010 through the Super Bowl and into the April draft, opening a new window into Belichick’s influence on the game. This one-of-a-kind exploration takes football fans behind the scenes of the most popular sport in America, with unprecedented insider access to the head coaches, scouts, trainers, and players who make the game what it is—including new insights from Bill Parcells, Todd and Dick Haley, and Belichick himself. For true fans of the game, and for readers of Badasses, Patriot Reign, and Boys Will Be Boys, Holley’s War Room is not to be missed.Marty Glickman: The Life of an American Jewish Sports Legend
By Jeffrey S. Gurock. 2023
The first comprehensive biography of the preeminent voice of New York sportsFor close to half a century after World War…
II, Marty Glickman was the voice of New York sports. His distinctive style of broadcasting, on television and especially on the radio, garnered for him legions of fans who would not miss his play-by-play accounts. From the 1940s through the 1990s, he was as iconic a sports figure in town as the Yankees’ Mickey Mantle, the Knicks’ Walt Frazier, or the Jets’ Joe Namath. His vocabulary and method of broadcasting left an indelible mark on the industry, and many of today’s most famous sportscasters were Glickman disciples. To this very day, many fans who grew up listening to his coverage of Knicks basketball and Giants football games, among the myriad of events that Glickman covered, recall fondly, and can still recite, his descriptions of actions in arenas and stadiums. In Marty Glickman, Jeffrey S. Gurock showcases the life of this important contributor to American popular culture. In addition to the stories of how he became a master of American sports airwaves, Marty Glickman has also been remembered as a Jewish athlete who, a decade before he sat in front of a microphone, was cynically barred from running in a signature track event in the 1936 Olympics by anti-Semitic American Olympic officials. This lively biography details this traumatic event and explores not only how he coped for decades with that painful rejection but also examines how he dealt with other anti-Semitic and cultural obstacles that threatened to stymie his career. Glickman’s story underscores the complexities that faced his generation of American Jews as these children of immigrants emerged from their ethnic cocoons and strove to succeed in America amid challenges to their professional and social advancement. Marty Glickman is a story of adversity and triumph, of sports and minority group struggles, told within the context of the prejudicial barriers that were common to thousands, if not millions, of fellow Jews of his generation as they aimed to make it in America.Stuart Broad: THE MUST-READ SPORTS AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 2023
By Stuart Broad. 2023
Out now: the must-read sports autobiography of 2023THE SWING. THE SEAM. THE STORY. __________ Stuart Broad is the ultimate competitor…
- someone addicted to the pressures of Test cricket, the big occasions and being thrust into the heat of battle. For over seventeen years, he's left it all on the field. A multiple Ashes winner and World Champion, Broad was integral to some of the greatest England teams of all time. His awards and achievements, however, don't tell the whole story. He has always been a cricketer of more than mere numbers. Broad's passionate and spontaneous behaviour has made him a fan favourite. No other player feeds off the crowd quite like he does. In his autobiography, Broad shares the moments from the game which have made him and those that almost broke him. What's clear, however, is his unwavering belief in his own ability to become one of the best ever. Candid, entertaining, and refreshingly honest, this book reveals the personal side of a true cricketing great. __________ 'The longevity of his career, and what he has achieved, should never be forgotten' Ben Stokes 'He loves the big moments, the pressure situations. That's a true sign of a champion, I think. He's been incredible for England for a long, long time' Glen McGrath 'Stuart Broad is the ultimate Ashes warrior' Ricky Ponting 'One of England's greatest players of all time' Joe RootSÍ SEÑOR: My Liverpool Years - THE LONG-AWAITED MEMOIR FROM A LIVERPOOL LEGEND
By Roberto Firmino. 2023
A revelatory memoir from Liverpool legend and global football star Bobby Firmino.Master of the no-look goal and Anfield favourite, Roberto…
'Bobby' Firmino, signed for Liverpool in July 2015. Over the next eight years - and seven winners' medals - he established himself as one of the club's most important players in recent years for his audacious skill, impressive goal scoring, and beaming smile.Jürgen Klopp saw Firmino as the on-pitch 'engine' that drove the club's counter-pressing strategy and together with Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané, Firmino formed a formidable attacking trio. The Kop rewarded Roberto with the ultimate accolade - his own song: 'Sí, Señor, give the ball to Bobby and he will score.' Sí, Señor celebrates Firmino's cherished years in a red shirt and will remind fans why they fell in love with him in the first place.Stuart Broad: PRE-ORDER HIS MUST-READ AUTOBIOGRAPHY NOW
By Stuart Broad. 2023
Pre-order the must-read sports autobiography of 2023THE SWING. THE SEAM. THE STORY. __________ Stuart Broad is the ultimate competitor -…
someone addicted to the pressures of Test cricket, the big occasions and being thrust into the heat of battle. For over seventeen years, he's left it all on the field. A multiple Ashes winner and World Champion, Broad was integral to some of the greatest England teams of all time. His awards and achievements, however, don't tell the whole story. He has always been a cricketer of more than mere numbers. Broad's passionate and spontaneous behaviour has made him a fan favourite. No other player feeds off the crowd quite like he does. In his autobiography, Broad shares the moments from the game which have made him and those that almost broke him. What's clear, however, is his unwavering belief in his own ability to become one of the best ever. Candid, entertaining, and refreshingly honest, this book reveals the personal side of a true cricketing great. __________ 'The longevity of his career, and what he has achieved, should never be forgotten' Ben Stokes 'He loves the big moments, the pressure situations. That's a true sign of a champion, I think. He's been incredible for England for a long, long time' Glen McGrath 'Stuart Broad is the ultimate Ashes warrior' Ricky Ponting 'One of England's greatest players of all time' Joe RootSÍ SEÑOR: My Liverpool Years - THE LONG-AWAITED MEMOIR FROM A LIVERPOOL LEGEND
By Roberto Firmino. 2023
A revelatory memoir from Liverpool legend and global football star Bobby Firmino.Master of the no-look goal and Anfield favourite, Roberto…
'Bobby' Firmino, signed for Liverpool in July 2015. Over the next eight years - and seven winners' medals - he established himself as one of the club's most important players in recent years for his audacious skill, impressive goal scoring, and beaming smile.Jürgen Klopp saw Firmino as the on-pitch 'engine' that drove the club's counter-pressing strategy and together with Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané, Firmino formed a formidable attacking trio. The Kop rewarded Roberto with the ultimate accolade - his own song: 'Sí, Señor, give the ball to Bobby and he will score.' Sí, Señor celebrates Firmino's cherished years in a red shirt and will remind fans why they fell in love with him in the first place.The End of Autumn: Reflections on My Life in Football
By Michael Oriard. 2009
Much of Michael Oriard's education took place outside the schoolroom of his native Spokane, Washington, during "slaughter practices" on high…
school football fields. He was taught to "punish" and "dominate," to rouse his school spirit with religion, and to "tough it" through injuries, even serious ones. At the age of eighteen he entered Notre Dame and walked onto the football team, where studying hard was never harder. By his senior year, playing for Ara Parseghian's Fighting Irish, he was the starting center and co-captain of the team. After graduating, he signed with the Kansas City Chiefs and head coach Hank Stram. There he learned what it meant to be "owned." He rediscovered the game as it was played by grown men with families who were still treated like children and who dreaded nothing more than the end of their football careers. And without their fully realizing the consequences, every hard tackle inflicted its injury, some gradually growing into chronic conditions, some suddenly cutting a player's career short and ushering him off the field to be soon forgotten. In this thoughtful narrative, Oriard describes the dreams of glory, the game day anxieties, the brutal training camps and harsh practices, his starry-eyed experience at Notre Dame, and the cold-blooded business of professional football. Told from the inside, the book leaves aside the hype and the pathos of the game to present a direct and honest account of the personal rewards but also the costs players paid to make others rich and entertained. Originally published in 1982, The End of Autumn recounts the experiences of an ordinary player in a bygone era--before ESPN, before the Bowl Championship Series, before free agency and million-dollar salaries for NFL players. In a new afterword, Oriard reflects on the process of writing the book and how the game has changed in the thirty years since his "retirement" from football at the age of twenty-six.The Feeling of Greatness: The Moe Norman Story
By Tim O'Connor. 2017
From the award-winning journalist and coach: a biography of “the ‘Rain Man’ of golf. It’s a character drama. It’s an…
underdog story” (Barry Morrow, Academy Award–winning screenwriter).Documentary now in production!In The Feeling of Greatness, second edition, golf coach Tim O’Connor updates his previous biography of the late great, Canadian golfer Moe Norman, who was famous for introducing the single plane golf swing. This edition includes new anecdotes about Moe both on and off the course by golfers, journalists, friends, and family, and offers a more in-depth portrait of the man and golfer, especially in the last years of his life. O’Connor shares with readers his personal and professional friendships with Moe along the way. Some twenty years later, from a distanced perspective, O’Connor sets the record straight about Norman, promotes his legacy as the legendary golfer he was, and reflects on life lessons learned from their association over the years.Praise for Moe Norman and The Feeling of Greatness“Only two players have ever owned their swings: Moe Norman and Ben Hogan.” —Tiger Woods“Well-written and meticulously researched.” —James McCarten, PGATour.com“Tim O’Connor has helped us better understand one of golf’s most intriguing and disturbing members.” —Hal Quinn, The Financial PostGot Your Number: The Greatest Sports Legends and the Numbers They Own
By Mike Greenberg. 2023
ESPN personality (Get Up and #Greeny) and New York Times bestselling author Mike Greenberg partners with mega-producer Hembo to settle…
once and for all which legends flat-out own which numbers. In short essays certain to provoke debate between and amongst all generations, Greeny uses his lifetime of sports knowledge to spin yarns of the legends among the legends and tell you why some have claimed their spot in the top 100 of all time. Sports and numbers go hand in hand. Sports and loud, assertive debate? Even better. Cheering on, agonizing over, and being in plain awe of your favorite players has left you with a deep and intricate memory of their greatness, not to mention well-honed arguments as to why your favorites are really the best. In arenas, in front of your TV, and in bars, you’ve debated friends and strangers alike. You’ve joyfully mocked your friends’ (sometimes laughable) favorites. You’ve spouted accomplishments, statistics: Yours won six titles, batted .350 in the clutch, or generated 82% of their team’s scoring. But not all numbers are created equal. Some are accomplishments. Others are identity. Looming large over any image you have of an athlete: the number on their jersey. Numbers often provide the most visceral parts of any sports legend’s identity. They are what people remember—worldwide. Jordan, Jeter, Brady—to fans, they are as much their number as they are anything else. Sure, 1 through 100 might seem like a large range, but fierce competition across the ages has blessed only a lucky few to claim one of these as their own. For some, the victors may not be so obvious. That’s why Greeny’s here to help. Ascend into discussion, fans of all stripes. Come away enlightened. Or maybe a little enraged. Either way, you are sure to be occasionally surprised—and endlessly entertained. Whatever your sport, welcome to the place where all the arguments are finally decided, once and for all.Manning: A Father, His Sons and a Football Legacy
By Peyton Manning, Archie Manning, John Underwood. 2010
The Life of a Sports Agent: The Middleman
By Luke Sutton. 2020
A candid behind-the-scenes look at the business of sports from the athlete-turned-agent and author of Back from the Edge.A lot…
of mystery surrounds sports agents and their roles in the lives of their high profile clients. Many imagine a glamorous existence of spending time with celebrities and earning lots of money for doing easy or very little work. The Life of a Sports Agent reveals how very wrong this perception is.Having been a top sports agent for nearly a decade, with clients such as James Anderson, Sam Quek, Nile Wilson, James Taylor, and Simon Mignolet, Luke Sutton has an incredible insight into the world of sports management across a number of areas. In his new book, Luke reveals stories and personal experiences about the sporting stars he has encountered, both the good and bad, and his very honest opinions about them, and offers a true look into how this mysterious industry works.Against All Odds: Never Give up (Good Sports Ser.)
By Glenn Stout. 2012
Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos, Roy Reigels in the 1929 Rose Bowl, Frank Reich and the Buffalo Bills during…
the 1993 NFL playoffs, Tracy McGrady and the Houston Rockets in 2004, the entire St. Louis Cardinals team in the 2011 World Series . . . What do these players have in common? Every one of them was on the brink of a humiliating defeat. But at the moment when they could have called it quits, they didn’t. These five real-life stories, illustrated with black-and-white photographs, will inspire readers young and old.