![]() |
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
||
|
Books > Language & Literature > Biography & autobiography > Sport
One of the most talked-about and bestselling books of last year, this is the no-holds-barred autobiography of a sporting legend driven to the brink of self-destruction The bestseller that has everyone talking. In this, his first, autobiography, 'Iron' Mike Tyson pulls no punches and lays bare the story of his remarkable life and career. Co-written with Larry Sloman, author of Antony Keidis's best-selling memoir 'Scar Tissue', this is a visceral, and unputdown-able story of a man born and raised to brutality, who reached the heights of stardom before falling to crime, substance abuse and infamy. Full of all the controversy and complexity that you would expect from a man who delighted as much as he shocked, this is a book that will surprise and reveals a fascinating character beneath the exterior of violence. If you think you know all about Mike Tyson, read this book and think again.
When he set out to play each of Golf Digest’s America’s100 greatest
golf courses in one year, Jimmie James knew he was attempting the
impossible. But then again, he’d spent his entire life defying the odds.
In this "must-read for anyone concerned with race, sports, and politics in America" (William C. Rhoden, New York Times bestselling author), the inspirational and largely unknown true story of the eighteen African American athletes who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, defying the racism of both Nazi Germany and the Jim Crow South. Set against the turbulent backdrop of a segregated United States, sixteen Black men and two Black women are torn between boycotting the Olympic Games in Nazi Germany or participating. If they go, they would represent a country that considered them second-class citizens and would compete amid a strong undercurrent of Aryan superiority that considered them inferior. Yet, if they stayed, would they ever have a chance to prove them wrong on a global stage? Five athletes, full of discipline and heart, guide you through this harrowing and inspiring journey. There's a young and feisty Tidye Pickett from Chicago, whose lithe speed makes her the first African American woman to compete in the Olympic Games; a quiet Louise Stokes from Malden, Massachusetts, who breaks records across the Northeast with humble beginnings training on railroad tracks. We find Mack Robinson in Pasadena, California, setting an example for his younger brother, Jackie Robinson; and the unlikely competitor Archie Williams, a lanky book-smart teen in Oakland takes home a gold medal. Then there's Ralph Metcalfe, born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, who becomes the wise and fierce big brother of the group. From burning crosses set on the Robinsons's lawn to a Pennsylvania small town on fire with praise and parades when the athletes return from Berlin, Olympic Pride, American Prejudice has "done the world a favor by bringing into the sunlight the unknown story of eighteen black Olympians who should never be forgotten. This book is both beautiful and wrenching, and essential to understanding the rich history of African American athletes" (Kevin Merida, editor-in-chief of ESPN's The Undefeated).
An inspiring and innovative guide towards living your best life - made
easy - from Venus Williams, one of the greatest tennis players of all
time.
David Beckham is an English soccer player whose popularity extends beyond the field and into international celebrity. He has played for some of the best clubs in the world, including Manchester United, Real Madrid, and AC Milan, and is known worldwide for his free kick expertise and spectacular long-range shots. His singular dedication to becoming a renowned soccer player has been an inspiration to teammates and fans alike. In The Life and Career of David Beckham: Football Legend, Cultural Icon, Tracey Savell Reavis delivers an up-to-date and refreshing look at one of soccer s most-recognized athletes. Drawing on extensive research and in-depth interviews, Reavis brings an outside perspective to Beckham s life in order to reveal his profound impact on the sport in the United States and worldwide. From his birth in Leytonstone, London and his celebrated playing career to his role in bringing the 2012 Olympic Games to London and his retirement from soccer in 2013, Reavis examines the influences that shaped Beckham into the legend he is today. Featuring photographs and original interviews, this book illuminates Beckham s status as a soccer star, husband, father, fashion icon, and cultural phenomenon. The first biography since his retirement, The Life and Career of David Beckham will not only appeal to soccer fans, but also to anyone who wants to know more about this international icon."
'A book that'll change your perspective on life. You'll not be able to put it down.' Fearne Cotton 'Everyone should read this book. Sophie Morgan is the epitome of grit and determination. Her writing is thought provoking, honest and in parts hilarious.' Katie Piper OBE 'Wrenchingly honest...eye-opening and deeply moving. *****' Mail on Sunday As seen on 'Living Wild; How to Change your Life' a two-part prime-time series on Channel 4, Loose Women and The Great Celebrity Bake Off for SU2C On the precipice of starting her adult life, aged eighteen, Sophie, a rebellious and incorrigible wild child, crashed her car and was instantly paralysed from the chest down. Rushed to hospital, everything she had dreamed for her life was instantly forgotten and her journey to rediscover herself and build a different life began. But being told she would never walk again would come to be the least of her concerns. Over the next eighteen years, as she strived to come to terms with the change in her body, her relationships were put to the test; she has had to learn to cope with the many unexpected and unpredictable setbacks of living with paralysis; she has had to overcome her own and other people's perceptions of disability and explore the limits of her abilities, all whilst searching for love, acceptance, meaning, identity, and purpose. Driving Forwards is a remarkable and powerful memoir, detailing Sophie's life-changing injury, her recovery, and her life since. Strikingly honest, her story is unusual and yet relatable, inspiring us to see how adversity can be channelled into opportunity and how ongoing resilience can ultimately lead to empowerment. 'Raw, life affirming and gorgeously written - this book is filled with extraordinary honesty, courage and warmth. Sophie's words will make us all braver and more hopeful.' Daisy Buchanan 'A truly astonishing read about the power of never giving up.' Sun 'F***king hell!! This book is absolutely brilliant . . . One of the best memoirs I've ever read. Honest and so blooming human, it's fantastic.' Kathy Burke
'One day you'll write a book about this club. Or, more to the point, about me. So you may as well know what I'm thinking and save it up for later when it won't do any harm to anyone.' Brian Clough's twenty years as Nottingham Forest manager were an unpredictable mixture of success, failure, fall-outs and alcoholism. Duncan Hamilton, initiated as a young journalist into the Brian Clough empire, was there to see it all. In this strikingly intimate biography - William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2007 - Hamilton paints a vivid portrait of one of football's greatest managers: from Nottingham Forest's double European Cup triumph to the torturous breakdown of relations at the club and Clough's descent into alcoholism. Sad, joyous and personal, Hamilton's account of life with Brian Clough is a touching tribute to a brilliant man.
This first biography of four-time all-star Al Rosen covers the career of perhaps the best player on the fabulous Cleveland Indians' teams of the 1950s. From 1951 to 1956, the Tribe won one American League pennant (1954) and finished second to New York the other five seasons. Rosen was selected as the League's Most Valuable Player in 1953, the last Indians' player to be so honored. He led the League in home runs (43) and RBI (145). Washington's Mickey Vernon edged Rosen by a single percentage point (.337 to .336) for the league batting championship. His play between the white lines was not the only place where Rosen left his mark on the game. He spent 14 seasons as a President/General Manager for the New York Yankees (1978-1979), Houston Astros (1981-1985) and the San Francisco Giants (1986-1992). Under his guidance, those teams won two pennants and one world championship. Rosen is the only person in Major League Baseball history (since 2020) to win an MVP award as a player and to be recognized as Executive of the Year by The Sporting News (1987).
All Together Now is one of the great sports stories. It's about a group of football fans who were determined to right a wrong. The authorities said they shouldn't try. People in football said it couldn't be done. Robbed of their beloved club, Wimbledon FC, they started again. They had absolutely nothing - no experience of running a club, no players, no manager, nowhere to play. But within nine years they re-formed their team as AFC Wimbledon, rebuilt its community work, won six promotions and fought their way back into the top tiers of the game. En route, they broke records, changed the rules of football and were the subject of Prime Minister's Questions. And now they're back in their spiritual home, Wimbledon, in a brand new stadium. For most of this time Erik Samuelson was finance director and then CEO of the club. He tells the extraordinary inside story of how the most undervalued people in football - the fans - defied the odds to take their club back to the Football League and return home.
Casual observers of the Welsh boxing scene might well think that the best practitioners of the sport have all hailed from the valleys and coastal cities of the south. But the rural counties have contributed their share to the nation's fistic history. In the high-profile heavyweight division alone, the area covered by this book has produced two British champions and another who contested the title. Others have worn and challenged for Lonsdale Belts at lower weights. The first British boxer ever to win a medal at the world amateur championships can be found between these covers, along with the incredible youngster who was ranked in the world's top 10 by the American Ring magazine when he was just 16 years old. This volume, packed with photographs - many published for the first time - profiles more than 50 boxers from the bare-knuckle era to stars of the present and future. It is a must-read for any fight fan, whether from Wales or further afield.
On 25 March 1876, the Football Association of Wales played its inaugural match, against Scotland in Glasgow. On that day 11 intrepid footballers became the first of over 700 players to proudly represent the senior men's team of the world's third oldest football nation. Sons of Cambria is the first volume of a landmark three-part collection that will feature every footballer capped for Wales' senior men's team since 1876 and is the essential reference guide for all followers of Welsh international football. Listed in the order in which they won their caps, every player has for the first time been assigned their unique player number, with Volume I containing biographical listings of the 374 players capped between 1876 and 1939 (as well as the 30 players who represented Wales in uncapped war-time matches) including photographs of almost all the players. In addition to the players, Sons of Cambria also lists every international match (capped and uncapped) played between 1876 and 1946, and includes team photographs from 38 of those games. Packed with incredible stories, fascinating facts and hundreds of photos, Sons of Cambria is a book all Welsh football fans will treasure.
Eddie Plank won 326 games and has the most complete games and shutouts by a left-handed pitcher in Major League history. But how much do we know about the hurler best known as "Gettysburg Eddie" in his playing days? And what of him that we do know is factual? This biography of Plank sorts out the truth and the myths--and everything in between--as he made his way from a college team in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, all the way to the Hall of Fame, 20 years after his death. Along the way, readers will discover what made Plank so great, the secrets behind his famous crossfire delivery, and more.
In his day, perhaps no one in baseball was better known than Irish-born Timothy Paul "Ted" Sullivan. For 50 years, America's sportswriters sang his praises, genuflected to his genius and bought his blarney by the barrel. Damon Runyon dubbed him "The Celebrated Carpetbagger of Baseball." Cunning, fast-talking, witty and sober, Sullivan was the game's first player agent, a groundbreaking scout who pulled future Hall of Famers from the bushes, an author, a playwright and a baseball evangelist who promoted the game across five continents. He coined the term "fan" and was among the first to suggest the designated hitter-because pitchers were "a lot of whippoorwill swingers." But he was also a convert to the Jim Crow attitudes of his day-black ballplayers were unimaginable to him. Unearthing thousands of contemporaneous newspaper accounts, this first exhaustive biography of "Hustlin'" Ted Sullivan recounts the life and career of one of the greatest hucksters in the history of the game.
Amos Alonzo Stagg (1862-1965) grew up one of eight children in a poor New Jersey family, graduated high school at 21 and worked his way through Yale. His goal was to become a Presbyterian minister, but he dropped out of Yale Divinity School because he felt he could have more influence on young men through coaching. He was hired as the first football coach at University of Chicago after its founding in 1892. Under Stagg's leadership, Chicago emerged as one of the nation's most formidable football teams during the early 20th century, winning seven Big Ten championships and two national championships. After Chicago forced him to retire at 70, Stagg found another coaching position at College of the Pacific, where he was forced to retire at 84. He found another job and never fully retired from coaching until he was 98. His marriage to his wife to Stella -his de facto assistant coach-lasted almost 70 years. Sports Illustrated wrote of him, "If any single individual can be said to have created today's game, Stagg is the man. He either invented outright or pioneered every aspect of the modern game from...the huddle, shift and tackling dummy to such refinements as the T-formation strategy." This biography tells the story of his life and many innovations, which made him one of the great pioneers of college football.
55 Olympic medals. 6 Tour de France victories. Countless world records and world championship victories. Since the year 2000, British Cycling, Team Sky and INEOS have dominated the sport of cycling to an unprecedented degree. But at what cost? Did Sir David Brailsford, Peter Keen and the other brains behind British Cycling's massive and sudden dominance in the modern era find a winning "Moneyball" formula? Or did their success come down to luck and personal chemistry? Did this organisation, founded on relentless, ruthless efficiency contain contradictions which threatened to overwhelm it, amid accusations of drug-taking, bullying and sexism? The Medal Factory tells the full story from amateurish beginnings through a sports-science revolution to an all-conquering, yet flawed, machine. Through interviews with Brailsford and Keen, Shane Sutton, Fran Millar, Chris Boardman, Sir Chris Hoy and many other key players, Kenny Pryde interrogates the parts of the story - lottery funding, marginal gains - that we think we know, and reveals others that have remained hidden, until now.
The shocking true story of Aaron Hernandez – a sports star, his deadly crimes and his explosive trials. Aaron Hernandez was a college football All-American who became the youngest player in the NFL and later reached the Super Bowl. He was a star on the league-dominant New England Patriots, who extended his contract for a record $40 million. Hernandez’s every move as a professional athlete played out in the headlines, yet he led a secret life – one that ended in a maximum-security prison. What drove him to go so wrong, so fast? Hernandez was the best athlete Connecticut’s Bristol Central High had ever produced. But by the time he arrived at University of Florida, he was already courting trouble. As his fame grew and he joined the NFL, trouble followed him. Between the summers of 2012 and 2013, Hernandez was linked to a series of violent incidents culminating in the death of Odin Lloyd, a semi-pro American football player who dated the sister of Hernandez’s fiancée. The Patriot is the first book to fully investigate the shocking story of Aaron Hernandez – from his meteoric rise in the world of American football to his first-degree murder conviction and the mystery of his own untimely death. Drawing on original, in-depth reporting, this is an explosive account of a life cut short in the dark shadow of fame.
Jonathan Trott was England's rock during one of the most successful periods in the team's history - he scored a century on debut to clinch the Ashes in 2009, and cemented his position as their pivotal batsman up to and beyond the team's ascendancy to the number 1 ranked test team in 2011. Yet shortly after reaching those heights, he started to crumble, and famously left the 2012-13 Ashes tour of Australia suffering from a stress related illness. His story is the story of Team England - it encompasses the life-cycle of a team that started out united by ambition, went on to achieve some of the greatest days in the team's history but then, bodies and minds broken, fell apart amid acrimony. Having seen all of this from the inside, Jonathan's autobiography takes readers to the heart of the England dressing room, and to the heart of what it is to be a professional sportsman. Not only does it provide a unique perspective on a remarkably successful period in English cricket and its subsequent reversal, it also offers a fascinating insight into the rewards and risks faced as a sportsman carrying the hope and expectation of a team and a nation. And it's a salutary tale of the dangers pressure can bring in any walk of life, and the perils of piling unrealistic expecations on yourself.
Bart Starr was the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers from 1956 to 1971, the most meaningful and successful era of one of football's most storied franchises. Starr was named MVP of the first two Super Bowls and to the Pro Bowl four times. He threw for more than 24,000 yards in his career and holds the Packer record for most games played. But the awards and impressive statistics are not what fans remember most about Bart Starr. As his legendary coach, Vince Lombardi, once said, "Bart Starr stands for what the game of football stands for: courage, stamina and coordinated efficiency. You instill desire by creating a superlative example. The noblest form of leadership is by example and that is what Bart Starr is about." Bart Starr: When Leadership Mattered shows with clarity and stunning insight just how true Lombardi's compliment was. Drafted in the seventeenth round out of the University of Alabama after a checkered collegiate career, Starr was just hoping to catch the eye of an NFL team. As the 199th selection in the 1956 draft, his expectations and those of the team and fans were limited. But Bart Starr rose above everyone's expectations to will his way to the starting job, aided by the encouragement of Lombardi, who became Packer head coach in 1959. This book reveals all the details of Starr's improbable rise to stardom. It explores his relationship with Lombardi and his guidance of the Packers from a downtrodden franchise to five-time World Champions to two-time Super Bowl winners. His epic battles with rivals such as the Bears and Lions and the famous Ice Bowl are also recalled in unforgettable fashion. But most of all, Bart Starr: When Leadership Mattered is about a modestly talented football player who with uncommon intelligence, grit, and leadership elevated his play and that of his teammates. The Packers would not have been the Packers without Bart Starr.
In this thrilling and candid memoir, world record-holding and controversial Big Wave surfer Garrett McNamara chronicles his emotional quest to ride the most formidable waves on earth. Garrett McNamara-affectionately known as GMac-set the world record for the sport, surfing a seventy-eight-foot wave in Nazare, Portugal in 2011, a record he smashed two years later at the same break. Propelled by the challenge and promise of bigger, more difficult waves, this adrenaline-fueled loner and polarizing figure travels the globe to ride the most dangerous swells the oceans have to offer, from calving glaciers to hurricane swells. But what motivates McNamara to go to such extremes-to risk everything for one thrilling ride? Is riding giant waves the ultimate exercise in control or surrender? Personal and emotional, readers will know GMac as never before, seeing for the first time the personal alongside the professional in an exciting, intimate look at what drives this inventive, iconoclastic man. Surfing awesome giants isn't just thrill seeking, he explains-it's about vanquishing fears and defeating obstacles past and present. Surfers and non-surfers alike will embrace McNamara's story-as they have William Finnegan's Barbarian Days-an its intimate look at the enigmatic pursuit of riding waves, big and small. Hound of the Sea is a record of perseverance, passion, and healing. Thoughtful, suspenseful, and spiritually profound, McNamara reveals the beautiful soul of surfing through the eyes of one of its most daring and devoted disciples.
From legendary wrestling announcer Jim Ross, this candid, colorful memoir about the inner workings of the WWE and the personal crises he weathered at the height of his career is "a must-read for wrestling fans" (Charleston Post Courier). If you've caught a televised wrestling match anytime in the past thirty years, you've probably heard Jim Ross's throaty Oklahoma twang. The beloved longtime announcer of the WWE "has been a driving force behind a generation of wrestling fans" (Mark Cuban), and he's not slowing down, having signed on as the announcer of the starry new wrestling venture All Elite Wrestling. In this follow-up to his bestselling memoir Slobberknocker, he dishes out about not only his long career, which includes nurturing global stars like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, and John Cena, but also about his challenges of aging and disability, his split from collaborator Vince McMahon, and the sudden death of his beloved wife, Jan. The result is a gruff, endearing, and remarkably human-scale portrait, set against the larger than life backdrop of professional wrestling. Ross's ascent in WWE mirrors the rise of professional wrestling itself from a DIY sideshow to a billion-dollar business. Under the Black Hat traces all the highs and lows of that wild ride, in which Jim served not only as on-air commentator, but talent manager, payroll master, and even occasional in-ring foil to threats like Paul "Triple H" Levesque and Undertaker. While his role brought him riches and exposure he had never dreamed of, he chafed against the strictures of a fickle corporate culture and what he saw as a narrow vision of what makes great wrestlers-and great story lines. When suddenly stricken with Bell's palsy, a form of facial paralysis that makes it impossible to smile, he started down his greatest fear-being cast out of the announcing booth for good. Picking up where Slobberknocker left off and ending on the cusp of a new career in a reimagined industry, Under the Black Hat is the triumphant tale of a country boy who made it to the top, took a few knocks, and stuck around-just where his fans like him. Not only being one of the greatest wrestlers of the WWE, Ross is also "a master storyteller, and this book is the perfect forum for his forty years' worth of tales" (Chris Jericho, former WWE champion).
Following an extraordinary debut--17th place in 1911 Boston Marathon--Penobscot Indian Andrew Sockalexis returned to run a spectacular Boston Marathon on muddy, rainy course on April 19, 1912. Only 20 years old, running just his third marathon ever, he came in second and narrowly missed breaking the record time for that course. That same year he became the first Native American to compete in the Olympics, returning to his home of Indian Island, Maine, a champion. Ed Rice chronicles the tragically short life of Sockalexis--he died at the age of 27 from what was likely tuberculosi--focusing on his running and the races that earned him recognition from the sports community and made him revered at home. Mike Ryan, who beat Sockalexis in that 1912 Boston Marathon, had this to say about his rival: "He is a wonder, and when he gains a little more experience he will be a tough one to beat."
As a young girl, Sylvia Hatchell longed to play little league baseball and, later, high-school basketball, but both were closed to her because she was a girl. In college, her world shifted when she discovered a passion for coaching that would lead her to become a Naismith Hall of Fame coach of women's basketball at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In this book, Coach Hatchell's life story unfolds against the backdrop of Title IX and women's struggle for equal opportunities in athletics. She celebrates triumphs (such as winning the 1994 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament) and weathers sadness and failure (such as the loss of her parents, surviving cancer, and being forced to resign from her dream job in 2019).
A story about running away, crashing through and hitting my stride When the whole world seems set against you, how you keep the negative voice out of your head? Candice Warner knows all about the damaging consequences of living life in front of the cameras and has learned a lot about how to insulate from the worst of public life - for herself, as a wife and partner, and as a mother. Growing up with, competing in and living among some of the most abrasive environments, Candice has had her integrity attacked, her worth questioned, and her decisions, body and mind judged. But she has never been stronger or more determined to forge the space she and her family need to be safe, and to live a life filled with love, purpose, ambition and optimism. Candid, raw and uplifting, Candice tells it straight - about the ugly, bruising pivotal moments that almost broke her, to the extraordinary turning points that buoyed her ... and the saving grace of the transformative, regenerative power of running. From her beginnings as Australia's youngest Ironwoman and the joys and heartbreak of elite sport, to being publicly shamed as a woman, and her crucial role in Australia's most successful and highest profile partnership, Running Strong is Candice's story - about climbing back from rock bottom, the power of creating precious sanctuary for yourself and protecting the people closest to you. |
You may like...
Methods in Karst Hydrogeology - IAH…
Nico Goldscheider, David Drew
Hardcover
R6,762
Discovery Miles 67 620
|