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Books > Language & Literature > Biography & autobiography > Sport
Terry Bradshaw made a name for himself as the star quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, winning four Super Bowls and twice earning the MVP award. Beyond his athletic success, Bradshaw has established himself as a true cultural icon through his ventures into television, movies, and music. In Terry Bradshaw: From Super Bowl Champion to Television Personality, Brett L. Abrams details the many personas of this larger-than-life entertainer. Not satisfied with "just" being a star quarterback, Bradshaw became an actor, commercial pitchman, country western and gospel singer, color commentator, and NFL pregame co-host. In addition to covering Bradshaw's life and career, Abrams discusses the stereotypes Bradshaw faced and his ability to turn those preconceived notions into a positive, likeable, "down home" image that enabled him to find success across the entertainment industries. Ultimately, Bradshaw has become not only an iconic sports figure, but a cultural icon, as well. Terry Bradshaw delivers a new and refreshing look at one of football's most-recognized athletes. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with coaches, friends, coworkers, and football fans, this book illuminates Bradshaw's celebrity status in the context of nearly 50 years of interacting with football fans and the larger American pop culture.
Alex Blackwell lived and breathed our national sport of cricket for thirty years. Starting as a kid, she spent her childhood and teen years on the field with her identical twin, Kate, who was equally devoted to the bat and ball. While both sisters went on to represent Australia, Alex built a 15-year career in the green and gold, eventually rising to the captaincy, notching up an eye-watering list of sporting achievements and etching her name into cricket's history. But life off the field brought challenges of its own. From her professional debut, Alex was unafraid to call out hypocrisy and go in to battle against the traditional hierarchies of the game. Speaking out and becoming a passionate advocate for women and LGBTQI people in sport won her many fans and much respect, but it didn't come without a price. Fair Game is the unmissable account of life and leadership inside Australia's most loved sporting team, told by one of its most capped players of all time. This is the story of the sacrifices and victories, the extreme highs and devastating lows, that come with playing sport at the highest level, and of what it takes to be truly courageous on and off the field.
Abraham Washington Attell (1883-1970) was among the cleverest, most scientific professional boxers ever to enter the ring. The native San Franciscan fought 172 times in his career-scoring 127 wins, 51 by knockout-and successfully defended his World Featherweight Champion title 18 times between 1906 and 1912, defeating challengers who included Johnny Kilbane and Battling Nelson. Attell's success inspired his brothers Caesar and Monte to take up the sport-Abe and Monte both held simultaneous world titles for a time. This first ever biography covers Attell's life and career. Growing up poor and Jewish in an predominantly Irish neighborhood, he faced his share of adversity and anti-Semitism in and out of the ring. He was charged for alleged involvement in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. The charges were dropped but Attell was branded by association for the remainder of his life.
Waite Hoyt was much more than a baseball player. A multi-faceted, sometimes troubled man, Hoyt was a vaudevillian, a mortician, a writer, a painter, and (of course) a Hall of Fame pitcher. He was also an alcoholic who overcame his demons and became one of the first players to make the transition to the announcers booth. His teammates and managers were among the all-time greats, but hell always be associated with his friend Babe Ruth. He was there when Ruth hit 29 homers for a new record in 1919; when Ruth hit his 60th in 1927; when the Babe hit his 714th, and last, home run; he was even a pallbearer at Ruths funeral. His career on the mound and as the Cincinnati Reds announcer lasted from 1915 to 1965, and to walk in his footsteps is to journey through the history of baseball in the 20th century. This biography of Waite Hoyt involves many great moments in baseball history, and includes some of the classic tales that Hoyt, a natural-born storyteller, would tell about his teammates. It follows his transition from a career on the field to his career behind the microphone, and his struggles with alcoholism that almost cost him his dream of working as a broadcaster. Later chapters chronicle his years in the announcers booth, his induction into Cooperstown, and his longtime championing of Babe Ruth as beyond compare, even as Ruth's most prominent records fell to Maris and Aaron.
5 September, 1972. 4.30 a.m. The Munich Olympic Village. Black September, a group of Palestinian terrorists, break into the Israeli team's apartments. It is the beginning of the most tragic event in Olympic history and, after twenty hours, the day will end in a massacre, with the deaths of eleven Israelis, five Palestinians and a German policeman. This is the story of the race-walker Shaul Ladany: a survivor. But more than just a member of the Israeli team from those terrible events in Munich, Ladany was a survivor of the darkest period in twentieth century history, having been interred as a child at the Nazi concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen, the camp where Anne Frank died. For the second time in his life, Ladany has survived history. Ladany, the world record holder in the fifty-mile walk and a professor of industrial engineering, is one of Israel's most successful athletes, having won dozens of national championships and competed at both the 1968 and 1972 Olympics; he was a student at Columbia University in New York, a soldier in the Six Days War and the Yom Kippur War. From Eichmann to Sharon, from Bikila to All Blacks, from Nixon to Thatcher: they are all a part of Ladany's walk through the twentieth century. Award-winning author and journalist Andrea Schiavon tells Ladany's extraordinary life and, walking with him, chronicles a whole century of events in this astonishing, touching and epic biography.
A native son of Akron, Ohio, LeBron James seemed like a miracle heaven-sent by God to transform Cleveland's losing ways when he was drafted by the Cavaliers in 2003. But after seven years--and still no parade down Euclid Avenue--he left, announcing his move to South Beach on a nationally televised ESPN production with a sly title that echoed fifty years of misery. The Catch, The Drive, The Shot . . . The Decision. Out of James's treachery grew a monster. Scott Raab, a fifty-nine-year-old, 350-pound Jewish Santa Claus with a Chief Wahoo tattoo, would bear witness to LeBron's every move, and in so doing would act as the eyes and ears of Cleveland itself. Crude but warmhearted, poetic but raving, hilarious, profane (and profound), The Whore of Akron is both a rabid fan's indictment of a traitorous athlete and the story of Raab's obsessive quest to reveal the "wee jewel-box" of LeBron James's soul.
This extraordinary book charts David Beckham's rise to celebrity during his years in Manchester. At the age of 3 David Beckham's parents gave him a Manchester United shirt as a Christmas present, beginning a relationship with the club that was to last a quarter of a century. He signed schoolboy terms in May 1988, eventually joining United as a trainee in July 1991 and moving up to Manchester to begin what was to become an extraordinary story. From relatively early days, right up to his departure for Real Madrid, Eamonn and James Clarke, the Manchester paparrazi, have recorded his unofficial story--even before he came to prominence as a player and well before his meteoric rise to iconic status. They were there when he was a young player finding his feet at the club, there to see him out and about with girlfriends or team colleagues, there when "Posh Spice" arrived on the scene, and there to see him becoming a proud father and family man. And they were the first to photograph him, with the cut above his eye, walking in Manchester after the boot-kicking incident with Sir Alex Ferguson, when it began to dawn on everyone that David Beckham's time at Manchester United was almost over. In an introductory text, and through extended captions, Eamonn and James Clarke describe their work and encounters with David Beckham. The two brothers have worked as the Manchester paparrazi for the last 10 years. Their images appear regularly on the front pages of the press in the UK as well as internationally in magazines.
Voytek Kurtyka is one of the greatest alpinists of all time. Born in 1947, he was one of the leading lights of the Polish golden age of mountaineering that redefined Himalayan climbing in the 1970s and 1980s. His visionary approach to climbing resulted in many renowned ascents, such as the complete Broad Peak traverse, the 'night-naked' speed climbs of Cho Oyu and Shishapangma and, above all, the alpine-style first ascent of the west face of Gasherbrum IV. Dubbed the 'climb of the century', his route on GIV with the Austrian Robert Schauer is - as of 2017 - unrepeated. His most frequent climbing partners were alpine legends of their time: Polish Himalayan giant Jerzy Kukuczka, Swiss mountain guide Erhard Loretan and British alpinist Alex MacIntyre. After repeated requests to accept the Piolets d'Or lifetime achievement award (the Oscars of the climbing world), Kurtyka finally accepted the honour in the spring of 2016. A fiercely private individual, he has declined countless invitations for interviews, lectures and festival appearances, but he has agreed to collaborate with internationally renowned and award-winning author Bernadette McDonald on this long-awaited biography. Art of Freedom is a profound and moving profile of one of the international climbing world's most respected, complex and reclusive mountaineers.
'One of the greatest mountaineering survival stories never told.' - The Sunday Times Some mountains are high; some mountains are hard. Few are both. On the afternoon of 13 July 1977, having become the first climbers to reach the summit of the Ogre, Doug Scott and Chris Bonington began their long descent. In the minutes that followed, any feeling of success from their achievement would be overwhelmed by the start of a desperate fight for survival. And things would only get worse. Rising to over 7,000 metres in the centre of the Karakoram, the Ogre - Baintha Brakk - is notorious in mountaineering circles as one of the most difficult mountains to climb. First summited by Scott and Bonington in 1977 - on expedition with Paul 'Tut' Braithwaite, Nick Estcourt, Clive Rowland and Mo Anthoine - it waited almost twenty-four years for a second ascent, and a further eleven years for a third. The Ogre, by legendary mountaineer Doug Scott, is a two-part biography of this enigmatic peak: in the first part, Scott has painstakingly researched the geography and history of the mountain; part two is the long overdue and very personal account of his and Bonington's first ascent and their dramatic week-long descent on which Scott suffered two broken legs and Bonington smashed ribs. Using newly discovered diaries, letters and audio tapes, it tells of the heroic and selfless roles played by Clive Rowland and Mo Anthoine. When the desperate climbers finally made it back to base camp, they were to find it abandoned - and themselves still a long way from safety. The Ogre is undoubtedly one of the greatest adventure stories of all time.
'I pulled off my glasses and wiped my eyes. "That was perhaps the last race of my career..."' Deep down, Mark Cavendish thought he was finished. After illness, setbacks and clinical depression, the once fastest man in the world had been written off by most. And at the age of 36, even he believed his explosive cycling career would fade out with a whimper. The Manxman hadn't won a single Grand Tour stage in Italy, Spain or France since 2016. But then came his incredible resurrection at the 2021 Tour de France. Included on the Deceuninck Quick-Step team at the very last minute, only after Sam Bennett suffered an injury, Mark set about rewriting history. He claimed back the green jersey he first wore in 2011, and his four stage victories finally saw him matching Belgian legend Eddy Merckx's all-time record of 34 Tour de France stage wins. Cycling greats are never content, and Cav's dogged determination and inner strength had earned him the record that few believed he could ever achieve. This is his own intimate account of that race, right from the saddle of the miracle tour.
Sixty Years a Red... and Counting! is a unique, affectionate, fun and frank account of Liverpool FC over 60 years from the perspective of a dedicated fan and informed observer of Anfield life. From attending his first game at Anfield in 1961, to watching the Kop sing and sway as the Reds plotted a triumphant course through the 1960s and early 70s under Bill Shankly, to league title glory with Bob Paisley and lifting the European Cup three times, Brian Barwick saw it all. In his role as the FA's chief executive, he was in Istanbul for that unforgettable Champions League final. And like thousands of others he punched the air in his front room when the Reds finally lifted the Premier League trophy in 2020. As a journalist and broadcaster, he gained special insight into Liverpool's triumphs while building a rapport with some of the club's top personalities. This book takes you behind the scenes at Anfield to tell the story of Liverpool's rise from Second Division mediocrity to becoming one of the most recognisable names in world sport.
Compelling, entertaining and refreshingly honest, One in a Million is the autobiography of Trevor Francis, the subject of the first GBP1 million transfer fee in football history - a record for all time. As a 16-year-old, Francis set a record as the youngest player to score four goals in a match, an early indication of an exceptional talent. And so his unique career journey would continue to unfold, encountering a seemingly endless succession of superlatives, larger-than-life characters and astonishing events. Trevor played professionally not only in England but also in the USA and Scotland, in Italy and Australia. He gained 52 England caps, and won the European Cup on his debut in the competition. He played his part in the English revolution at Glasgow Rangers and managed QPR, Crystal Palace, Sheffield Wednesday and Birmingham City. Thrillingly, Trevor takes the reader with him into dressing rooms, into boardrooms and on to the field of play. He has a true gift for memorable detail, providing a wealth of revelations and remarkable stories.
In 1984, John Hanrahan was featured in Interview magazine's iconic Olympic Issue as one of America's top athlete's vying for a spot on the US Olympic Team. He had come within a point of defeating the mighty Soviet world medalist and had defeated other international competitors. He had a shot at a lifelong dream, but then abandoned the final trials. The coach searched frantically for him at LaGuardia airport. He was nowhere to be found. He hadn't exactly fallen off the face of the earth; his face was appearing in worldwide ad campaigns as a top fashion model but he'd become crippled by addiction, unable to face his competition, and unwilling to confront the severity of his situation. Then, in 1985, Hanrahan died from an overdose. He went to a divine place while a doctor worked frantically to revive him. He was shown the prayers of loved ones and given another chance at life, and he feels he came back for a reason... He returned wanting to shout his story from the rooftops, but was unable to fully share his experiences to help others. He was shackled by the stigma of being judged as an addict, and it wasn't until he nearly lost his own son to the ravages of addiction that he broke through and gained the strength and courage to tell his story. He describes how he continued to work amidst the craziness of the world fashion markets Milan, Paris, Zurich, Tokyo, and New York while trying to find his way toward exorcising the demons of his past and gaining a life worthy of the one he had miraculously regained. He transformed himself to become the trusted personal trainer to influential New Yorkers, such as John Kennedy Jr., Julia Roberts, Howard Stern, Natasha Richardson, Diane Sawyer, Rosie O'Donnell, Mercedes Ruehl, Betty Buckley, and Joan Lunden. He moved his family west and quickly corralled a high-powered Hollywood client base, including Patricia Heaton, David Geffen, Tim Burton, Sandy Gallin, Tara Reid, Beverly DeAngelo, Annabella Sciorra, Cyndi Lauper, Donald De Line, Amy Pascal, Kevin Huvane, Bryan Lourd, Davis Guggenheim and Graydon Carter...all while keeping his past a secret.
First and Last: How I Made European History With Hibs is the fascinating autobiography of Jackie Plenderleith, the only surviving player from the first British side to compete in the European Cup. A graceful yet tough-tackling defender, Jackie takes us back to 1955 and describes what it was like for a 17-year-old coal miner's son to witness first-hand the awkward birth of the global phenomenon now known as the Champions League and his role in helping Hibernian reach the semi-finals. The former Scotland international relives his time playing alongside the Edinburgh club's legendary 'Famous Five' forward line, and reveals how it felt to line up against the incomparable Ferenc Puskas twice in the space of two days while in South Africa. Captain of the British Army team during his national service, a team-mate to Denis Law at Manchester City and the proud possessor of international caps from schoolboy to senior level, Jackie played an important part in football's past and, with typical good humour, he has plenty to say about its future.
Floyd Patterson delivered a number of knockout punches during his Hall of Fame career, but it might have been the fights he won beyond the boxing ring that made him great. Born in 1935, he overcame poverty and prejudice to become the youngest world heavyweight championship in history. He would later became the first man to regain the crown after losing it. Boxing legend Muhammad Ali called Patterson the most skillful fighter he ever faced.In the first biography of the former heavyweight, Alan Levy covers Patterson's meteoric rise as boxer while giving equal attention to the boxer's life away from sport, including Patterson's work as an activist for civil rights causes in the 1960s. Joining Ali and George Frazier as boxers who used their celebrity to bring attention to social issues, he became an icon of the movement.
"It's not every day that I'm blown away by a book about a sports
figure. But MICHAEL JORDAN: THE LIFE, by Roland Lazenby, ranks up
there with the very best: "The Boys of Summer" by Roger Kahn,
"Friday Night Lights" by Buzz Bissinger, and "Joe DiMaggio" by
Richard Ben Cramer. The depth of reporting, his frequent ascent
into poetry, and his intelligent analysis of the life of this
complicated, fascinating American icon deserve Pulitzer Prize
consideration. For the first time I understand what makes Michael
Jordan tick. I was captivated, fascinated and beguiled from
beginning to end." -- Peter Golenbock, "New York Times"-bestselling
author of "George" and "In the Country of Brooklyn"
South Africa has produced more great cricket all-rounders than any other country, and Jacques Kallis and 12 Other Great South African All-Rounders, a first on these remarkable players, is based on records, articles and interviews with living players as well as archival research of early players. Over a hundred years ago, there was Jimmy Sinclair, the first man to score a century and take six wickets in an innings in a test match. More recently was the brilliant era of Eddie Barlow, Tiger Lance, Mike Procter and Clive Rice, as well as Tony Greig and Basil D’Oliveira, South Africans who played for England. A great tradition was established for the modern era: since re-admission in 1992 there has been Brian McMillan, Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusener and, the greatest of them all, Jacques Kallis. Jacques Kallis and 12 Other Great South African All-Rounders is about the 13 men each of whom were worth two or three players in one, worth their place as batsmen or bowlers, adored by the fans, and capable of changing a game with either of their skills. With a readable mix of anecdotes, commentary and statistics, Jacques Kallis and 12 Other Great South African All-Rounders is the first book about these multitalented heroes of cricket. A very special feature of the book is the inclusion of the careers of four black allrounders who were unable to play for national teams because of their race.
Shortlisted - Cross British Sports Book Awards 2015. Grand Prize Winner - 2014 Banff Mountain Book Festival. 'The wall was the ambition, the style became the obsession.' In the autumn of 1982, a single stone fell from high on the south face of Annapurna and struck Alex MacIntyre on the head, killing him instantly and robbing the climbing world of one of its greatest talents. Although only twenty-eight years old, Alex was already one of the leading figures of British mountaineering's most successful era. His ascents included hard new routes on Himalayan giants like Dhaulagiri and Changabang and a glittering record of firsts in the Alps and Andes. Yet how Alex climbed was as important as what he climbed. He was a mountaineering prophet, sharing with a handful of contemporaries - including his climbing partner Voytek Kurtyka - the vision of a purer form of alpinism on the world's highest peaks. One Day As A Tiger, John Porter's revelatory and poignant memoir of his friend Alex MacIntyre, shows mountaineering at its extraordinary best and tragic worst - and draws an unforgettable picture of a dazzling, argumentative and exuberant legend.
In 1983, an unknown 23-year-old from Suffolk called Keith Deller took the darts world by storm, defying the odds and sporting conventions to become a most unlikely world champion. Deller was the diametric opposite of the beer-swigging, chain-smoking, paunch-bellied darts player fans were used to. He was slim, well-spoken, athletic and didn't smoke or drink. And he looked like a boy next to his flabby, middle-aged opponents. A TV audience of 10 million watched transfixed as this angelic newcomer beat world number-one Eric Bristow in the final. Almost overnight, Keith had breathed new life into a game whose traditions had been hewn in the nation's smoky pubs and clubs. Deller was a new breed of darts player whose appeal transcended this gritty working-class sport, piquing the interest of intellectuals such as Martin Amis and Stephen Fry. In 138, Keith takes the reader on an intimate journey as we relive his rapid rise from complete obscurity to lifting the game's greatest prize as one of the youngest world champions in history.
Born in Liverpool in 1975, Robbie Fowler became a club icon by the time he was eighteen. Now, he takes us through the games that have shaped his life and football philosophy, more than 25 years after he first signed as a professional. Engaging, personal and revealing, Robbie opens up about his astounding achievements, the price of fame and the regrets and struggles of being a professional footballer. From Hillsborough to Madrid, via the cup treble, that goal line celebration, Houllier, Benitez, Klopp and more, Robbie explains his thinking about the modern game. Inviting readers inside the dressing room, he shares stories of legendary teammates like Rush, McManaman and Gerrard, as well as his rise to football's top table. What inspired him to play the beautiful game? How did he get back up after the injuries that blighted his career? What gave him the drive to keep going and pursue his dreams? My Life in Football is the inspiring story of a local boy who became a legend.
Chris Bonington Mountaineer is a photographic autobiography, documenting over sixty years of climbing the world's most beautiful and challenging mountains. Few climbers can match Bonington's climbing achievements. He is one of the most accomplished and respected climbers in the world. In this 2016 revised edition, which features over 500 photographs, we are given a frank perspective into the surreal, majestic and occasionally tragic corners of his incredible mountaineering career. Whether in the Arctic, the jungle or on an 8,000-metre peak, Bonington's stunning photography and engaging conversational prose take us through the detail of daily life on expedition, the action of the climbing and the grandeur of the mountains. From his foundations - climbing in Snowdonia, the English Lake District, and the Highlands of Scotland - Bonington takes us to the Alps and on his expedition apprenticeship in 1960s Nepal. This quickly leads to trips to Patagonia, the Karakoram, the Amazon, Baffin Island and the River Nile, before the meat of his career on the big walls and 8,000-metre peaks of the Himalaya - with his leadership of the expeditions that made the first ascents of the south face of Annapurna in 1970 and the south-west face of Everest in 1975, and culminating in his own ascent of Everest in 1985. The greatest challenge and survival story of all is his first ascent and epic descent of The Ogre in Pakistan with Doug Scott. Bonington's undying hunger for adventure leads to later exploratory trips to Greenland, India and Morocco, and a return to the scene of one of his defining first ascents, the Old Man of Hoy, with world-class adventure climber Leo Houlding. The result is a penetrating insight into the motivations and fears of a driven climber who set out year after year from a life of comfort and success to test himself amongst the world's most savage mountains. Chris Bonington Mountaineer is a must for anyone with a passion for exploration, mountains or climbing.
The biography of one of the most controversial figures in sports: New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner For 34 years, he berated his players and tormented Yankees managers and employees. He played fast and loose with the rules, and twice could have gone to jail. He was banned from baseball for life--but was allowed back in the game. Yet George Steinbrenner also built the New York Yankees from a mediocre team into the greatest sports franchise in America. The Yankees won ten pennants and six World Series during his tenure. Now acclaimed sportswriter and "New York Times" bestselling author Peter Golenbock tells the fascinating story of ""The Boss,"" from his Midwestern childhood through his decades-long ownership of the Yankees-the longest in the team's history.Draws on more than a hundred interviews with those who have known George Steinbrenner throughout his life to tell the complete story of ""The Boss"" and his long tenure as owner of the New York YankeesGets inside Steinbrenner's countless manager hirings and firings, from Billy Martin to Joe Torre; the legendary feuds and hard feelings involving famous figures such as Yogi Berra and Dave Winfield; and the ever-spiraling players' salariesCovers the astute business deals that transformed the Yankees from a $10 million franchise into a powerhouse worth over $1 billion todayWritten by Peter Golenbock, one of the nation's best-known sports authors and the author of five "New York Times" bestsellers, including "Number 1" with Billy Martin and "The Bronx Zoo" with Sparky Lyle Packed with drama, insight, and fascinating front-office details, "George" is essential reading for baseball fans and anyone who loves a terrific story well told.
The best baseball book since Moneyball. |
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