WITH A FOREWORD BY TOM BRADY "As a sportscaster and sports historian, Jim's career genuinely stands the test of time. . . . This book is sports history about some of the greats by one of the greats, who was taking it all in on the sidelines, in the stands or the dugout, by the eighteenth green, courtside, or in the broadcast booth." --Tom Brady, six-time NFL Super Bowl champion GOAT A riveting, insightful memoir of never-before-told stories from Jim Gray, twelve-time Emmy Award-winner, Hall of Fame sports broadcaster, and renowned interviewer-- that explores the author's career and the inside stories and memorable moments of the famous legends he has covered including, Muhammad Ali, Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Michael Jordan and Mike Tyson. In Talking to GOATs, award-winning broadcaster Jim Gray looks back at his four decades of sports reporting from the unparalleled perspective of one of the world's most respected and skilled interviewers. A journalist who many iconic athletes have trusted to tell their stories (of both triumph and disgrace), Jim has had unprecedented access to the people, places and extraordinary events in the world of sports. Asking tough but fair questions, he has broken numerous stories, and landed squarely in the middle of others, from the Ben Johnson and Barry Bonds steroid scandals, to Michael Jordan's surprise retirement, to the off-the-court Kobe/Shaq feud which led to their on-the-court break up, to being part of the live broadcast for twenty-two Super Bowls. He's climbed into the ring to interview Mike Tyson after he bit off a chunk of Evander Holyfield's ear, and stood next to Ron Artest when the "Malice at the Palace" melee erupted, and was on site at the bombing of the Atlanta Olympics. Anyone who has watched Jim effortlessly engage his subjects at the precise moment of triumph or tragedy has little idea what it takes to secure the interview, or what actually happens when the camera cuts away. These are real, mesmerizing, and previously untold stories. Talking to GOATs features numerous world-class athletes, including Muhammad Ali, Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Floyd Mayweather, Michael Phelps, Mike Tyson and Tiger Woods, and world leaders George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Mikhail Gorbachev, and many more. On each page, Jim gives the reader a coveted all-access pass as he reviews the best interviews, the best athletes, and the best games in modern sports history. It's like a personal introduction to the characters and careers of these heroes and villains we've known since childhood. He examines how money, celebrity, the media, and power interact, and how sports, more than any other institution, has led to momentous transformations in American society.

Almost unknown when in 1945 he purchased the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and its famous race, the Indianapolis 500, Tony Hulman soon became a household name in auto racing circles. He is credited with not only saving the Indianapolis Motor Speedway - shuttered during World War II - from becoming a residential housing development but also with re-invigorating auto racing in the United States. Until his purchase of the Speedway, Hulman had not been involved in auto racing; he was the CEO of Hulman & Company, a wholesale grocer. An astute businessman, Hulman made Clabber Girl Baking Powder a national brand. With the rise of the chain grocery stores, such as Kroger, the wholesale grocery industry was slowly consolidating. Hulman successfully led the reorientation of the family fortunes to include a range of businesses including a beer company, a Coca-Cola franchise, a broadcast empire and real estate and gas companies. The book traces the rise of Hulman & Company from a small wholesale grocer in Terre Haute to a dominant regional business, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Indianapolis 500 races during Hulman's tenure and his other major investments as well as his philanthropy, particularly to higher education in Terre Haute.

Widely regarded as the greatest footballer of all time, seven-time Ballon d'Or and six-time Golden Shoe winner, Lionel Messi, enjoyed a record-breaking 17-year career at FC Barcelona during which time he scored more goals, played more games, won more titles and provided more assists than any other player in the Catalan club's history. Adored by Barca fans, Messi reigned supreme until August 2021, when he made a tearful farewell to a stunned global audience. Messi: The King of Camp Nou is the definitive story of Lionel Messi's entire Barca career, written by Jason Pettigrove, a football journalist who worked for FC Barcelona during Messi's final years in Catalonia. Charting Messi's rise as a hopeful 13-year-old Argentinian boy from Rosario to becoming the best footballer in the world, Pettigrove's comprehensively researched book features exclusive interviews with key individuals in Messi's story - team-mates, opponents, managers, agents and fellow journalists - including: Joan Laporta, Lionel Scaloni, Victor Font, Sir Kenny Dalglish, Jamie Carragher, Mike Phelan, Josep Maria Minguella, Horacio Gaggioli, Tony Watt, Santi Padro and Jorge Barraza. From being signed by Barca on a napkin to Champions League glory and becoming FC Barcelona captain, Messi: The King of Camp Nou reveals the inside story of Leo's remarkable reign at Barca including breaking Pele's incredible record for most goals scored at one club, how the longed for Copa America title was won and how he, season-on-season, mesmerised the football world.

A finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in Poetry--a collection that examines the myth and history of the prizefighter Jack Johnson
The legendary Jack Johnson (1878-1946) was a true American creation. The child of emancipated slaves, he overcame the violent segregationism of Jim Crow, challenging white boxers--and white America--to become the first African-American heavyweight world champion. "The Big Smoke," Adrian Matejka's third work of poetry, follows the fighter's journey from poverty to the most coveted title in sports through the multi-layered voices of Johnson and the white women he brazenly loved. Matejka's book is part historic reclamation and part interrogation of Johnson's complicated legacy, one that often misremembers the magnetic man behind the myth.

Three days before the 1969 Super Bowl, Joe Namath promised the nation that he would lead the New York Jets to an 18-point underdog victory against the seemingly invincible Baltimore Colts. When the final whistle blew, that promise had been kept. Namath was instantly heralded as a gridiron god, while his rugged good looks, progressive views on race, and boyish charm quickly transformed him - in an era of raucous rebellion, shifting social norms, and political upheaval - into both a bona fide celebrity and a symbol of the commercialization of pro sports. By 26, with a championship title under his belt, he was quite simply the most famous athlete alive. Although his legacy has long been cemented in the history books, beneath the eccentric yet charismatic personality was a player plagued by injury and addiction, both sex and substance. When failing knees permanently derailed his career, he turned to Hollywood and endorsements, not to mention a tumultuous marriage and fleeting bouts of sobriety, to try and find purpose. Now 74, Namath is ready to open up, brilliantly using the four quarters of Super Bowl III as the narrative backbone to a life that was anything but charmed. As much about football and fame as about addiction, fatherhood, and coming to terms with our own mortality, All the Way finally reveals the man behind the icon.

Behind the Silver Fern is a comprehensive history of rugby's most famous yet enigmatic team, the New Zealand All Blacks, told by the men who have had the honour of wearing the iconic black jersey. From the legendary 1905 'Originals' all the way through to the World Cup team of 2019, this unique history of the All Blacks lifts the lid on their experiences like never before. Thanks to exhaustive archival research and exclusive new material garnered from a vast array of interviews with players and coaches from across the decades, Tony Johnson and Lynn McConnell unveil the compelling truth of what it means to play for the most successful team in the history of sport - all the glory and the drama on the field, the great friendships off it, and the bonds of a brotherhood that extend far beyond the bright lights of a Test match. Absorbing and illuminating, this is the ultimate history of All Black rugby - told, definitively, by the men who have been there and done it.

The autobiography of one of the greatest names in mountain climbing. Joe Brown is one of the greatest names in British climbing. This book not only describes his many notable climbs, but reveals a most engaging personality with a highly interesting approach to his craft. He was born in a Manchester slum, the youngest of seven children; his father died before he was a year old. The characteristics he showed as a child - a quite extraordinary self-reliance and an unexpected love of the countryside - are reflected throughout his life-story. THE HARD YEARS is also the story of Joe Brown's climbs up some of the toughest mountains in the world.

This readable biography of Lance Armstrong surveys his legendary cycling career as well as the details of his life outside of cycling. The son of a single mother and born in a run-down housing project, American athlete Lance Armstrong emerged from decidedly modest beginnings. Four decades later, Armstrong has established himself as not only one of the world's greatest and most successful athletes, but also as an activist for charitable causes. Through the Lance Armstrong Foundation, Armstrong supports cancer research and treatment while he serves as the ultimate inspiration for other athletes and cancer survivors. Lance Armstrong: A Biography provides a detailed treatment of Armstrong's life, from the lasting influences of his boyhood and the early years of his competitive training, to his battle with cancer, his divorce, and the birth of his fifth child during his second comeback to professional cycling. The book portrays him both as a champion athlete and a family man, and gives a candid assessment of his career, including Armstrong's less successful periods. Presents a chronological timeline of important events in Lance Armstrong's life and a list of the major awards and races he has won Includes exciting photographs of this dynamic athlete in action Provides detailed chapter notes and a bibliographic list of books and magazine articles Includes a helpful index of people, places, and important cycling races in the life of Lance Armstrong

In Heart of Dart-ness, TV's Ned Boulting sets out to answer the forty-something year old question: What exactly is darts? Is it a sport, a freak show, a side-show, a pantomime, a riot or a party? From Purfleet to Minehead, Milton Keynes to Frankfurt, Ned embarks on a journey back to the beginning of the modern game. He tracks down some of the household names who graced childhood television screens and are still among us; names such as Andy Fordham, whose fifty bottles of Pils a day habit led to his near death on the oche, Cliff Lazarenko, whose prodigious drinking was the stuff of legend even among his not exactly abstemious peer-group, Phil Taylor, the greatest of all time, as well as the Europeans, Michael van Gerwen, and Raymond van Barneveld. Is it entertainment, or exploitation? To answer that question, as well as every other, he learns that all roads lead to the Heart of Dart-ness, and the biggest character the game has ever produced, Eric Bristow. Perhaps darts is after all, just exactly what it sets out to be; an anti-sport sport, a two-fingered salute to the establishment, a piss-up in a brewery, the ultimate escape. The best night out.

Liddell at One Hundred celebrates the life of Liverpool and Scotland legend Billy Liddell. Born in Fife in 1922, Billy made the move from Scotland to Liverpool at 16, but the Second World War delayed his debut. After serving in the RAF as a navigator, he returned to football and won the league with Liverpool in his first full season with the club after the war. A diehard Red, Billy spent his whole career with the club, scoring 228 times in 534 appearances between 1938 and 1961. He remains the oldest goalscorer in Liverpool's history and their fourth-highest scorer of all time. Liddell spent a decade playing for Scotland and has the honour - alongside Stanley Matthews - of being one of only two men to represent a Great Britain XI more than once. A true sportsman and consummate professional, he was never booked or sent off in his entire footballing career. Liddell at One Hundred brings you the inside story of his life from those who knew him best - friends, supporters, family members and former team-mates.

Edmund Hillary - A Biography is the story of the New Zealand beekeeper who climbed Mount Everest. A man who against expedition orders drove his tractor to the South Pole; a man honoured around the world for his pioneering climbs yet who collapsed on more than one occasion on a mountain, and a man who gave so much to Nepal yet lost his family to its mountains. The author, Michael Gill, was a close friend of Hillary's for nearly 50 years, accompanying him on many expeditions and becoming heavily involved in Hillary's aid work building schools and hospitals in the Himalaya. During the writing of this book, Gill was granted access to a large archive of private papers and photos that were deposited in the Auckland museum after Hillary's death in 2008. Building on this unpublished material, as well as his extensive personal experience, Michael Gill profiles a man whose life was shaped by both triumph and tragedy. Gill describes the uncertainties of the first 33 years of Hillary's life, during which time he served in the New Zealand air force during the Second World War, as well as the background to the first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953, when Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers to reach the summit - a feat that brought the pair instant worldwide fame. He reveals the loving relationship Hillary had with his wife Louise, in part through their touching letters to each other. Her importance to him during their 22 years of marriage only underlines the horror of her death, along with that of their youngest daughter, Belinda, in a plane crash in 1975. Hillary eventually pulled out of his subsequent depression to continue his life's work in the Himalaya. Affectionate, but scrupulously fair, in Edmund Hillary - A Biography Michael Gill has gone further than anyone before to reveal the humanity of this remarkable man.

The phenomenal Sunday Times bestseller Kevin Keegan is one of the greatest players in English football history, famed for his style on the pitch, his relentless ambition and passion for the game. 'And I'll tell you, honestly, I will love it if we beat them. Love it!!!' Kevin Keegan, 1996 In My Life in Football Keegan tells the story of his remarkable rise through the sport, from the Peglers Brass Works reserve team in Doncaster to helping Liverpool become the kings of Europe, winning a Bundesliga title with Hamburg and captaining England. Keegan was recognised around the world as one of the sport's genuine superstars and remains the only Englishman to win the Ballon d'Or twice. As a manager, Keegan's five-year spell in charge at Newcastle is now legendary; he led the club from the depths of the old Second Division to the brink of the Premier League title with a breathtaking vision and flamboyant style that saw his team dubbed 'The Entertainers'. Fifty years since making his professional debut, Keegan tells the full story of the exhilarating highs and excruciating lows, from that epic battle with Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United in the 1995-6 season, as well as the pain of managing England and, finally, the shattering truth about his unhappy return to Newcastle in the controversial Mike Ashley era. Brilliant, funny, passionate, deeply moving and incredibly honest, My Life in Football is the story of the miner's son from Doncaster who became a superstar and was known to his adoring fans as 'King Kev'.

The Evidence of Things Not Seen is the autobiography of remarkable mountaineer, writer and environmentalist W.H. Murray. After being introduced to climbing in his early twenties, Murray's relationship with the outdoors was shaped as much by his time on the mountains as away from them. His early Scottish climbs were brought to a halt by the Second World War, which saw him spend three years as a Nazi prisoner of war. These years were devoted to not only to philosophical study, but also to writing his classic Mountaineering in Scotland not once, but twice, on toilet paper. The time to write about mountains only fuelled Murray's enthusiasm to climb them. The regeneration in mountaineering that followed the war saw Murray complete three Himalayan expeditions, alongside other iconic figures such as Doug Scott, Tom MacKinnon and Tom Weir, and Eric Shipton. He not only explored Himalayan peaks never before attempted by westerners, but also established the crucial Khumbu Icefall route up Everest, which paved the way for the mountain's first ascent in 1953. Later life saw Murray return to Scotland and begin the fight to conserve the wild places that motivated him. From pioneering the John Muir Trust to fighting threats to forestry, Murray's writing is laced with a philosophical edge and a contagious appreciation for Scotland's wild places, capturing the essence of why Murray's work has been inspiring readers for decades. Written just before his death in 1996, and with a foreword by renowned Scottish mountaineer Hamish MacInnes, The Evidence of Things Not Seen is a must-read for anyone for which the mountains are still a source of wonder.

The North Face of the Eiger was long notorious as the most dangerous climb in the Swiss Alps, one that had claimed the lives of numerous mountaineers. In February 1966, two teams - one German, the other British-American - aimed to climb it by a new direct route. Astonishingly, the two teams knew almost nothing about each other's attempt until both arrived at the foot of the face. The race was on. John Harlin led the four-man British-American team and intended to make an Alpine-style dash for the summit as soon as weather conditions allowed. The Germans, with an eight-man team, planned a relentless Himalayan-style ascent, whatever the weather. The authors were key participants as the dramatic events unfolded. Award-winning writer Peter Gillman, then twenty-three, was reporting for the Telegraph, talking to the climbers by radio and watching their monumental struggles from telescopes at the Kleine Scheidegg hotel. Renowned Scottish climber Dougal Haston was a member of Harlin's team, forging the way up crucial pitches on the storm-battered mountain. Chris Bonington began as official photographer but then played a vital role in the ascent. Eiger Direct, first published in 1966, is a story of risk and resilience as the climbers face storms, frostbite and tragedy in their quest to reach the summit. This edition features a new introduction by Peter Gillman.

Today, seeing Black footballers playing the game at the very highest level is considered very normal. This, certainly, was not the case one hundred and forty years ago, and this is what makes the story of Andrew Watson so remarkable. It seems hard to imagine that a Guyanese-born Black man could head the Scottish national football team in 1881 in a game against England. Not only was he captain, but he also led them to a 6-1 victory in London - an achievement that still ranks as England's heaviest ever defeat on home soil.

'A lovely kind of nostalgia, which colourises the black and white of yesteryear' - The Oldie Review 'He writes about them all with wonderful precision and a powerful evocation' - Radio Times 'Like my father before me, I believe that both the playing and watching of sport can teach us important lessons about ourselves by providing practical instruction in co-operation, tests of resolve and temper' For Michael Parkinson it was never really in doubt that he would spend his life in sport. His father, a fearsome fast bowler himself, indoctrinated young Michael from an early age into the Yorkshire cricket tradition and supporting Barnsley FC. All he ever wanted was to play cricket for Yorkshire and England. He rose through the ranks of Barnsley cricket along with his friends Dickie Bird and Geoffrey Boycott. But while they went on to find fame on the field, he spent the next few decades watching, writing and talking about sport. My Sporting Life is Sir Michael's love letter to sport, to the heroes and legends of his Yorkshire youth, to the characters of the international games he watched and wrote about, and to the very idea of sport itself. With warm humorous anecdotes about many icons of sport, from Shane Warne to George Best and Muhammad Ali to Fred Trueman, Sir Michael Parkinson reflects on his life writing about his one great passion.

On Saturday, 26 April 2003, Aron Ralston, a 27-year-old outdoorsman and adventurer, set off for a day's hike in the Utah canyons. Eight miles from his truck, he found himself in the middle of a deep and remote canyon. Then the unthinkable happened: a boulder shifted and snared his right arm against the canyon wall. He was trapped, facing dehydration, starvation, hallucinations and hypothermia as night-time temperatures plummeted. Five and a half days later, Aron Ralston finally came to the agonising conclusion that his only hope was to amputate his own arm and get himself to safety. Miraculously, he survived. BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE is more than just an adventure story. It is a brave, honest and above all inspiring account of one man's valiant effort to survive, and is destined to take its place among adventure classics such as TOUCHING THE VOID.

Two Brothers tells the story of a great sporting family, uncovering new details, exposing myths and placing Jack and Bobby Charlton in their historical context. It's a book about two English footballers but also about English football and England itself. In later life Jack and Bobby didn't get on and barely spoke but the lives of these very different brothers from the coalfield tell the story of late twentieth-century English football: the tensions between flair and industry, between individuality and the collective, between right and left, between middle- and working-classes, between exile and home. Jack was open, charismatic, selfish and pig-headed; Bobby was guarded, shy, polite and reserved to the point of reclusiveness. They were very different footballers: Jack a gangling central defender who developed a profound tactical intelligence; Bobby an athletic attacking midfielder who disdained systems. They played for clubs who embodied two very different approaches, the familial closeness and tactical cohesion of Leeds on the one hand and the individualistic flair and clashing egos of Manchester United on the other. Both enjoyed great success as players: Jack won a league, a Cup and two Fairs Cups with Leeds; Bobby won a league title, survived the terrible disaster of the plane crash in Munich, and then at enormous emotional cost, won a Cup and two more league titles before capping it off with the European Cup. Together, for England, they won the World Cup. Their managerial careers followed predictably diverging paths, Bobby failing at Preston while Jack enjoyed success at Middlesbrough and Sheffield Wednesday before leading Ireland to previously un-imagined heights. Both were financially very successful, but Jack remained staunchly left-wing while Bobby tended to conservatism. In the end, Jack returned to Northumberland; Bobby remained in the North-West. Two Brothers tells a story of social history as well as two of the most famous football players of their generation. Praise for Inverting the Pyramid: A History of Football Tactics 'If Jonathan Wilson's first book Behind the Curtain, marked him as the rising star of Sports literature, Inverting the Pyramid confirms his place among our very best sports writers' 'Simply one of the best books ever written about the world's game' Dominic Sandbrook Praise for Nobody Ever Says Thank You: The Biography of Brian Clough 'In separating the man from the myth, Jonathan Wilson's biography of Brian Clough is the first to do him justice' Barney Ronay The Observer 'Jonathan Wilson's mighty new biography' Harry Pearson When Saturday Comes

A collection of humorous, touching and uplifting stories about life, rugby and everything else by one of South Africa’s true rugby legends...

Theuns Stofberg’s illustrious rugby career spanned from 1976 to 1985, and he is commonly considered one of the all-time Springbok greats. As the 36th captain of the Springboks, one of only 56 players to be given this honour, he was tough and uncompromising on the field but a true gentleman and great raconteur off it, which he proves with the anecdotes collected in this book.

In Stories from the Touchline, he takes the reader behind the scenes, from his childhood days as a schoolboy rugby player to the 1981 flour-bomb tour of New Zealand and winning the Currie Cup for three different provinces – a feat unmatched to this day. He also writes about what it was like playing with legends such as Morné du Plessis, Gerrie Germishuys, Schalk Burger Sr and Gysie Pienaar, marvels at the fans' odd and often colourful behaviour, and affords readers a fascinating glimpse into the amateur days of rugby in South Africa. He also shares his personal struggles with a speech impediment and ill health, and coping with family tragedy, in his own inimitable way. By turns deeply personal, amusing and nostalgic, this book will be treasured by each and every South African rugby fan.