Jean-Pierre Rives epitomised the French rugby tradition of flair coupled with guts and glory. He captained the team a record 34 times, gaining 59 caps in all, the first against England in 1975. He led France to the Grand Slam in 1981 and was inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame. After retiring, this most charismatic of flankers - his long blond hair stood out as he led by example, turned to sculpture and painting, hence the title of this book. He exhibits regularly at prominent public venues all over the world and was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor and the National Order of Merit by the government of France. He divides his time between the South of France and California. Before French rugby writer Richard Escot's persistence paid off and Rives told him, 'OK, come down to the atelier and we'll see what happens,' little was known about the former player - beyond, that is, what Jean-Pierre considers to be an extravagant reputation. Previously he had guarded his silence; now, in a series of eight conversations, Rives reveals himself to be a natural talker, prepared to provide an insight both into his unique character and what it is like to play rugby at the highest level.

At 710 pages, In the Ring With Jack Johnson - Part I: The Rise is the most detailed and thorough book ever written on Jack Johnson. This book alone (the first of two on Johnson) covers the start of Jack Johnson's career up to his winning the world heavyweight championship. It is chock-full of detailed descriptions of each bout from multiple local next-day primary sources. The book also contains plenty of context and background, details and perspectives about race from both white and black-owned newspapers, as well as approximately 225 rare photographs, cartoons, and advertisements. Boxing fans will obtain knowledge and insight into Jack Johnson's career like never before. This is the seventh book in Adam J. Pollack's series on the heavyweight champions of the gloved era, which include: John L. Sullivan: The Career of the First Gloved Heavyweight Champion, In the Ring With James J. Corbett, In the Ring With Bob Fitzsimmons, In the Ring With James J. Jeffries, In the Ring With Marvin Hart, and In the Ring With Tommy Burns. Adam J. Pollack is a boxing judge, referee, and coach, and member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He is also an attorney practicing law in Iowa City, Iowa.

In this first and only biography of light-heavyweight champion and boxing legend Joe Choynski, author Chris LaForce chronicles the life and career of a pioneer of the gloved era of pugilism. Joe Choynski was one of the greatest, most courageous, brilliant, and respected Jewish boxers in history. Born in San Francisco, California in 1868, Joe Choynski fought nearly all of the greatest heavyweights of that division s first Golden Age, despite weighing less than 170 pounds. He was one of the few who did not draw the color line. Included is a complete account of Joe s professional fights. Come follow Choynski s boxing career in such legendary matches as the battle on the Sacramento River barge with Gentleman Jim Corbett, his war with Bob Fitzsimmons, the classic brawls with Sailor Tom Sharkey, knockout of future heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, and his 20-round draw with soon-to-be heavyweight king Jim Jeffries. This book features over 180 photographs, many of them rare and published here, for the first time, anywhere The book includes a Foreword by Herbert G. Goldman, former Managing Editor of Ring magazine and Editor-in-Chief of Boxing Illustrated, and a testimonial by renowned boxing historian, Tracy Callis. Chris LaForce has been a member of IBRO (the International Boxing Research Organization) since 1984. He has written several articles for the IBRO newsletter, and is a contributing writer for the Cyber Boxing Zone, Western States Jewish History and other historical societies.

When author Steven P. Locke was a twelve-year-old boy growing up in Canal Winchester, Ohio, he witnessed something extraordinary-a championship football season, coached by his father Mike, that for a brief moment captivated a small Ohio town.

A combination memoir and sports history, "Little Locke and the Mighty Indians of 1975" chronicles the high school football team's winning year from the perspective of the coach's son. It paints a portrait of the town and its people as it was at the time-the way people lived, the music they listened to, the television shows they watched, their politics, and the mores of the time. It also focuses on the ten-game season-how football was practiced and played, the grueling nature of two-a- days, his father's coaching style, the growing attention paid to the team as each victory led to more pressure to succeed the following week, and the town that followed and cheered them on in summer heat, driving rain, bitter cold, and disappointment.

A snapshot of a town, its people, and their way of life in the second half of the twentieth century, "Little Locke and the Mighty Indians of 1975" provides a firsthand look into the sense of wonderment and excitement of the experience from the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy

It was a beautiful day. There was fresh powder on the mountain because it had snowed the night before. Olympic hopeful Aubrie Mindock and her brother Austin were out flying down the mountain when all of a sudden Aubrie took a fall. She was thrown in the air like a rag doll. Her ski pole stabbed her in the lung, causing ribs to break and her to stop breathing. Seconds felt like hours and Aubrie laid motionless on the snow, fighting for air. Finally she was able to take her first breath but she was still not out of the woods. Aubrie's right knee was crushed, making it hard to get to safety. Find out how Aubrie saves her life and gets back up to the sport that she almost lost.

"A thrilling, cinematic story. I loved every minute I spent with these bold, daring women whose remarkable journey is the stuff of American legend." --Karen Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy The Boys in the Boat meets A League of Their Own in this true story of a Depression-era championship women's team. In the early 1930s, during the worst drought and financial depression in American history, Sam Babb began to dream. Like so many others, this charismatic Midwestern basketball coach wanted a reason to have hope. Traveling from farm to farm near the tiny Oklahoma college where he coached, Babb recruited talented, hardworking young women and offered them a chance at a better life: a free college education in exchange for playing on his basketball team, the Cardinals. Despite their fears of leaving home and the sacrifices that their families would face, the women joined the team. And as Babb coached the Cardinals, something extraordinary happened. These remarkable athletes found a passion for the game and a heartfelt loyalty to one another and their coach--and they began to win. Combining exhilarating sports writing and exceptional storytelling, Dust Bowl Girls takes readers on the Cardinals' intense, improbable journey all the way to an epic showdown with the prevailing national champions, helmed by the legendary Babe Didrikson. Lydia Reeder captures a moment in history when female athletes faced intense scrutiny from influential figures in politics, education, and medicine who denounced women's sports as unhealthy and unladylike. At a time when a struggling nation was hungry for inspiration, this unlikely group of trailblazers achieved much more than a championship season.

This is a trilogy about three separate epic climbs. Climbs that are difficult enough by themselves, but were made more grueling by the common thread of life-threatening heat. The insidious sun sucking energy, water, and even your willpower from a well-conditioned man made the hard climbs a more arduous task. Included in these stories are many other true-to-life adventures and narrow escapes for the author. Three Days of the Condor talks about camaraderie and the accomplishment of doing something difficult that few could accomplish. According to Jeff Lowe, "There is a certain purity in engaging in what some would call a useless activity. When the climber confronts the overhang, he does so with the knowledge that no material gain will result from the competition of the task. He is confident that when he is done, the satisfaction will outweigh the effort." I have always returned to the mountains for introspection. It must be at least partially genetic for man to seek the "high ground," for protection, exploration, or an attempt at communion with a higher power. Occasionally, the only reason is "because it's there," but even Mallory expanded on this when he explained, "It is the struggle of life itself, forever upward. What we get from this adventure is sheer joy." But if we can look down on ourselves from above, from the proverbial mountaintop, often we may be more objective-if not more rational. The ensuing vignettes recount the pursuit of my pilgrimage, my coming-of-age. It seemed like my endeavor for the exceptional view, and my own independence-truly a phenomenal golden period in my life. I learned how I felt about my own survival when on many of those summits. In these stories I strive to return to those times and mountains, in search of truth on the rocky temples. This is the visionary perspective I seek. These accounts of rock climbing are more than about climbing rocks-it is about that one thing in life that truly sets you free.

Mountaintops have long been seen as sacred places, home to gods and dreams. In one climbing year Peter Boardman visited three very different sacred mountains. He began in the New Year, on the South Face of the Carstensz Pyramid in New Guinea. This shark's fin of steep limestone walls and sweeping glaciers is the highest point between the Andes and the Himalaya, and one of the most inaccessible, rising above thick jungle inhabited by warring Stone Age tribes. During the spring Boardman was on more familiar, if hardly more reassuring, ground, making a four-man, oxygen-free attempt on the world's third highest peak, Kangchenjunga. Hurricane-force winds beat back their first two bids on the unclimbed North Ridge, but they eventually stood within feet of the summit - leaving the final few yards untrodden in deference to the inhabiting deity. In October, he was back in the Himalaya and climbing the mountain most sacred to the Sherpas: the twin-summited Gauri Sankar. Renowned for its technical difficulty and spectacular profile, it is aptly dubbed the Eiger of the Himalaya and Boardman's first ascent of the South Summit took a committing and gruelling twenty-three days. Three sacred mountains, three very different expeditions, all superbly captured by Boardman in Sacred Summits, his second book, first published shortly after his death in 1982. Combining the excitement of extreme climbing with acute observation of life in the mountains, this is an amusing, dramatic, poignant and thought-provoking book, amply fulfilling the promise of Boardman's first title, The Shining Mountain, for which he won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1979.

The Power of "TEAM" is the true life story of Nancy Fudacz-Burrows, Joel Burrows, David Kuhnau and their two year quest to become international team champions in one of the most grueling endurance races on earth. Carrying survival gear, clothing and food on their backs, competitors in each of these 150 mile foot races faced four separate deserts on four different continents. Each race in the series challenged each competitor with the equivalent of four marathons in four days, with one brutal stage set at 50 or more miles. In total 150 miles, running across sand and rock, climbing dunes and mountains with almost 30 pounds of equipment in tow. The Power of "TEAM" describes the life and near-death journey some of the world's best athletes faced in the extreme heat and cold of the desert. The altitude and temperature swings of the Atacama Desert in Chile, the varying terrain of China's Gobi Desert and the constant 120 degree temperatures of the Sahara, forced each runner to redefine the definition of mental and physical "limits." The final reward for conquering these three desert challenges, was an invitation to "The Last Desert" in Antarctica. Nancy-Fudacz-Burrows, Joel Burrows and David Kuhnau of "Team Illinois" emerged as champions of the "4 Deserts" series, but even stronger teammates and friends. Read how their lessons learned, can be your inspiration.

Jan Ullrich: The Best There Never Was is the first biography of Jan Ullrich, arguably the most naturally talented cyclist of his generation, and also one of the most controversial champions of the Tour de France. In 1997, Jan Ullrich announced himself to the world by obliterating his rivals in the first mountain stage of the Tour de France. So awesome was his display that it sent shockwaves throughout the world of cycling and invited headlines such as L'Equipe's 'The New Giant'. He went on to become Germany's first ever Tour winner, storming to victory in that edition by almost ten minutes, a result that was greeted as an era-defining changing of the guard. Everyone agreed: Jan Ullrich was the future of cycling. He was soon also voted Germany's most popular sportsperson of all time, and his rivalry with Lance Armstrong defined the most controversial years of the Tour de France. Now, Daniel Friebe - who has covered twenty-one editions of the Tour de France - has gone in search of the man who was said in 1997 would go on to dominate his sport for a generation, but never quite managed it. Just what did happen to the best who never was? This is a gripping account of how unbearable expectation, mental and physical fragility, the effects of a complicated childhood, a morally corrupt sport and one individual - Lance Armstrong - can conspire to reroute destiny. Daniel Friebe takes us from the legacy of East Germany's drugs programme to the pinnacle of pro cycling and asks: what price can you give sporting immortality?

"From Sports Fan to Sportscaster" is written as if told to you over dinner. The stories are first-hand accounts of working as a Sportscaster at various sporting events. You will feel what it is like to be in the winning clubhouse of a playoff baseball team. You will learn what goes on when covering a sport and how headlines are made. For the sports fan who always dreamed of meeting athletes, announcing the big game or hosting a radio show...allow the author to show you what it would be like.

I had no money, could get no floats, my navigation was uncertain, plane inadequate. A true story filled with danger, adventure and achievement, Alone Over The Tasman Sea is Sir Francis Chichester's telling of his 1931 seaplane solo-flight over the Tasman Sea from New Zealand to Australia - the first of its kind. Told with dry wit and humour, Chichester recounts his perilous journey across uncharted sea and between remote islands, and how he overcame the many obstacles along the way. During an era when flight was still in its dangerous infancy, Chichester's pure reliance on his friends Instinct and Reason make this a fascinating tale of risk-taking, perseverance and courage.

f you've had more obstacles than breaks in your life or if your best efforts seem like they will never be enough, Cynthia Cooper knows where you've been.

Long before she led the WNBA's Houston Comets to two consecutive championships and twice won the ESPY Award for Women's Pro Basketball player of the year, Cynthia faced a life of poverty and frustration, hungering for dreams that seemed way out of reach. Now she tells her story - a personal odyssey of inspiration, perspiration, and hope...She Got Game

A shy, quiet girl, Cynthia grew up in the Watts section of Los Angeles, unsure of herself and what she wanted. Her only role model was her courageous, determined mother, who was raising eight children by herself, working two jobs, and facing one hardship after another. When Cynthia discovered basketball at age fifteen, she found the skill and the purpose that would bring her a college scholarship to USC, make her a two-time NCAA champion - and teach her how to deal with her fears and insecurities both on and off the court. But it wasn't easy. Cynthia dropped out of school, was forced to cope with her brother's death, and often found herself still playing in the shadows of others.

Then, during eleven years on the grueling European professional basketball circuit, she refined her strengths while adapting to a whole new culture. And now, as the premier player of the Houston Comets, she has learned how to handle the stresses - and joys - of leadership. When her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, Cynthia discovered the day-to-day courage needed to help her mother battle the most formidable of opponents. And all of her experiences inspired her to go beyond sports and reach out to young people - she has been hailed as one of today's most stirring motivational speakers.

This is the biography of an underdog, of a girl who started way behind everybody else but who kept working, striving, clinging, and hanging on to her dream. With the "never, ever quit" spirit of Cynthia herself, She Got Game not only shares her deeply personal journey, but helps you to draw on your own energy and deepest desires to win in the ultimate game of life.

SHE GOT GAME was written by Cynthia Cooper with Russ Pate, a freelance writer and author of numerous books. He lives in Dallas, Texas.

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FROM THE WINNINGEST COACH IN NCAA DIVISION I HISTORY, A GUIDE TO PRACTICING PERFECT AND PLAYING FOR FUN
While the statistics speak for themselves, Augie Garrido, the legendary baseball coach, is far from a "win-at-all-costs" leader. Rather, he focuses on building men of quality, teaching that lessons learned on the diamond can be applied to any facet of life. "Life Is Yours to Win "offers a refreshing approach to seizing life's opportunities and understanding that trophies are not the true goal. Garrido's advice includes:
- BE A PLAYER, NOT A PROSPECT--Garrido once used a game of catch with his Labrador retriever to show a team playing without heart the character it takes to be fully engaged as a ballplayer.
- STEP UP, SUPERMAN--Garrido stages a costumed Superhero Scrimmage each Halloween to remind his players that their inner superhero is just waiting to be realized.
- THE FEARLESS FIELD--Master fear and other emotions so that they don't paralyze you. Renting a hearse and placing a casket on the pitcher's mound helped a slumping Cal State team "bury" their fears and put past losses behind them.
- BUDDHA AT BAT--Small ball is not glorified like the home run, but the bunt does advance the runners and puts runs on the board. Small successes add up to big victories on and off the field.
Garrido's coaching methods are often unconventional, but as seen in "Life Is Yours to Win, "his creativity and wry humor always lead to unforgettable lessons.