Louis, Illinois, is arguably the most dangerous and desolate city in America, perhaps our starkest example of urban collapse. With the nation's highest murder rate, it's a city in which half of the 41,000 residents are unemployed and 75 percent receive public assistance. In a city where most young men wind up on the streets, in jail, or dead, the high school football coach has sent dozens of his players on to college on football scholarships. He has done it with hard work and absolute dedication to virtues that went out of style in East St. Louis decades ago. He's done it by refusing to desert boys who need his attention and discipline. "If I don't care about them, who will?" he asks. This is the story of Coach Bob Shannon and the East St. Louis Flyers. It is a true story about a coach who won't give up and a team that has beaten all the odds. Author Kevin Horrigan, former sports editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, tells this story by focusing on two heartstopping seasons - 1990, when the Flyers lost the state championship, and 1991, when they won it back. He tells it from up close. We are there on the bench with the boys and their coach for every game. We follow them into the pitiful excuse for a locker room to hear the coach's credo firsthand: "Get it done." No water for the sinks, the toilets, the urinals? Try upstairs. No toilet paper? Bring your own. No money for new uniforms? Wear the old ones until they are rags. Get it done. Just get the job done. Coach Shannon has gotten the job done right for twenty-three years. In his fifteen seasons as East St. Louis High's head coach, the Flyers have won 152 of 173 games and the state championship six times. The Sporting Newshas named Shannon the High School Coach of the Year five times. This is the story of the kind of battle being waged at the core of many American cities - the power of human pride pitted against the power of poverty. In East St. Louis, pride is winning, inch by inch, with a coach an

    Others had flickered and then faded in the shadow cast by the legendary Busby but Ferguson couldn’t resist the call. ‘Football is a strange obsession. Winning is a drug and when I got the invitation to manage Manchester United I simply could not resist,’ he says. For nearly six years he has chased the end of the rainbow and spent millions of pounds to bring the coveted championship to Old Trafford for the first time in 25 years. Now he feels it is time to tell the inside story of the best-supported club in Britain and his struggle to fulfil the title dream of thousands of supporters.He found the famous club in disarray and he admits he came close to the sack himself. ‘No manager is prepared for the job at Old Trafford. The legend is huge. It’s different from any other club with its traditions and expectations. It took me three or four years to understand the particular politics and demands. Only through success can a manager get control of his destiny.’Ferguson fought his battles and won the trophies which slowly but surely see him now established as a manager who has laid the old ghosts to rest and created a new vision. Winning the FA cup in 1990 bought him valuable time, and success in the European Cup-Winners’ Cup, beating Barcelona in a memorable final in Rotterdam, gave him the right platform for the most convincing championship challenge since the days of Busby.After seven years at Aberdeen, Ferguson wrote A Light in the North, an account of how he broke the Glasgow stranglehold on Scottish football. Now comes the sequel of how he conquered English football at the helm of their greatest club.

    When he and his three football friends first agree to attend the same college next year and keep the backfield intact, it seems like a terrific idea to Joe. So what if the only school offering all four of them football scholarships is small and little-known Ryder State College? At least he'll get to play winning ball with his friends for four more years!But as the football season progresses, a college scout from bigleague Randolph University appears in the stands to watch Joe play. Then a sportswriter credits him with almost single-handedly carrying Hillcrest High to its victories, and letters from top football schools start coming in. Now Joe begins to wonder if his decision to go to Ryder State just to stick with his friends was too hasty, and whether, just maybe, his first loyalty should have been to his potential. But what can he do about it now -- a promise is a promise, right?Exciting you-are-there football action and compelling conflicts on and off the field make Backfield Package an undisputed winner.

    This is the inspiring story of an African American whose athletic and entrepreneurial achievements -- from being the first black quarterback and head coach in the National Football League to founding one of the first all-black investment securities companies -- were equaled by his courage in confronting racial barriers.