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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Ball games > American football
Before Namath, before the Heidi Game, before the guaranteed Super
Bowl victory, there were the Titans. Remember the Titans? Not many
a casual football fan of today would. The New York Titans played to
meager crowds and mediocre results in the decrepit Polo Grounds.
The organization, one of the charter members of the American
Football League in 1960, was in constant danger of bankruptcy.
After struggling for three seasons, the Titans would finally be
assumed by the league. New owners were found, the franchise was
renamed and a new stadium would welcome the team in 1964.The
revised edition of this award-winning book covers the turbulent
history and eventual crash landing of the team that would become
the New York Jets. The early days of the upstart AFL are also
explored, as are the league's constant feuds with the Titans'
underfunded and overbearing owner, Harry Wismer. Four appendices
with team results, rosters and statistics are included.
Highlighting each of the 27 Green Bay Packers enshrined in the Pro
Football Hall of Fame-including such luminaries as Earl "Curly"
Lambeau, Bart Starr, Vince Lombardi, Brett Favre and Charles
Woodson-this book takes a comprehensive look at each player.
Biographical information, key facts and figures, anecdotes and
little-known facts are provided, along with their own recollections
of their biggest games. Appendices cover Packers of honorable
mention (who should be or perhaps will be HOF inductees), and
player stats.
Soft Power Politics- Past and Present: Football and Baseball on the
Western Pacific Rim illustrates the momentous expanse and moment of
sport in the Asia Pacific region and through these essays dealing
with two of the most prodigious global team sports confronts
various cultural clashes that Samuel Huntington would ensure the
end of civilisation. They also demonstrate the power sport has to
change the world and to inspire and unite people globally. All who
sail under the flag of 'Sport', as ingenuous as it may seem to the
host of cynics that abounds, believe that dialogues that emerge
from arguments included in this text represent communication of the
highest order and have the potential to produce the cohesion that
can close some of those cracks that Huntington said would open up
along, what he called the fault lines between civilisations. This
book was published as a special issue of the International Journal
of the History of Sport.
Rudy Ruettiger: The Walk On explores the real life of Daniel "Rudy"
Ruettiger, the inspiration behind the iconic sports film, Rudy.
Rudy Ruettiger first overcame the odds by being accepted to the
University of Notre Dame. Because he was dyslexic and got poor
grades in school, he had to find another way. He continued to
accomplish his dream by becoming a walk-on player for the football
team, culminating in being able to dress for just one game and
leading to an epic sack that has inspired generations of fans in
the beloved sports movie. However, there was still so much of
Rudy's story to tell. Emmy (R) award-winning Director and Producer
Nick Nanton presents Rudy Ruettiger: The Walk On, using the full
dialogue and cinematic images from the feature documentary film of
the same title, to examine the Rudy story everyone knows and loves
to provide further depth and detail about Rudy's past struggles and
triumphs at Notre Dame, as well as what it took to get that story
onto film. Furthermore, Rudy Ruettiger: The Walk On elaborates on
who Rudy has become and how he still serves as an inspiration
today. Whether you're looking for insider information on the actual
story behind a favorite sports figure, or you're hoping to find
some continued inspiration in Rudy's story, this tell-all has
something special hidden amongst its pages for you.
First published in 1988, this book contains edited and revised
papers presented at the first World Congress of Science and
Football. Held under the auspices of the International Council of
Sport, Science, and Physical Education, the Congress was a unique
gathering of international scientists researching into football and
practitioners professionally involved in the many football codes.
American football, soccer, rugby league, rugby union, Australian
rules, Gaelic football and national variations of these games are
all covered in depth, in both amateur and professional systems.
Nutrition, biomechanics, equipment, physiology, sociology,
psychology, coaching, management, training, tactics, strategy are
among the main subject areas the contributors cover. With over 22
countries represented and with players, managers and coaches
involved as well as academics the book represents a truly
international, comprehensive and practical picture of contemporary
football.
You can't separate football from the man. The game gave him
everything and "Bullet Bill" Dudley said as much. But you can
separate the man from football. As a husband, father, businessman
and citizen, he put far more into this world than he took out.
Three years before Bill died, he asked his son-in-law Steve Stinson
to write his story. William McGarvey "Bullet Bill" Dudley (December
24, 1921 - February 4, 2010) led a thrilling career as a
professional American football player in the National Football
League for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Detroit Lions, and Washington
Redskins. With humble beginnings in Bluefield, Virginia he made the
football team his junior year, and in 1938 he kicked a 35-yard
field goal in the season's finale. Dudley was drafted in the 1942
NFL Draft with the first overall pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1966 and the
Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1972. During the 1942 season, he
led the league in rushing with 696 yards on 162 carries and was
then named to the All-Pro team. Steve Stinson revisits his
father-in-law's journey from Bluefield, Virginia through his
retirement from the NFL and shares everything he brought to
communities in between each pivotal moment in Dudley's life.
Of all the great National Football League coaches, none have
enjoyed the respect and reputation that Vince Lombardi earned
during his tenure as head coach of the Green Bay Packers. Both
feared and beloved by players and peers, Lombardi coached the
Packers to five NFL championships and victories in the first two
Super Bowls ever played. Over ten seasons, his Green Bay teams
compiled a remarkable 98-30-4 record, although it was Lombardi's
relentless, uncompromising tactics and values that defined him and
his career more than the victories themselves. I Remember Vince
Lombardi takes readers back to a bygone era when professional
football was a game of guts, grit, and spit. Lombardi embodied
greatness, and he demanded it from his staff and players. In this
book, dozens of people who knew him recount their favorite memories
of him in their own words, including former players, assistant
coaches, opponents, and league officials. What they reveal is a man
who was a genuine legend on and off the field. Included are his
days as an assistant coach for the New York Giants with colleague
Tom Landry, the "Ice Bowl" NFL title game of 1966, his two Super
Bowl victories, his sudden departure from the Packers, and his
short-lived position as coach of the Washington Redskins. Many
aspects of his personal and professional lives are covered,
offering a refreshing look at one of football's greatest icons.
On November 18, 1901, the University of Alabama and the University
of Tennessee first locked horns on a football field. At the
contest's end, the score was tied, nothing had been resolved, and
about two thousand fans were on the field at Tuscaloosa, fighting.
Since that day the Tennessee-Alabama game has developed into one
of the premier football rivalries in the nation. To many of the
faithful, it is much more than a game -- it is a crusade. The
intensity with which these games have been waged makes victory as
satisfying as the warm crimson and orange leaves that dance in
Knoxville's cool Smoky Mountain breezes. Defeat, however, is more
bitter than the choking smoke of Birmingham's steel mills.
Beginning in 1928, the annual game has been played on the third
Saturday in October, and the contest has produced enough heroes to
fill several books. Third Saturday in October tells the story of
each game. From Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, "Red" Drew, Paul "Bear"
Bryant, Ray Perkins, Bill Curry, Gene Stallings, and Mike Dubose of
Alabama, to Robert Neyland, Bowden Wyatt, Doug Dickey, Bill Battle,
Johnny Majors, and Phil Fulmer of Tennessee, the game has been
directed by legendary coaches and played by heroic young men who
have risen to greatness on the third Saturday in October.
Third Saturday in October is filled with memories and
reflections of players, coaches, reporters, sportscasters, and
fans. The people who were there, who made or failed to make the key
plays, tell what happened in their own words. More than two hundred
historic photographs illustrate the lively text. This second
edition contains reports of the games from 1987 through 2000.
All-American quarterback Charlie Conerly's college career was
interrupted by World War II. He started at University of
Mississippi in 1942, fought in the Battle of Guam in 1944, then led
Ole Miss to their first conference championship in 1947. He went on
to play for the New York Giants from 1948 to 1961, ultimately
leading them to an NFL title. A College Football Hall of Famer,
Conerly was a professional All-Star and the lynchpin of the Giants
offense at time when the team was loaded with Hall of Famers who
unduly overshadowed him during his heyday. New York won repeat
divisional crowns under the soft-spoken Conerly and participated in
the suspenseful, first-ever sudden death NFL title game in 1958.
This first-ever full-length biography chronicles his life and
career in detail.
Women, African Americans, and gays have recently upended US culture
with demands for inclusion and respect, while economic changes have
transformed work and daily life for millions of Americans. The
national obsession with the National Football League provides a
window on this dynamic period of change, reshaping ideas about
manliness to respond to new urgencies on and beyond the gridiron.
Thomas P. Oates uses feminist theory to break down the dynamic
cultural politics shaping, and shaped by, today's NFL. As he shows,
the league's wildly popular product provides an arena for media
producers to work out and recalibrate the anxieties,
contradictions, and challenges that characterize contemporary
masculinity. Oates draws from a range of pop culture narratives to
map the complex set of theories about gender and race and to reveal
a league and fan base in flux. Though longing for a past dominated
by white masculinity, the mediated NFL also subtly aligns with a
new economic reality that demands it cope with the shifting
relations of gender, race, sexuality, and class. Indeed, pro
football crafts new meanings of each by its canny mobilization of
historic ideological processes.
In The 50 Greatest Players in Kansas City Chiefs History, sports
historian Robert W. Cohen ranks the top 50 players ever to perform
for one of the NFL's most historic franchises. This work includes
quotes from the subjects themselves and former teammates, photos,
recaps of memorable performances and greatest individual seasons,
as well as a statistical summary of each player's career with the
Chiefs. The Chiefs' best are profiled here in what is bound to be a
much discussed book among the team's broad fan base. An added bonus
are the "honorable mentions," the next 25 players who have
contributed to the Chiefs' astounding run as one of America's great
sports teams.
Not coincidentally, the sport of football naturally employs terms
usually associated with war, such as "aerial attack," "blitz," and
"trench warfare." During World War II, the U. S. military and
colleges joined forces, fielding competitive teams to prepare men
for combat. The book highlights the Department of the Navy's role
in preserving the game and football's impact on national morale and
the war effort through their "Lend-Lease" to colleges of officer
candidates, including All-America and professional players. It
describes wartime college and military football throughout the
globe and features a foreword by veteran ESPN college football
commentator Beano Cook. It contains 81 photographs and
illustrations; listings of college and military teams, records,
scores, big games, and statistics; player and team profiles; and a
glossary of period football terminology.
In this collection of anecdotes from the announcers of pro
football, the Voices reminisce about a time before television, when
the NFL was just making its floundering start and college ball held
all the attraction. With the spread of television broadcasting, the
Voices gain faces and the NFL gains an audience. Recall with the
broadcasters the excitement of pivotal moments, the glory of the
victors, and the great men who coached those champions. With their
love of the work and lots of lighthearted memories about everything
from the Heidi game to the glory of Green Bay to the birth of
"Monday Night Football," these men and women bring football to
life.
From 1976 until 1994, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost far more games
than they won. The Bucs' status as a sporting punch line belied the
fact that they were led by arguably the most important owner of
that era. Known as the "Vice-Commissioner," Hugh F. Culverhouse,
Sr., wielded his financial acumen as a weapon, keeping other NFL
owners in line through the economic downturn of the 1980s, two work
stoppages, and a multimillion dollar lawsuit from a rival league.
Culverhouse's near-Dickensian frugality also led, directly and
indirectly, to the Steve Young-Joe Montana quarterback controversy;
Doug Williams' triumph in Super Bowl XXII; and the largest
fourth-quarter collapse in NFL history. Over two dozen interviews
with Culverhouse's allies and adversaries inform this thorough and
balanced chronicle of Hugh Culverhouse and his team.
Hey Teammate, We all face obstacles-physical, emotional, between
the ears. The good news is that everything we have fought back
against can empower us, IF WE KNOW HOW TO USE IT. My obstacles
happen to be anxiety and depression. I call it living in the gray,
and I've been mired in it my whole life. To be honest, it sucks.
But I have also recently recognized that this same gray that has
held me down has also empowered me to make my wildest dreams come
true. You have probably overcome many of your own obstacles, but
you;ve been too close to the conflict to clearly see what you've
accomplished. We are all UNBREAKABLE, no matter what we do, who we
are, or what traumas we may have experienced. We just need to admit
that we can't walk this walk alone. --Jay Glazer After years of
rejection but with constant hustle, Jay Glazer has built a career
has one of the most iconic sports insiders, earning himself a spot
on the Emmy award-winning Fox NFL Sunday, a role as the confidant
of coaches and players across the league, and a role as himself
alongside Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson on HBO series Ballers. His gym,
Unbreakable Performance Center, attracts some of the biggest names
in Hollywood, and is the headquarters to the powerful charity MVP
(Merging Vets and Players) that Jay founded in 2015. MVP began as a
weekly physical and mental health huddle with combat veterans and
retired athletes has expanded to seven locations, helping soldiers
and players transition to a new team. In Unbreakable, Jay Glazer
talks directly to you, his teammates, and shares his truth. All of
his success from his screeching-and-swerving joy ride through
professional football, the media, the fighting world, Hollywood,
the military-warrior community, comes with a side of relentless
depression and anxiety. Living in the gray, as Jay calls it, is
just a constant for him. And, in order to work through the gray and
succeed, Jay has to maintain an Unbreakable Mindset. With this
book, you can too. * Be of Service-help others and help yourself in
the process * Build Your Team-give support, get support * Never
Underestimate the Power of Laughter-never take yourself too
seriously * Be Proud of Your Scars-our trauma makes us who we are
Throughout Unbreakable, Jay will use his stories-featuring some of
the biggest, baddest, and most fascinating characters in the public
eye today-to show how he walks this walk, has learned that while
the gray is very real, it doesn't have to define him. And it
doesn't have to define you either.
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