The Big Three and Me


Billy Casper - 2012
    And yet, when golf historians write about the legends of the game, with special attention paid to the above-listed "Big Three," his name is often left out of the discussion, or is at best an afterthought. In this fascinating autobiography, Casper tells his life story, shining candid insight into the man who quietly collected fifty-one PGA Tour victories, the seventh highest total in history.

Suarez (Classic Football Heroes) - Collect Them All! (Ultimate Football Heroes)


Matt Oldfield - 2017
    Luis was too quick. Before they could move, he had pounced on the ball and fired a shot into the top corner.' Suarez follows the Uruguayan's winding path from love-struck youngster to Liverpool hero to Barcelona star. Grabbing goals and headlines along the way, this is the inspiring story of how the world's deadliest striker made his mark.Ultimate Football Heroes is a series of biographies telling the life-stories of the biggest and best footballers in the world and their incredible journeys from childhood fan to super-star professional player. Written in fast-paced, action-packed style these books are perfect for all the family to collect and share.

The Comeback: How Larry Ellison's Team Won the America's Cup (Kindle Single)


G. Bruce Knecht - 2016
    New Zealand needed just one more win. Oracle ultimately beat back the odds in what's been called the greatest comeback in sport. But was it? G. Bruce Knecht set out to investigate how Oracle turned things around and, most particularly, the source of extra horsepower that seemed to come from nowhere during the final races. What he discovered was that the team was using a sailing technique that was prohibited under the rules. The Comeback is a pulse-pounding account of Oracle's desperate stop-at-nothing campaign.G. Bruce Knecht, a former staff reporter and foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, is the author of three books, including The Proving Ground: The Inside Story of the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race. Larry Ellison was a major character in that book as well and it explains how his experience in the race led to his pursuit of the America's Cup. A sailor himself, Knecht raced across the Atlantic in 2005 on the yacht that broke the 100-year-old transatlantic race record.Cover design by Charles Rue Woods.

The United States of Soccer: MLS and the Rise of American Soccer Fandom


Phil West - 2016
    would start a new professional league. The North American Soccer League had failed just four years prior, and the prospects of launching a new league for Americans, who didn’t share the rest of the world’s love for soccer, were both exciting and daunting.The United States of Soccer is the engaging history of MLS’s bootstrap origins prior to its 1996 launch, its near-demise in the early 2000s, its surprising resilience and growth in the following years, and its continued rise in respectability and recognition from soccer fans around the world.The book also explores the origin of a number of MLS’s best-known supporters groups – the superfans responsible for setting the tone within MLS stadiums and defining what it is to be a North American soccer fan. The book looks at how MLS helped develop the massive American audiences for the most recent men’s and women’s World Cups – peaking at 27 million for the 2015 Women’s World Cup finals – even as it looks to expand its number of franchises and grow its audience in a sports-saturated world.Phil West chronicles those fans’ voices – intermingled with league officials, former players and coaches, journalists, and newspaper accounts – to detail MLS’s remarkable journey for those new to the U.S.’s top-tier league, as well as those who think they know the full MLS story.

We Are the Damned United: The Real Story of Brian Clough at Leeds United


Phil Rostron - 2009
    While The Damned United was a fictional account of Clough’s short-lived but controversial reign at the club, this book reveals the true story, as told by the players he managed at the time. Vividly recreating the atmosphere of the era, the book features candid contributions from legendary names such as Peter Lorimer, Eddie Gray, and Norman Hunter. They reveal what it was like to make the transition from the relatively smooth management style of former manager Don Revie, who helped the club achieve success in Europe, to a constant crossing of swords with the outspoken Brian Clough, who left the club flailing at the foot of the league upon his premature departure. This explosive account covers all the drama that ensued from the moment Clough was earmarked by the club directors as the favorite to succeed Revie to his exit less than two months later, saddled with the knowledge that he had been the club’s most unsuccessful manager ever. Told from the perspective of those who experienced Clough’s dictatorial managerial methods at Leeds at first hand, We are the Damned United tells it how it really was rather than how it might have been.

Bubbleball: Inside the NBA's Fight to Save a Season


Ben Golliver - 2021
    As the pandemic raged, it looked as if it might be the first year in league history with no champion. But four months later, after meticulous planning, twenty-two teams resumed play in a "bub­ble" at Disney World-a restricted, single-site locale cut off from the outside world.            Due to health concerns, the league invited only a handful of reporters, who were required to sacrifice medical privacy, live in a hotel room for more than three months, and submit to daily coronavirus test­ing in hopes of keeping the bubble from bursting. In exchange for the constant monitoring and restricted movement, they were allowed into a basketball fan's dream, with a courtside seat at dozens of games in nearly empty arenas.          Ben Golliver, the national NBA writer for the The Washington Post, was one of those allowed access. Bubbleball is his account of the season and life inside, telling the story of how basketball bounced back from its shutdown, how players staged headline-grabbing social justice protests, and how Lakers star LeBron James chased his fourth ring in unconventional and unforgettable circumstances. Based on months of reporting in the exclusive, confined environment, this is an entertaining record of an extraordinary season.

No Excuses: The Making of a Head Coach


Bob Stoops - 2019
    But in just two years' time, Stoops achieved the seemingly impossible: winning a national championship and returning the struggling Sooners to their powerhouse status, churning out NFL talent, Heisman Trophy winners and conference championships, bowl wins and national title runs on a regular basis.During his 18 seasons at OU, his record was a remarkable 190-48. At only age 56, at the peak of his career, he stunned the college football world by walking away.For the first time, Bob opens up about his career alongside the evolution of the game itself. From his unlikely emergence as a star player at the University of Iowa, to his coaching apprenticeships under giants like Hayden Fry, Bill Snyder, and Steve Spurrier, Stoops recounts how the game he fell in love with as a boy has evolved into a billion-dollar business often compromised by recruiting wars, aggressive agents, overzealous boosters and alumni, and the emergence of the CEO head coach rather than mentor and teacher. Bob holds nothing back while explaining why it was time to step away from the game--and players--he still loves.Told with a rare combination of sincerity, vulnerability, and pure heart, No Excuses is both an engaging and eye-opening football memoir and an unprecedented portrait of a coach of one of the greatest legacy programs in the history of the college game.

A Payroll To Meet: A Story Of Greed, Corruption, and Football At SMU


David Whitford - 1989
    The school’s football team was the pride of the university and the city. Before the late 1970s, however, the relatively small school had trouble recruiting and struggled to keep up with the big-time football universities that were often more than double its size. Under pressure to compete, the SMU football program engaged in ethics, rules, and recruiting violations for years. When the corruption came to light, the NCAA handed out its most serious punishment in the history of college sports—the “death penalty”—which cancelled the team’s entire 1987 schedule.In A Payroll to Meet, author David Whitford details the Mustangs’ descent into corruption and the fallout when it was discovered. Most egregiously, the football program ran a huge slush fund that was used to pay players from the mid-1970s through 1986. Bill Clements, chairman of the SMU board and soon to be reelected governor of Texas, knew all about the slush fund before the NCAA did. He opted, however, to phase out the payments rather than stop them immediately, for fear that angry players might go public and create still more problems for SMU. Clements and the athletic director Bob Hitch decided that the football program had “a payroll to meet.”

Lehengey & Lafdey


Varun T. - 2019
    But then, matrimony came along and politics suddenly felt like the non-essential elaichi in this Mughlai Biryani called life. When my ‘loved ones’ subjected me to scenarios unimaginable, when as the groom I had to wait for an hour for my baaraat to arrive, when certain ‘rituals’ scarred me with shame for the rest of my life, I so wanted to give it back to the society! And hence, ‘Lehengey and Lafdey’ was born. LnL will raise your ire, tickle your funny bone, and show you everything except what a wedding is supposed to be: a sacred union. In a world filled with romantic novels, where love always wins in the end; patience, perseverance and the insane ability to bear a butt load of crap is required to emerge victorious in the holy war of matrimony. Enough talk! Jump right in and witness a whirlpool of emotions, with a cup of masala chai and some fryums on the side. Put your seat belts on, for it is going to get crazy. Welcome to the world of Lehengey and Lafdey!

The Secret Footballer: What the Physio Saw...


The Secret Footballer - 2018
    The Secret Footballer has teamed up with one of the most highly respected physios in the game to bring you the stories of a football season through the eyes of someone who has covered over 1000 games in his career and who knows the most intimate details about every player he treats.From the pre-season pressures of a new manager and players who have overindulged on their summer breaks, to witnessing some truly horrific (and sometimes career-ending) injuries; from star players who think nothing of using him as their personal family doctor to revealing some of the more unconventional treatments players choose to experiment with, the physio has truly seen it all.Alongside this privileged glimpse into the physio's world, The Secret Footballer will be telling his own tales of injury, pain and perseverance with his trademark insight and wit.

Unconscious Putting: Dave Stockton's Guide to Unlocking Your Signature Stroke


Dave Stockton - 2011
    As a top coach, Stockton has taught a long list of pro players-including Annika Sorenstam, Yani Tseng (winner of four LPGA tournaments), Adam Scott (Texas Open champion), Hunter Mahan (Phoenix Open champion), and Morgan Pressel (World Ladies Championship of Japan winner)-the putting strategies that finessed their game.Stockton's breakthrough concept is that every player has their own Signature Stroke, which is unconscious. Good putting comes from the mind, Stockton says, not from a series of stiff mechanical positions. With visualization, the right frame of mind, an efficient pre-putt routine, and connection to the individual internal stroke signature, any player can make far more putts. Putting has always been taught as an offshoot to the full swing, when in reality it is far different- almost a different game. "Unconscious Putting" will help players get out of the rigid, mechanical, overthinking trap.In "Unconscious Putting," Stockton shows how players at every handicap level-from pros to weekend golfers-can putt effortlessly and with confidence by integrating a new mental approach with a few simple physical routines that will keep them locked on target. Readers will also gain invaluable advice on reading greens and equipment. Illustrated throughout and filled with anecdotes about how Stockton's lessons have helped today's leading players, "Unconscious Putting" is a must-have golf book and a category classic-in-the-making.

ESPN College Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Game


Michael MacCambridge - 2005
    On any given Saturday, in dozens of stadiums across America, you will find crowds in excess of 75,000 gathered to root on their teams. This book is their Bible???a rich and comprehensive reference guide to the game??'s history, tradition and lore. Based on three years of research by the nation??'s foremost football experts, the book features: ???? ???? ??Capsule histories for each of the 119 Division 1-A programs, the Ivy League schools and teams from the SWAC, MEAC and historically black colleges ??????????????Year-by-year schedules and records ??????????????Statistical leaders from every school ??????????????Fightsong lyrics ??????????????Box scores for every bowl game ever played ??????????????4-color insert illustrating the evolution of each school??'s helmet design ??????????????Weekly polls dating back to 1936 ??????????????Essays by the game??'s top wordsmiths (Dan Jenkins, Beano Cook, Chris Fowler, Gene Wojciechowski) ??????????????Plus a lively round table discussion with ESPN??'s popular Game Day Team (Fowler, LeeCorso and Kirk Herbstreit) Packed with tables and charts and designed in an easy-to-read style, the updated ESPN College Football Encyclopedia will continue to dazzle even the most knowledgeable fan.

The Anatomy of Manchester United : A History in Ten Matches


Jonathan Wilson - 2017
    In doing so, he identifies the pivotal moments in the club's rise to being one of the foremost teams of the twentieth century.With his trademark tactical acumen, Wilson goes back to the matches themselves and subjects them to forensic examination, re-evaluating and reassessing, and going beyond the white noise of banal player quotes and instant judgements to discover why what happened happened. It is in this way, as far as possible, a football history of a great club.And because this is Manchester United, there is additional resonance. From the completion of Old Trafford in 1910, United have had a significant financial advantage. Yet their past has not been one of sustained success. As such, their history is also, to an extent, a history of English football, with all of its possibilities and frustrations.

A Warrior's Heart: The True Story of Life Before and Beyond The Fighter


Micky Ward - 2012
    But that was only part of the tale… Now, in his own words, “Irish” Micky Ward tells his inspirational life story as only he can. From his first bout at the age of seven, Micky Ward was known first and foremost for giving as good as he got, and for leaving absolutely everything he had in the ring. When he fought, quitting was never an option. It was that indomitable spirit that would allow him to survive, battle against, and overcome the harsh realities that he faced every day of his life.For it was outside the ring that Ward’s heart would be most needed, from witnessing his idolized older half-brother Dicky fall from grace, to dealing with his wildly dysfunctional—if frighteningly loyal—family, to the darkest of secrets that he has never revealed until now, and the numerous setbacks and defeats that would have stopped a lesser man. Micky Ward has remained a fighter, through and through—both as a professional boxer, and as a man who finally found his greatest strength in friendship, family, and faith in himselfFrom the rough streets of Lowell, Massachusetts, to the blood and sweat of the international fight game, to the bright lights and adulation of Hollywood, this is the rousing, moving, tragic, and humorous story of the one and only Micky Ward.

And it was Beautiful: Marcelo Bielsa and the Rebirth of Leeds United


Phil Hay - 2021