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The Dynasty
By Jeff Benedict. 2020
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Now a 10-part docuseries on Apple TV+ From the #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor…
of Tiger Woods comes the definitive inside story of the New England Patriots—the greatest sports dynasty of the 21st century.It&’s easy to forget that the New England Patriots were once the laughingstock of the NFL, a nearly bankrupt team that had never won a championship and was on the brink of moving to St. Louis. Everything changed in 1994, when Robert Kraft acquired the franchise and soon brought on board head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady. Since then, the Patriots have become a juggernaut, making ten trips to the Super Bowl, winning six of them, and emerging as one of the most valuable sports franchises in the world. How was the Patriots dynasty built? And how did it last for two decades? In The Dynasty, acclaimed journalist Jeff Benedict provides richly reported answers in a sweeping account based on exclusive interviews with more than two hundred insiders—including team executives, coaches, players, players&’ wives, team doctors, lawyers, and more—as well as never-before-seen recordings, documents, and electronic communications. Through his exhaustive research, Benedict uncovers surprising new details about the inner workings of a team notorious for its secrecy. He puts us in the room as Robert Kraft outmaneuvers a legion of lawyers and investors to buy the team. We listen in on the phone call when the greatest trade ever made—Bill Belichick for a first-round draft choice—is negotiated. And we look over the shoulder of forty-year-old Tom Brady as a surgeon operates on his throwing hand on the eve of the AFC Championship Game in 2018. But the portrait that emerges in The Dynasty is more rewarding than new details alone. By tracing the team&’s epic run through the perspectives of Kraft, Belichick, and Brady—each of whom was interviewed for the book—the author provides a wealth of new insight into the complex human beings most responsible for the Patriots&’ success. The result is an intimate portrait that captures the human drama of the dynasty&’s three key characters while also revealing the secrets behind their success. &“The Dynasty is…[a] masterpiece…It&’s a relationship book, it&’s a football book, it&’s a business book…you&’ll just eat up these stories&” (Colin Cowherd).The Ball in the Air: A Golfing Adventure
By Michael Bamberger. 2023
After a lifetime of writing about the professional sport, Michael Bamberger, &“the poet laureate of golf&” (GOLF magazine), delivers an…
exhilarating love letter to the amateur game as it&’s played—and lived—by the rest of us.Over Michael Bamberger&’s celebrated writing career, he has written a handful of books and hundreds of Sports Illustrated stories about professional golf and those who play it—that is, the .001 percent. Now, Bamberger trains his eye on the rest of us. In his most personal book yet, Bamberger takes the lid off a game that is both quasi-religious and a nonstop party, posing an age-old question that is answered over its pages: Why does the game cast such a spell on us? Here is the story of modern golf that is not on TV. This is our story, we who pay to play, who can&’t wait to get another crack at the game, even when golf doesn&’t love us back. And just as every round is an adventure, every life in golf is, too. The golfers Michael Bamberger introduces will leave you inspired and moved. You&’ll meet Sam Reeves, a golf-loving US Army soldier who becomes captivated by a fellow soldier, Cliff Harrington, a gifted Black golfer who&’s cruelly robbed of the chance to show the world all he can do. You&’ll meet Ryan French, who plays on a college golf team out of Animal House. You&’ll get to know Pratima Sherpa, who grew up in a maintenance shed at the Royal Nepal Golf Club in Kathmandu and took up the game with a stick whittled by her father. The Ball in the Air is reported with Bamberger&’s you-are-there intimacy and captures the sweep of time. Pratima finds her way from Nepal to a university golf team in Southern California. Ryan and his father caddie in minor-league events while sleeping in tents, a preamble to Ryan&’s becoming the godfather of the popular Monday Qualifier Twitter feed. Sam Reeves, born in rural Georgia during the Depression, becomes a cotton king, the oldest amateur to make the cut at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, and the ultimate man for all seasons. And there are Bamberger sightings, too, as he finds his own path in the game. You&’ll make joyful side trips with the author, who&’s spent more than forty years exploring golfers and golf, a way of life that captivates him down to his bones. You&’ll visit the golf course at Balmoral Castle in Scotland and compete with Bamberger and other purists at the National Hickory Championship in rural Pennsylvania. At St. Andrews, you&’ll get up close and personal with Lee Trevino, one of the few professionals in these pages, because Trevino, when you really get to the core of the man, is one of us. He can&’t get enough of it. The Ball in the Air is Bamberger&’s valentine to golf. The modern world, obsessed with fame and fortune, has infiltrated professional golf—but it hasn&’t infiltrated golf. Bamberger is here to highlight the distinction and to celebrate the game and all who play it.Skateboarding For Dummies
By Daewon Song. 2024
A beginner’s guide to skating for fun, fitness, and self-expression Skateboarding For Dummies teaches you the basics of the fun…
and popular sport of skateboarding, so you can start shredding. Author Daewon Song has been a pro skateboarder for 30 years and is considered to be the most technically gifted skateboarder of all time. He is passionate about the sport and shares his enthusiasm and experience in this easy-to-read guide. Skateboarding is a fun, challenging, and inclusive sport that can also be a powerful outlet for self-expression. With this book, you’ll learn cool tricks, safe skating, and skatepark etiquette. Plus, you’ll discover how skateboarding can bring positivity to your life, building your confidence and self-esteem. Shop for your first skateboard and essential accessories Learn the basics of riding a skateboard at a skatepark Get step-by-step instructions for performing classic tricks Discover the history of skateboardingSkateboarding is for everyone, regardless of age or background, and Skateboarding For Dummies is for anyone who wants to give this sport a try.Wheeling through Toronto: A History of the Bicycle and Its Riders
By Albert Koehl. 2024
Highlighting an important yet often ignored part of Toronto’s transportation story, Wheeling through Toronto chronicles the history of the bicycle…
and reveals a way forward for a world in climate crisis. Throughout its history in Toronto, the bicycle’s place on the roads and in public esteem has fluctuated wildly: flaunted as fashionable, disparaged and derided, rescued from looming obscurity, and promoted as a way to respond to the challenges of the day. What is it about the simple bicycle that it can be so loved by some yet despised and detested by others? Wheeling through Toronto offers a 130-year ride from the 1890s to the present to help answer this question. Albert Koehl, a Toronto lawyer and leading cycling advocate, chronicles the tumultuous history of this mode of transportation from the bicycle craze at the turn of the century, to the rise of the car and the motorway in the 1950s, to the intensifying cry for active transportation in the 1990s and into pandemic times. In an era of catastrophic climate events, Wheeling through Toronto highlights how the bicycle should be celebrated not only as hope for the future, but also for its affordability, for its contribution to clean and healthy mobility, and because it brings happiness and joy to so many. Drawing on archival materials, newspapers, and personal interviews, and full of fascinating vignettes, this book presents the story of how we got here and what Torontonians need to know as we pedal forward.Drive: The Lasting Legacy of Tiger Woods
By Bob Harig. 2024
Bob Harig's latest deep-dive into Tiger Woods' thrilling career, as seen through his iconic 2019 Masters comeback and win. In…
April of 1997, the world of golf was forever changed. At the age of 21, a young Tiger Woods won the most prestigious golf tournament in the world, the Masters, by a record of 12 strokes. Woods became the youngest golfer ever to win the Masters and the first African or Asian-American player to win a major. History had been made - and would continue to be made over the next 15 years.Woods transformed the game, turning golf geeks into keen observers, casual golf fans into ardent followers and even indifferent sports fans into curiosity mavens. He will undoubtedly be known for the raw numbers: 82 PGA Tour titles, 15 major championships, and according to Forbes, a billionaire who amassed more than $110-million in official PGA Tour earnings. Woods has proven to be a complicated figure through his decades in the spotlight. Plagued by marital scandal, a DUI arrest, and severe back injuries that resulted in what even he believed would be a career-ending spinal fusion surgery in 2017, Woods’ career finally seemed to be coming to an end. That all changed through 2018 and into 2019 as Woods returned slowly from the surgery. In 2019, on the same course where he won for the first time in 1997, Tiger Woods made history once again, winning the Masters one final time. The 2019 Masters brought together all the qualities that ultimately make up someone who has been an enduring figure for 30 years.In this captivating and emotional portrait of one of the most famous figures in sports, Bob Harig brings readers the true story of the grit and perseverance of Tiger Woods in the final years of his career. Drive will show that Woods’ true legacy is one of resolve and redemption.James Taylor: Cut Short (Authentic Guitar-tab Editions Ser.)
By James Taylor. 1992
A superstar athlete&’s inspiring autobiography—from his cricket-loving youth to the diagnosis of a career-ending heart condition and its aftermath. James…
Taylor was born in Burrough on the Hill, Leicestershire, in 1990. A sporting phenomenon from an early age, he chose to forge a life in cricket, establishing himself as one of the country&’s leading batsmen and an England regular. And then tragedy struck. In April 2016, a serious heart condition left Taylor fighting for his life in the changing room. Told he faced possible death if he played cricket, or exercised, ever again, James&’s bright and brilliant career was over at the age of 26. In Cut Short, Taylor reveals his route to the top. On the way, he describes how he encountered prejudice against his size and takes us through the highs and lows of his international career, including a century against the Australians and a closeup view of the unsavory nature of David Warner. With the world at his feet, Taylor reveals just what it was like to have sporting ambition snatched away right at the point of international breakthrough. He relives in breathless detail the horrific events of the day he thought he was going to die and his desolation at watching a fine sporting career torn from his grasp. At the same time he faced a battle to rebuild his life and his future, he was getting used to a body which, on several occasions, left him fearing for his existence. That James has emerged from these dark days with courage, good humor, and renewed ambition is testament to a remarkable personality.Great Men Die Twice: The Selected Works of Mark Kram
By Mark Kram Jr.. 2015
A collection of classic essays by legendary sports journalist Mark Kram, Great Men Die Twice covers Muhammad Ali and Joe…
Frazier, George Best, Cool Papa Bell, and other memorable subjects.Imagine Mad Men set not in the advertising world but at 1960s Sports Illustrated, a place where the finest sports staff of any generation was attended by an open bar and almost unlimited expense account. This was the world Mark Kram lived and wrote in, along with his peers including Frank Deford, Dan Jenkins and other major talents. A high school graduate with a gift for revealing the hearts of his subjects, Kram would become one of the greatest sports writers of all time, covering the famed rivalry between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, Negro League baseball star Cool Papa Bell, doomed soccer legend George Best, Olympic gold medal sprinter Edwin Moses, and others.The New York Times obituary of Kram in June, 2002 saluted his work in SportsIllustrated by calling him one of its "most lyrical writers of the 1960s and 1970s." Great Men Die Twice selects his best work with a moving introduction by his son, Mark Kram Jr., the PEN/ESPN Award-winning author of Like Any Normal Day.The Blueprint: How the New England Patriots Beat the System to Create the Last Great NFL Superpower
By Christopher Price. 2007
Moneyball for the New England Patriots, award-winning sportswriter Christopher Price goes into the inner workings of the legendary football franchise…
in The BlueprintFor years, the New England Patriots were a certifiable joke of a franchise. They were run on the cheap and were once the very example of how not to manage a team. They hired inept coaches--one of whom (Clive Rush) was nearly electrocuted when he grabbed a microphone at his introductory press conference. In 1968 their scouting director, Ed McKeever, suggested they draft a wide receiver . . . before someone in the organization realized the player had been dead for six months. They plucked ex-players out of the stands minutes before kickoff--Bob Gladieux was enjoying a beer at the game when he heard his name called over the P.A. (The Patriots had cut a player earlier that morning and found themselves short. Gladieux, who would go on to spend four years in the league as a running back, made the tackle on the opening kickoff.) And they played in a run-down stadium that was one of the worst venues in professional sports. There were brief moments of success, but on each occasion, front-office infighting would invariably cause the franchise to slide back down to the basement again.But in the first four months of 2000, everything changed. The hiring of head coach Bill Belichick and Vice President of Player Personnel Scott Pioli and the drafting of quarterback Tom Brady turned the fortunes of the franchise around. And their nontraditional approach to acquiring personnel--remembering that it's not about collecting talent, it's about assembling a team--quickly led to three Super Bowl titles in four seasons. It's a feat that, in the salary cap era, with free agency, planned parity and balanced scheduling, is in many ways even more impressive than anything achieved by the past dynasties of Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Dallas, and San Francisco.Along the way, Christopher Price has had a front-row seat for football history, chronicling the rise to power of the NFL's unlikeliest superpower. Price takes the reader inside the franchise to give him a dynamic portrait of a mighty organization at the height of its power. Readers are immersed in the locker room during the strange and tumultuous days of 2001 and 2003, when major personnel moves involving a pair of the most popular players in franchise history--Drew Bledsoe and Lawyer Milloy--threatened to rock their championship foundation to the core. Readers get an up-close look at the team that dominated the league on the way to a record-setting winning streak in 2004. And Price analyzes what went wrong when they fell short in 2005 and 2006, and how they plan to return to Super Bowl form.The Blueprint explores how the Patriots went from the dregs to a dynasty, becoming the gold standard for professional sports franchises everywhere. It will prompt sports fans (and those who study organizations) to acknowledge what many football insiders have believed for a long time: when it comes to building a successful system, the Patriots have the Blueprint.Conquering the Impossible: My 12,000-Mile Journey Around the Arctic Circle
By Mike Horn. 2005
In August 2002, Mike Horn set out on a mission that bordered on the impossible: to travel 12,000 miles around…
the globe at the Arctic Circle - alone, against all prevailing winds and currents, and without motorized transportation.Conquering the Impossible is the gripping account of Horn's grueling 27-month expedition by sail and by foot through extreme Arctic conditions that nearly cost him his life on numerous occasions. Enduring temperatures that ranged to as low as -95 degrees Fahrenheit, Horn battled hazards including shifting and unstable ice that gave way and plunged him into frigid waters, encounters with polar bears so close that he felt their breath on his face, severe frostbite in his fingers, and a fire that destroyed all of his equipment and nearly burned him alive.Complementing the sheer adrenaline of Horn's narrative are the isolated but touching human encounters the adventurer has with the hardy individuals who inhabit one of the remotest corners of the earth. From an Inuit who teaches him how to build an igloo to an elderly Russian left behind when the Soviets evacuated his remote Arctic town, Horn finds camaraderie, kindness, and assistance to help him survive the most unforgiving conditions.This awe-inspiring account is a page-turner and an Arctic survival tale in one. Most of all, it's a testament to one man's unrelenting desire to push the boundaries of human endurance.Beating Goliath: My Story of Football and Faith
By Art Briles, Don Yaeger. 2014
Beating Goliath is a memoir about overcoming loss and keeping faith by the innovative former head coach of the top…
ranked Baylor Bears college football team.Growing up in Rule, Texas, Art Briles learned at a young age the importance of hard work and faith from his parents. Soon that faith would be tested. On their way to see him play in a college football game, Briles' parents and aunt died in a car crash. This event shaped Briles into the man he is today. His father, Dennis, left him with a series of lessons. He taught his son that the world doesn't just hand you things, you have to earn them. And he taught him the influence that faith could have in his life.Briles put these lessons to work as a football coach, where he established his reputation for turning struggling teams into winners, from high school to the staff at Texas Tech to head coach at the University of Houston. Hired to coach Baylor in 2007, he was faced with a familiar task. Within three years, Briles led the Bears to their first bowl game in 15 years.Today, he instills those same lessons into his young players, helping them find a reason to excel. There are plenty of excuses for failure but Briles surrounds himself with people who are fearless when it comes to chasing success. That is one of the many lessons he imparts to his readers, with chapters that include:* God and the Teaching of Dennis Briles* Finding Your Passion* You Can Change Attitude, Not Talent* Passing in the Land of Earl Campbell* Everybody is a CaptainFilled with dramatic football stories and lessons learned, this book will inspire and entertain.Jags to Riches: The Cinderella Season of the Jacksonville Jaguars
By John Oehser, Pete Prisco. 1997
Jags to Riches is the ultimate fan book chronicling the Jacksonville Jaguars' improbable run to the AFC Championship Game and…
within one game of going to the Super Bowl. In Jags to Riches Prisco and Oehser of the Florida Times Union cover the wildly successful 1996 season of Jacksonville's pro football team, a surprising development because the Jaguars were in only their second year and had compiled a dismal 4-12 record in their first. An expansion team in a city that had sought a pro grid franchise since 1979, its concentration had been on signing young athletes, with the expectation that they would be ready to make a major move in three years. And, although coach and general manager Tom Coughlin had gotten off to a bad start with the team members, he was an important contributor because he judged players solely on their ability and drive and not on their press clippings, according to the authors. In his first year, Coughlin's coaching reflected more of his college than his pro background: gradually he relaxed many of his rules, and the team was better for it. Most amazing was the record, since, after 11 games, it stood at 4-7; then came five straight wins in the regular season and play-off victories against highly favored Buffalo and Denver.The Eight: A Season in the Tradition of Harvard Crew
By Susan Saint Sing. 2010
A fascinating look at the 2008 Harvard Varsity Crew Team and the university's legendary history of accomplished rowers.The Eight is…
a thrilling, behind-the-scenes look at a group of young men who have given up nearly everything to transform themselves into the best team possible at arguably the world's most venerable rowing institution, Harvard crew. Through a blend of journalistic writing and historical narrative, Saint Sing highlights their struggles and triumphs as she follows them through the spring season of 2008.This exclusive, competitive world is illuminated as never before as the athletes race for the collegiate national championship and one former member achieves a historic first for Harvard: a gold medal at the 2008 Olympic Games.What these men go through physically to earn a seat in the Harvard first eight is just the beginning. The real test of their mettle is the inner athlete called upon to make their dreams a reality in this very tense and dramatic world. Susan Saint Sing's The Eight chronicles the drama of a full season of elite college racing, including the bitter personal struggles and the team's pursuit of excellence.Blood Horses: Notes of a Sportswriter's Son
By John Jeremiah Sullivan. 1967
From the award-wining author of Pulphead, John Jeremiah Sullivan's first book, Blood Horses, combines personal reflections about his father and…
an in-depth look at the history and culture of Thoroughbred racehorses.Winner of a 2004 Whiting Writers' Award"Sullivan has found the transcendent in the horse."--Sports IllustratedOne evening late in his life, veteran sportswriter Mike Sullivan was asked by his son what he remembered best from his three decades in the press box. The answer came as a surprise. "I was at Secretariat's Derby, in '73. That was ... just beauty, you know?"John Jeremiah Sullivan didn't know, not really--but he spent two years finding out, journeying from prehistoric caves to the Kentucky Derby in pursuit of what Edwin Muir called "our long-lost archaic companionship" with the horse. The result--winner of a National Magazine Award and named a Book of the Year by The Economist magazine--is an unprecedented look at Equus caballus, incorporating elements of memoir, reportage, and the picture gallery.In the words of the New York Review of Books, Blood Horses "reads like Moby-Dick as edited by F. Scott Fitzgerald . . . Sullivan is an original and greatly gifted writer."Shaq Talks Back
By Shaquille O'Neal. 2001
Funny, insightful, opinionated, and unexpectedly moving, Shaq Talks Back presents the true voice of one of the NBA's greatest players,…
as he looks back on life during his first championship with the Los Angles Lakers.It's rare to discover a candid sports autobiography--even rare when the author is one of the most recognizable athletes in the world. But in Shaq Talks Back, Shaquille O'Neal for the first time talks frankly about his childhood, his life, his rivalries, and his career, culminating in a dramatic, behind-the-scenes account of the Los Angeles Lakers' drive to the NBA Championship.At seven feet one inch tall and 330 pounds, Shaq has always faced outsized expectations, even as a child when he towered over other kids. Shaq Talks Back is the story of how potential became reality--how someone expected to be a champion finally learned to become one. Beginning with his memory of crying on the court after the Lakers defeated the Indiana Pacers, Shaq takes us back to his younger days in Newark and Jersey City, New Jersey, then to Georgia and finally to Germany, where he began to harness some of his height and strength.From there, he recounts the remarkable progress of his basketball career, changing from a big but inexperienced teenager to a dominant college and professional player. Shaq talks about:* Playing at Louisiana State University for the unpredictable coach Dale Brown* Signing the biggest rookie contract ever with the Orlando Magic-- and going to the NBA Finals for the first time* What happened next: dissention, disappointment, and his decision to leave for Los Angeles* The dysfunctional Lakers who were never able to win the big games* Dealing with egos as he finds the right chemistry with Kobe Bryant, Phil Jackson, and new additions to the team* Rivalries with Alonzo Mourning, Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, and others* The trouble with free throws...* Inside the Lakers' comeback from the brink against Portland and the drive to the 2000 NBA championshipThis is the Life: Days and Nights in the GAA
By Ciarán Murphy. 2023
A provocative look at how grassroots GAA interacts with life in Ireland, from the wittiest Gaelic games pundit at work…
today The GAA is Ireland's largest civil society organisation, woven into the fabric of families and communities - and yet most books about Gaelic games focus on the greatest players and inter-county teams. This is the Life is a book about the 99%: a witty and provocative look at grassroots GAA from the most intelligent and interesting Gaelic games pundit at work today.Ciarán Murphy - of Second Captains and the Irish Times - has an unmatched feel for the timeless elements of this world and a finger on the pulse of change. He looks at the plight of rural clubs that are losing their players to the cities - and he does so not only as a journalist but as a footballer who made the same move himself. He writes about working as an assistant in the clothing shop owned by the family of Jarlath Fallon - both Ciarán's sporting hero and the local postman. And he looks a things we usually prefer not to talk about, like the role of social class in the GAA.This is the Life is a book about the places the GAA comes from, the places it can take a person, and theings that make a local club worth fighting for.Soldiers First: Duty, Honor, Country, and Football at West Point
By Joe Drape. 2012
In Soldiers First, bestselling author Joe Drape reveals the unique pressures and expectations that make a year of Army football…
so much more than just a tally of wins and losses.The football team at the U.S. Military Academy is not like other college football teams. At other schools, athletes are catered to and coddled at every turn. At West Point, they carry the same arduous load as their fellow cadets, shouldering an Ivy League–caliber education and year-round military training. After graduation they are not going to the NFL but to danger zones halfway around the world. These young men are not just football players, they are soldiers first.New York Times sportswriter Joe Drape takes us inside the world of Army football, as the Black Knights and their third-year coach, Rich Ellerson, seek to turn around a program that had recently fallen on hard times, with the goal to beat Navy and "sing last" at the Army-Navy game in December. The 2011 season would prove a true test of the players' mettle and perseverance.Drawing on his extensive and unfettered access to the players and the coaching staff, Drape introduces us to this special group of young men and their achievements on and off the field. Anchoring the narrative and the team are five key players: quarterback Trent Steelman, the most gifted athlete; linebacker Steve Erzinger, who once questioned his place at West Point but has become a true leader; Andrew Rodriguez, the son of a general and the top scholar-athlete; Max Jenkins, the backup quarterback and the second-in-command of the Corps of Cadets; and Larry Dixon, a talented first-year running back. Together with Coach Ellerson, his staff, and West Point's officers and instructors, they and their teammates embrace the demands made on them and learn crucial lessons that will resonate throughout their lives—and ours.When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed Basketball
By Seth Davis. 2009
When March Went Mad tells the dramatic story of how two legendary players--Magic Johnson and Larry Bird--burst on the scene…
in an NCAA championship that gave birth to modern basketball."A must-read for anybody who considers themselves a basketball fan."—Michael WilbonThirty years ago, college basketball was not the sport we know today. Few games were televised nationally and the NCAA tournament had just expanded from thirty-two to forty teams. Into this world came two exceptional players: Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Larry Bird. Though they played each other only once, in the 1979 NCAA finals, that meeting launched an epic rivalry, transformed the NCAA tournament into the multibillion-dollar event it is today, and laid the groundwork for the resurgence of the NBA. In When March Went Mad, Seth Davis recounts the dramatic story of the season leading up to that game, as Johnson's Michigan State Spartans and Bird's Indiana State Sycamores overcame long odds and great doubts that their unheralded teams could compete at the highest level. Davis also tells the stories of their remarkable coaches, Jud Heathcote and Bill Hodges—who were new to their schools but who set their own paths to build great teams—and he shows how tensions over race and class heightened the drama of the competition. When Magic and Bird squared off in Salt Lake City on March 26, 1979, the world took notice—to this day it remains the most watched basketball game in the history of television—and the sport we now know was born.Duke Sucks: A Completely Even-Handed, Unbiased Investigation into the Most Evil Team on Planet Earth
By Reed Tucker, Andy Bagwell. 2012
In the ranks of NCAA college basketball, Duke University is like something scraped off the bottom of a shoe. It's…
like a nasty virus you catch from a door handle at a public toilet.No team in sports is as uniquely hated as those smug, entitled, floor-slapping, fist-pumping, insufferable Blue Devils. The loathing has almost reached the level of a religion. Christian Laettner is a punk. Amen. The Cameron Crazies are obnoxious. The Plumlees are worthless times three. Coach K is a jerk. Kumbaya. The team is dogged by an intense hatred that no other team can match—and for good reason. Millions of hoops fans and March Madness aficionados around the world are not imagining things. Duke really is evil, and within the pages of Duke Sucks, Reed Tucker and Andy Bagwell show readers exactly why Duke deserves to be so detested. They bruise and batter the Blue Devils with fact after fact, story after story, statistic after statistic. They build an airtight case that could stand up in a court of law. So sit back in your "I Hate Duke" t-shirt, and in true Duke fashion, force someone poorer than you to do your work as you crack open the ultimate guide to Duke suckitude.For the Glory: College Football Dreams and Realities Inside Paterno's Program
By Ken Denlinger. 1994
For the Glory: College Football Dreams and Realities Inside Paterno's Program presents the college football experience as seen through the…
eyes of the young men who play the game. Sportswriter Ken Denlinger takes the reader on a five-year odyssey into the lives of one scholarship class and reveals their experiences at Penn State and in Coach Joe Paterno's program.Ken was given extraordinary access to the Penn State programs--starting with the recruiting process and then onto the field and in the locker room. He became friend and confidant to the players and found every player had the same dream: to bring glory to himself and his school and then ascend to the NFL. In this gritty account, Ken sets moving stories of triumph against the stark realities of injury, disillusionment, and failure.Here are the dreams, fears, and pressures facing young men who are exposed weekly to thousands of screaming fans. Here is a true picture of life in Division I college football. Anyone interested in Penn State, college football, or the larger issues or sports and society will find For the Glory an unforgettable experience.Yukon Alone: The World's Toughest Adventure Race
By John Balzar. 1999
In the tradition of Into the Wild, John Balzar's Yukon Alone is a story of daring and determination in one…
of nature's harshest, loneliest, and most beautiful places.The Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race is among the most challenging and dangerous of all the organized sporting events in the world. Every February, a handful of hardy souls sps over two weeks racing sleds pulled by fourteen dogs over 1,023 miles of frozen rivers, icy mountain passes, and spruce forests as big as entire states. It's not unusual for the temperature to drop to 40-below or for the night to be seventeen hours long.Why would anyone want to run this race? To find out, John Balzar moved to Alaska months before The Quest began and he spent time in the homes of many of the mushers. Balzar then spent many days and nights on the trail, and the result is a book that not only treats us to a vivid day-by-day account of the grueling race itself but also offers an insightful look at the men and women who have moved to this rugged and beautiful place, often leaving behind comfortable houses and jobs in the lower forty-eight states for the sense of exhilaration they find in their new lives. Readers will also be fascinated by Balzar's account of what goes into the training and care of the majestic dogs who pull the sleds and whose courage, strength, and devotion make them the true heroes of this story. For anyone captivated by the wild north country, this riveting tale of courage and adventure will inspire and entertain.