Fearless: How Leicester City Shook the Premier League, and What it Means for Sport


Jonathan Northcroft - 2016
    Out on the pitch a lone brass player sounds the haunting Post Horn Gallop, for 80 years the home players' entrance tune. Spines tingle. Air is gulped into opposition lungs. Game time, time to begin the chase. Burning fox eyes peer down from between the decks of one of the stands. On the stadium's outside wall a royal blue LCD display says #Fearless.Welcome to Leicester City. They were always a club with a difference but in 2015-16 they created a story that in modern football stands unique. Who could believe it: from relegation certainties to champions of England? It was when, on behalf of every small club, dreams were hunted at the King Power, a season where the impossible became merely quarry.5,000-1 shots when the campaign started, Leicester's transformation has been remarkable. This is the most incredible cast of written-offs, grafters, misfits and journeymen, coming together in a special time and place to simultaneously have the season of their lives. Fearless will document Leicester's hunt of their impossible dream. It will tell the greatest football tale of the Premier League era, in loving detail, with the inside track. Now that Leicester have gone all the way and won the title, it is the best story in world sports - for years.Premier League champions. The side who'd been adrift at the bottom 12 months previously, who's started the season as relegation favourites, whose manager was favourite to be the first one sacked once the campaign got underway. A League One side only seven seasons previously. A squad of �500,000 and �1m men. Leicester. Ridiculous. Miraculous. Fearless.

Unexpected: The Autobiography


Greg Rutherford - 2016
    Yet Greg's route to the very top was never smooth. He always believed in himself as an athlete and sportsman, but for many years could not find an outlet that allowed him to truly excel.       During his reckless teenage years, he would sometimes sleep rough or indulge in dangerous games such as car surfing, before he found the focus that would help him to get to the very top. But even then, there were still setbacks, as when he fell short in the Beijing Olympics. It served only to spur him on. In London, he became a part of 'Super Saturday' when he joined Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis in winning gold in 45 astonishing minutes of British glory. Condemned by some as a 'lucky' winner, he went on to complete his clean sweep of major titles through sheer determination to succeed. In this long-awaited memoir, he not only reveals the secrets of his remarkable success, but also has plenty to say on the issues that are dominating athletics, such as doping, and much else besides. It is a raw, passionate, entertaining and fascinating read.

On Jiu Jitsu


Chris Matakas - 2017
    When our environment fails to challenge our depths, we are tasked to create one which does. Practitioners across the globe continue to use Jiu Jitsu as a tool for personal development. For many, the Jiu Jitsu academy is the one place in which we purposefully practice virtuous action. "On Jiu Jitsu" seeks to codify the mechanisms by which Jiu Jitsu shapes the individual, as the character traits required to achieve mastery in sport are the same which our highest humanity requires. It is the hope of the author that the articulation of these benefits will ensure the reader's continued practice of self-mastery through this sacred medium.

The Beautiful Game? Searching for the Soul of Football


David Conn - 2004
    An outstanding, thought-provoking study of the state of modern professional football.

The Best American Sports Writing 2019 (The Best American Series ®)


Charles P. Pierce - 2019
    Each year, the series editor and guest editor curates a truly exceptional collection. The only shared traits among all these diverse styles, voices, and stories are the extraordinarily high caliber of writing, and the pure passion they tap into that can only come from sports.

Andy Roddick Beat Me with a Frying Pan: Taking the Field with Pro Athletes and Olympic Legends to Answer Sports Fans' Burning Questions


Todd Gallagher - 2007
    But some debates can never be settled no matter how much you run up your bar tab arguing with your friends. Well, it’s time to answer your questions once and for all: • Could an average guy start in the WNBA?• Would sumo wrestlers make great NFL linemen?• How easy is it for pro athletes to get laid? • How good are pro golfers at miniature golf?• Do pro athletes really play drunk or high?• How would a fan hit against a major league pitcher?To settle more than thirty of sports’ greatest (and most ridiculous) debates, Todd Gallagher has teamed up with coaches, general managers, and athletes—including LeBron James, Mike Tyson, Dwyane Wade, Johan Santana, Eddie George, Jose Canseco, and many others. But Gallagher didn’t just ask questions. He put these debates to the test—literally. He sent an all-midget lineup up against a pro baseball team. He swam freestyle against a doggie-paddling Olympic gold medalist. He recruited America's #1 darts player to test that uncanny accuracy in beer pong. And, yes, he stuck a frying pan in tennis star Andy Roddick’s hands and went to battle.The results are hilarious and enlightening. Best of all, once you have the answers you’ll be able to shut up the next loudmouth who tries to debate you at the bar.

The Hour: Sporting immortality the hard way


Michael Hutchinson - 2006
    It's the only cycling record that matters: one man and his bike against the clock in a quest for pure speed. No teammates, no rivals, no tactics, no gears, no brakes. Just one simple question - in sixty minutes, how far can you go?Michael Hutchinson had a plan. He was going to add his name to the list of record-holders, cycling's supermen. But how does a man who became a professional athlete by accident achieve sporting immortality? It didn't sound too hard. All he needed was a couple of hand-tooled bike frames, the most expensive wheels money could buy, a support team of crack professionals, a small pot of glue, and a credit card wired to someone else's bank account. Still, getting the glue wasn't a problem...Michael Hutchinson became a full-time cyclist in 2000 after becoming disillusioned with an academic career. Over the following six years he has won more than twenty national titles, and the gold medal in the Masters' Pursuit World Championships. He is now a writer and journalist (and cyclist) and lives in south London.

Reboot : My Life, My Time


Michael Owen - 2019
    But this is the story I’ve been waiting to tell. It’s my time to set the record straight.’ One of the most naturally talented footballers of the modern era, Michael Owen’s career has always divided opinion among fans. From the age of only seven, his life was mapped out as a professional footballer. At 17, he made his Premier League debut. At 18, he was a Golden Boot winner and England’s youngest goalscorer at a World Cup. As he turned 22, he became the second youngest player to lift the Ballon d’Or. Owen would go on to lift every domestic trophy and play in three World Cups. But his career path took him in directions he could never have foreseen. Lines were crossed. Headlines were written. Injuries took their toll. Fans made up their minds… Owen penned a previous autobiography in 2004 but feels that only now, six years on from hanging up his boots, can he really open up on what really happened behind the scenes. It makes for a revealing, explosive read.

A Neutral Corner: Boxing Essays


A.J. Liebling - 1990
    Liebling's abiding passion for the "sweet science" of boxing, A Neutral Corner brings together fifteen previously unpublished pieces written between 1952 and 1963. Antic, clear-eyed, and wildly entertaining, these essays showcase a The New Yorker journalist at the top of his form. Here one relives the high drama of the classic Patterson-Johansson championship bout of 1959, and Liebling's early prescient portrayal of Cassius Clay's style as a boxer and a poet is not to be missed.Liebling always finds the human story that makes these essays appealing to aficionados of boxing and prose alike. Alive with a true fan's reverence for the sport, yet balanced by a true skeptic's disdain for sentiment, A Neutral Corner is an American treasure.

Team 7-Eleven


Drake Geoff - 2011
    From humble beginnings in a barn in Pennsylvania to soaring victories in the French Alps, Team 7-Eleven is the complete history that has never been fully told-until now.

Le Tour: A History of the Tour de France, 1903 -- 2003


Geoffrey Wheatcroft - 2003
    The 60 cyclists who left Paris to ride through the night to Lyons that first July had little idea they were pioneers of the most famous of all bike races, which would reach its centenary as one of the greatest sporting events on earth. Geoffrey Wheatcroft's masterly history of the Tour de France's first hundred years is not just a hugely entertaining canter through some great Tour stories; nor is it merely a homage to the riders whose names—Coppi, Simpson, Mercx, Armstrong—are synonymous with the event's folly and glory. Focusing too on the race's role in French cultural life, it provides a unique and fascinating insight into Europe's 20th century.

My View from the Corner


Angelo Dundee - 2007
    During that period he trained a record-breaking fifteen world champions and countless top contenders--wiping away their sweat and blood and instilling whatever it took to win."My View from the Corner" is his story in his own words. It is also the story of the legendary ring warriors he has forged into champions, including all-time greats Muhammad Ali, "Sugar" Ray Leonard, and George Foreman, as well as champs such as Willie Pastrano and Carmen Basilio.But you won't just read about prize fighters. Dundee can't tell his tale without including an amazing cast of characters who could only exist in the larger-than-life world of professional boxing. You'll find engrossing stories involving everyone from sportscaster Howard Cosell to artist LeRoy Nieman to mobster Frank Costello. Muhammad Ali also contributes a foreword of his own--delivering his personal insights on Dundee--the man, the friend, and the boxing trainer.The veteran trainer gives you a ringside seat and the inside scoop into what really happened during such classic sports moments as:The Ali-Liston rematch, which even today many believe was "fixed" The Rumble in the Jungle (Ali vs. Foreman) where Dundee was accused of loosening the ring ropes in order to let Ali perform his now famous "rope-a-dope" The second Leonard-Duran fight known for Duran uttering the infamous ""no mas""--Dundee reveals Duran never actually spoke those words Foreman vs. Moorer where George Foreman made history by becoming the oldest man to win the Heavyweight Championship Leonard vs. Hagler, which ended with one of the most controversial decisions in boxing historyFor the first time, Dundee also candidly discusses his feelings about Ali's conversion to Islam, the mob and its influence on boxing, training Russell Crowe for "Cinderella Man" (which Dundee also appeared in), the psychology of training fighters, and much more."My View from the Corner" is filled with the depth and insight that can only come from a man who truly loves what he does . . . and is unquestionably the best in the world at it.

How Not to Be a Professional Racing Driver


Jason Plato - 2019
    But he's also a rule breaker who has had more than his fair share of near-death experiences, drunken escapades and more. And yet he's still racing. There is nothing sensible, predictable or considered about Jason, but this is how he became a racing legend.

There Is No Next: NBA Legends on the Legacy of Michael Jordan


Sam Smith - 2014
    Armstrong • Marv Albert • Grant Hill • Jerry Colangelo • Bill Cartwright • Jerry Reinsdorf • Johnny Bach • Rod Thorn • Rick Barry • Kevin Loughery • David Axelrod • President Barack Obama • and many more!Written by Sam Smith—author  of the New York Times bestseller THE JORDAN RULES and recent inductee  into the NBA Hall of Fame—THERE IS NO NEXT assembles a cast of Hall-of-Famers, teammates, opponents, coaches, and others who experienced the ferocious drive and unparalleled greatness that defined Jordan’s career. Packed with previously untold stories and stunning insight into Jordan and his six championships, THERE IS NO NEXT is the last word on why there has never been, and will never be, another Michael Jordan.

The Breakaway: The Inside Story of the Wirtz Family Business and the Chicago Blackhawks


Bryan Smith - 2018
    As chronic losers playing to a deserted stadium, they were worse than bad—they were irrelevant. ESPN named the franchise the worst in all of sports. Rocky's resurrection of the team's fortunes was—publicly, at least—a feel-good tale of shrewd acumen. Behind the scenes, however, it would trigger a father, son, and brother-against-brother drama of Shakespearean proportions. The Breakaway reveals that untold story. Arthur Wirtz founded the family's business empire during the Depression. From roots in real estate, "King Arthur" soon expanded into liquor and banking, running his operations with an iron hand and a devotion to profit that earned him the nickname Baron of the Bottom Line. His son Bill further expanded the conglomerate, taking the helm of the Blackhawks in 1966. "Dollar Bill" Wirtz demanded unflinching adherence to Arthur's traditions and was notorious for an equally fierce temperament. Yet when Rocky took the reins of the business after Bill's death, it was an organization out of step with the times and financially adrift. The Hawks weren't only failing on the ice—the parlous state of the team's finances imperiled every facet of the Wirtz empire. To save the team and the company, Rocky launched a radical turnaround campaign. Yet his modest proposal to televise the Hawks' home games provoked fierce opposition from Wirtz family insiders, who considered any deviation from Arthur and Bill's doctrines to be heresy. Rocky's break with the edicts of his grandfather and father led to a reversal for the ages—three Stanley Cup championships in six years, a feat Fortune magazine called "the greatest turnaround in sports business history." But this resurrection came at a price, a fracturing of Rocky's relationships with his brother and other siblings. In riveting prose that recounts a story spanning three generations, The Breakaway reveals an insider's view of a brilliant but difficult Chicago business and sports dynasty and the inspiring story of perseverance and courage in the face of intense family pressures.