As soon as heavyweight boxer Joe Louis became a public figure in the 1930s, journalists and other social commentators began speculating about the significance of an African American man garnering popularity in a racially segregated society. Both during his lifetime and afterward, Louis noteriety extended beyond the world of sports to American popular culture. Many falsely heralded the boxer 's popularity as a sign that American racism was in sharp decline, Louis heroic status, however, did not fully reflect the complicated racial dynamics either within the sports world or in America, in general.

In Joe Louis: Sports and Race in the Twentieth Century, Marcy Sacks gives an account of the life of a man famous both for his sports career and for his race. With excerpts from newspaper clippings, radio broadcasts, poetry, and interviews, Sacks contextualizes Louis life and the legacy he left behind.

A brilliant, funny and insightful analysis of Paul Gascoigne's crazy up and downs during his three years at Lazio - a period which shows his entire career in microcosm. 4th July, 1990. Turin, Italy England are on the brink of reaching their first World Cup final in 24 years. Twenty-three-year old Paul Gascoigne has been one of the breakout stars of the tournament. His athleticism, speed of thought and incredible natural gifts have given England fans renewed faith in their perennially underachieving national side. Then in the 99th minute of a tense semi-final against Germany, Gascoigne lunges into a mistimed tackle. The ref awards him his second yellow card of the tournament, meaning that if England were to win, he would miss the final. Gascoigne turns away, tries to hold it together, but can't. Floods of tears run down his face. We understand. We feel his pain and anguish. The legend of Gazza is born. Two years later, after an injury-stricken season at Spurs, he arrives at Lazio for a then record transfer fee. Expectations are sky high; he is welcomed as a footballing Messiah by the Roman fans. But all is not what it seems. There are doubts over his fitness, doubts over how he will adjust to life in Italy, doubts over whether his obvious potential can finally be achieved. The three subsequent years in Italy, shot through with incredible highs and self-inflicted lows, show Gascoigne in all his complexity - an immense natural talent flawed by a too-fragile personality. In Gazza in Italy, award-winning writer Daniel Storey brilliantly shines a light on an unexamined moment in Gascoigne's career that encapsulates everything that we have come to associate with this most mercurial of talents: childish joy, public gaffes, wondrous skill and saddening self-destruction. Funny and harrowing in equal measure, this book allows us a better, more rounded understanding of one of our greatest sporting idols, and of a tragically misunderstood human being.

Instant New York Times Bestseller "Buzz Bissinger's Friday Night Lights is an American classic. With The Mosquito Bowl, he is back with a true story even more colorful and profound. This book too is destined to become a classic. I devoured it." - John Grisham An extraordinary, untold story of the Second World War in the vein of Unbroken and The Boys in the Boat, from the author of Friday Night Lights and Three Nights in August. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, college football was at the height of its popularity. As the nation geared up for total war, one branch of the service dominated the aspirations of college football stars: the United States Marine Corps. Which is why, on Christmas Eve of 1944, when the 4th and 29th Marine regiments found themselves in the middle of the Pacific Ocean training for what would be the bloodiest battle of the war - the invasion of Okinawa-their ranks included one of the greatest pools of football talent ever assembled: Former All Americans, captains from Wisconsin and Brown and Notre Dame, and nearly twenty men who were either drafted or would ultimately play in the NFL. When the trash-talking between the 4th and 29th over who had the better football team reached a fever pitch, it was decided: The two regiments would play each other in a football game as close to the real thing as you could get in the dirt and coral of Guadalcanal. The bruising and bloody game that followed became known as "The Mosquito Bowl." Within a matter of months, 15 of the 65 players in "The Mosquito Bowl" would be killed at Okinawa, by far the largest number of American athletes ever to die in a single battle. The Mosquito Bowl is the story of these brave and beautiful young men, those who survived and those who did not. It is the story of the families and the landscape that shaped them. It is a story of a far more innocent time in both college athletics and the life of the country, and of the loss of that innocence. Writing with the style and rigor that won him a Pulitzer Prize and have made several of his books modern classics, Buzz Bissinger takes us from the playing fields of America's campuses where boys played at being Marines, to the final time they were allowed to still be boys on that field of dirt and coral, to the darkest and deadliest days that followed at Okinawa.

Shortlisted for the Telegraph Sports Book Awards Biography of the Year.Nat Lofthouse is a name that rings through the annals of English football history like few others. He was a pivotal figure in one of the true golden ages of the beautiful game, ending his career as the leading goal scorer for both his club and his country, with a reputation as one of the game's true greats. His retirement coincided almost exactly with the abolition of the maximum wage, and ensured that his name would forever be identified with a time before money flooded the game and changed it inexorably. Lofty explores not only Lofthouse's life and career in detail never done before, but also delves into his personality and motivation through various key points of his life. Matt Clough uses interviews with those who knew him best and played alongside him, extensive research into newspaper archives and, of course, the words of the man himself to breathe life into one of football's most legendary figures.

The mixed-race Hawaiian athlete George Freeth brought surfing to Venice, California, in 1907. Over the next twelve years, Freeth taught Southern Californians to surf and swim while creating a modern lifeguard service that transformed the beach into a destination for fun, leisure, and excitement. Patrick Moser places Freeth's inspiring life story against the rise of the Southern California beach culture he helped shape and define. Freeth made headlines with his rescue of seven fishermen, an act of heroism that highlighted his innovative lifeguarding techniques. But he also founded California's first surf club and coached both male and female athletes, including Olympic swimming champion and "father of modern surfing" Duke Kahanamoku. Often in financial straits, Freeth persevered as a teacher and lifeguarding pioneer--building a legacy that endured long after his death during the 1919 influenza pandemic. A compelling merger of biography and sports history, Surf and Rescue brings to light the forgotten figure whose novel way of seeing the beach sparked the imaginations of people around the world.

Author Michael O'Brien authoritatively paints the consummate Paterno portrait, the result of more than ten years of work that included 137 interviews and study of 150 previously published works. Paperback includes an epilogue that reviews the 1998 season in which Paterno won his landmark 300th career victory.

It's a story as old as time, a nightmare as shocking as tomorrow's headlines: A talented young athlete rockets to fame and fortune, becoming the highest paid player in football history. But what he finds when he reaches the pinnacle of success is not the glory he had expected.

This is Deion's story, in his own words, with all the drama, hope, glamour, and surprise of his true-life adventures. For the first time ever, Deion tells the story of his rise to fame, his attempted suicide, and the shocking events that led him to faith in God and a new vision and purposes for his life.

'Adrian has a unique gift for understanding drivers and racing cars. He is ultra competitive but never forgets to have fun. An immensely likeable man.' Damon Hill The world's foremost designer in Formula One, Adrian Newey OBE is arguably one of Britain's greatest engineers and this is his fascinating, powerful memoir. How to Build a Car explores the story of Adrian's unrivalled 35-year career in Formula One through the prism of the cars he has designed, the drivers he has worked alongside and the races in which he's been involved. A true engineering genius, even in adolescence Adrian's thoughts naturally emerged in shape and form - he began sketching his own car designs at the age of 12 and took a welding course in his school summer holidays. From his early career in IndyCar racing and on to his unparalleled success in Formula One, we learn in comprehensive, engaging and highly entertaining detail how a car actually works. Adrian has designed for the likes of Mario Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill, David Coulthard, Mika Hakkinen, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, always with a shark-like purity of purpose: to make the car go faster. And while his career has been marked by unbelievable triumphs, there have also been deep tragedies; most notably Ayrton Senna's death during his time at Williams in 1994. Beautifully illustrated with never-before-seen drawings, How to Build a Car encapsulates, through Adrian's remarkable life story, precisely what makes Formula One so thrilling - its potential for the total synchronicity of man and machine, the perfect combination of style, efficiency and speed.

In Stillness and Speed, one of football's most enigmatic stars finally opens up about his life and career, revealing the things that motivate and inspire him. Viewed by many as one of the most influential figures in Premier League history, and scorer of the goal that Arsenal fans voted the best in the club's history, Dennis Bergkamp is a true giant of the game. As a youngster, Bergkamp learned from the Dutch master Johan Cruyff. By the time the pupil was ready to graduate from Ajax and move abroad, he was ready to spread the word, but in Italy he found few willing listeners. It was only when he moved to Arsenal and linked up with Arsene Wenger that he met someone else who shared his vision for football's possibilities. Bergkamp became central to everything the club did: now he had become the teacher, their creative genius, and the one who inspired some of the wayward old guard to new heights, helping them to seven major trophies. Few footballers' books make you think anew, but in Stillness and Speed Bergkamp presents a new vision for the game and how it might be played. He was a player like no other; his story is told like no other. It is a book that will inspire football fans everywhere, whatever their allegiance.

In the Trenches is Reggie's own fast-paced, inspiring account of his colorful, sometimes controversial career, both in the pros and in the pulpit. It is packed with insights, observations, and war stories of his twelve years in the NFL-including his championship season. Reggie is both beloved and feared, tough and gentle, competitive and compassionate, fierce and generous.

The quintessentially English cricket commentator, writer, oenophile, bon viveur, collector and national treasure, fondly known as "Blowers", tells his riveting life story. Born in Norfolk and educated at Eton and Cambridge, Henry Calthorpe Blofeld OBE, nicknamed "Blowers" by the late Brian Johnston, is best known as a cricket commentator for Test Match Special on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra. His distinctively rich, cut glass voice and his vividly eccentric observations of life on and off the pitch, have made him a household name, not only in Britain but around the world, wherever cricket is played. Blowers has been close the the heart of the game for over fifty years and his career has taken him to the far corners of the earth. This autobiography, stuffed to the gunwhales with delicious anecdotes, brings his astonishingly colourful story bang up to date.

'The year's best cricket book' Daily Telegraph 'Well researched and engagingly written, this exemplary work reveals a hidden history...superbly told story' Sunday Times 'Easily the cricket book of the year, of the century...It extends the possibility of cricket-writing-as-literature' Suresh Menon, The Hindu It is arguably the most famous photograph in the history of cricket. In George Beldam's picture, Victor Trumper is caught in mid stroke, the personification of cricketing grace, skill and power, about to hit the ball long and hard. Yet this image, 'Jumping Out', is important not only because of who it depicts, but also what it illustrates about the changing nature of the game and how it has been seen. Now, in Gideon Haigh's brilliant new book, Stroke of Genius, we learn not only about the man in the picture but also the iconography of Trumper's powerful position in cricket's mythology. For many, Australian batsman Trumper was the greatest ever. Neville Cardus wrote: 'I have never yet met a cricketer who, having seen and played with Victor Trumper, did not describe him without doubt or hesitation as the most accomplished of all batsmen of his acquaintance.' Like Lionel Messi or Roger Federer today, he defied the obvious bounds of affiliation. Unlike the current generation of sporting stars, however, there were no memoirs or papers, very few interviews, no action footage - even his date of birth is a matter of debate and conjecture. What isn't in doubt, though, is the impact he had on the game and on his nation. Haigh reveals how Trumper, and 'Jumping Out', helped to change cricket from the Victorian era of static imagery to something much more dynamic, modern and compelling. As such, Trumper helped not only transform cricket but even the way his country viewed itself.

'Crazy' Chris Lewis played in thirty-two Test Matches and fifty-three One-Day Internationals for England. At one point he was regarded as one of the best all-round cricketers the country has ever produced. However, feeling at odds with the middle-class nature of the sport, he regularly courted controversy when off the field - and the tabloids happily lapped it up. His naming of England players involved in a match-fixing scandal led to his early retirement at the age of just 30. After this, he withdrew from the limelight until, in 2008, he was arrested for importing cocaine from the Caribbean and sentenced to thirteen years in prison. In Crazy, Lewis recounts his remarkable, redemptive story, from his arrival in England from Guyana, through his colourful cricketing career, his arrest and subsequent trial, his time in prison and how he finally put his life back together.

Meet Gary Fisher. The maverick kid bike racer who cycled straight into the Acid Test scene and lit up the Grateful Dead gigs, the relentless tinkerer who transformed an industry and sold mountain biking to the world and the visionary who's still working flat-out every day to prove that bikes are the answer to a healthier, happier future for everyone. A collaboration with cycling writer Guy Kesteven, Being Gary Fisher and the Bicycle Revolution is an autobiography of sorts. It's also a mind-blowing trip of ingenious innovation, dogged determination and boundless energy. Get caught up in Gary's crazy tales and his lifelong mission to invite everyone to the greatest dance on earth.

Tommy Johnston was voted Leyton Orient's greatest ever player by fans of the club in a poll to mark the Millennium, gaining 20 percent of all votes cast. Born in Loanhead, Tommy holds the club record for the most goals scored in a single season, and the most goals scored on aggregate throughout his career. During his long career, Tommy played in every class of football, from juvenile football in Scotland with Loanhead Mayflower and Peebles Rovers, to professional with one Scottish League club (Kilmarnock), one Welsh club (Newport County) and seven English clubs: Darlington, Oldham Athletic, Norwich City, Leyton Orient (twice), Blackburn Rovers and Gillingham. In this new book about his life and times as a footballer, Neilson Kaufman and Alan Ravenhill chart the ups and downs of Tommy Johnston's career, telling his story for the legions of fans up and down the country who remember his special talents. The text is embellished with many previously unpublished photographs from the Johnston family archive, and there are full statistical records to give a complete picture of the career of one of the greatest players ever to pull on a Leyton Orient shirt. The book is an essential addition to the bookshelves of any fan with an interest in the men who shaped the history of our national game, and is sure to have wide appeal.

Geoff Shreeves is a giant of football. From reporting pitchside on the biggest matches to his iconic appearances in EA's FIFA series, Geoff's warmth, humour and expertise have made him a constant fixture of the sport. In Cheers Geoff! he shares hilarious, bizarre and moving stories from across his incredible career. A The Times Sports Books of the Year 'Cracking read . . . loved it' - Piers Morgan 'Packed with brilliant anecdotes about the biggest names' - The Mirror There are just a handful of people who have been ever-present for the thirty years of the Premier League, but only one person has been at the very epicentre for the entire period: Geoff Shreeves. From signalling the very first ball to be kicked on Sky's Premier League coverage to facing down Sir Alex Ferguson's wrath (on countless occasions), Geoff is an integral part of the football fabric, respected by everybody in the game while still asking the toughest questions. Geoff's interviews with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Arsene Wenger, Frank Lampard and Alan Shearer have become the stuff of legend, but it is his close personal relationships with the game's star names that really sets him apart. Packed full of hilarious stories on and off the pitch - including trying to teach Sir Michael Caine how to act, a frightening encounter with Mike Tyson, as well as getting a lift home from the World Cup with Mick Jagger - Cheers, Geoff! is a must-read autobiography for any fan of the beautiful game. A natural storyteller, Geoff brings an astonishing catalogue of tales to life with his unique brand of experience, insight and humour. 'A legend' - Arsene Wenger 'No one handles the big moments better' - Jordan Henderson With a foreward from Alan Shearer.

In April 2016, as they slumped to their lowest finish since 1983 and anger turned to apathy, Sheffield United was a club on the floor. A year later, they were reborn; champions of the division, history-makers on the rise again. And the man who dragged out of the doldrums was boyhood fan, former ballboy and player and now manager, Chris Wilder. His story is probably as close to a fairytale as modern football allows. Fifteen years after managing in a Sheffield Sunday League, Wilder has established a reputation as one of English football's brightest talents after tasting success, often against a destabilising backdrop of financial difficulty, at every club he has worked at; including one which had no footballs. Featuring contributions from players, friends and acquaintances who know him well, this book explores that apprenticeship and then how Wilder turned around a sleeping giant, transformed their fortunes on and off the field and reconnected club and supporters. Fans hail him as 'one of their own' and under Wilder, United are united again.

Ken Scotland was born on 29 August 1936 within sight of Heriot's Goldenacre ground, which he would go onto grace with great panache and skill several years later. A prodigious talent at fly-half while at school, he was converted into a full-back during the international trials of 1957 and was capped in that position against France at Colombes just a few weeks later, scoring all of his country's points as the Scots recorded their first win on French soil since 1949. Having joined the army after leaving school, Scotland then attended Cambridge University and it was from there that he was selected for the 1959 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia and New Zealand. During this epic four-month tour he won plaudits far and wide as one of the superstars of the Lions' team. Using entries from the dairy he kept during this tour, Scotland brings to life one of the great Lions expeditions, taking us right into the heart of the changing rooms, hotels, bars and in the heat of battle on the field. Scotland played in five Tests for the Lions and won a total of twenty-seven caps for his country before retiring in 1965 with a reputation as one of the finest players ever to play for Scotland well established. He would continue to play club rugby for several years afterwards while enjoying a successful business career. At eighty-three he has finally decided to tell his life story. Working with Allan Massie, the doyen of Scottish rugby journalism, he has created a rich and powerful testimony to his life and rugby career, throwing new light on his own achievements as well as providing fresh insight the great players of his era. It is as fascinating as it is evocative of a time and a game long past and a must-read for rugby fans of all generations.

Hey Teammate, We all face obstacles-physical, emotional, between the ears. The good news is that everything we have fought back against can empower us, IF WE KNOW HOW TO USE IT. My obstacles happen to be anxiety and depression. I call it living in the gray, and I've been mired in it my whole life. To be honest, it sucks. But I have also recently recognized that this same gray that has held me down has also empowered me to make my wildest dreams come true. You have probably overcome many of your own obstacles, but you;ve been too close to the conflict to clearly see what you've accomplished. We are all UNBREAKABLE, no matter what we do, who we are, or what traumas we may have experienced. We just need to admit that we can't walk this walk alone. --Jay Glazer After years of rejection but with constant hustle, Jay Glazer has built a career has one of the most iconic sports insiders, earning himself a spot on the Emmy award-winning Fox NFL Sunday, a role as the confidant of coaches and players across the league, and a role as himself alongside Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson on HBO series Ballers. His gym, Unbreakable Performance Center, attracts some of the biggest names in Hollywood, and is the headquarters to the powerful charity MVP (Merging Vets and Players) that Jay founded in 2015. MVP began as a weekly physical and mental health huddle with combat veterans and retired athletes has expanded to seven locations, helping soldiers and players transition to a new team. In Unbreakable, Jay Glazer talks directly to you, his teammates, and shares his truth. All of his success from his screeching-and-swerving joy ride through professional football, the media, the fighting world, Hollywood, the military-warrior community, comes with a side of relentless depression and anxiety. Living in the gray, as Jay calls it, is just a constant for him. And, in order to work through the gray and succeed, Jay has to maintain an Unbreakable Mindset. With this book, you can too. * Be of Service-help others and help yourself in the process * Build Your Team-give support, get support * Never Underestimate the Power of Laughter-never take yourself too seriously * Be Proud of Your Scars-our trauma makes us who we are Throughout Unbreakable, Jay will use his stories-featuring some of the biggest, baddest, and most fascinating characters in the public eye today-to show how he walks this walk, has learned that while the gray is very real, it doesn't have to define him. And it doesn't have to define you either.

Ernie Johnson Jr. has been in the game a long time. With one of the most recognized voices in sports broadcasting, he is a tireless perfectionist when it comes to preparing and delivering his commentary. Yet he knows that some of sports' greatest triumphs--and life's greatest rewards--come from those unscripted moments you never anticipated. In this heartfelt, gripping autobiography, the three-time Sports Emmy Award-winner and popular host of TNT's Inside the NBA provides a remarkably candid look at his life both on and off the screen. From his relationship with his sportscaster father to his own rise to the top of sports broadcasting, from battling cancer to raising six children with his wife, Cheryl, including a special needs child adopted from Romania, Ernie has taken the important lessons he learned from his father and passed them on to his own children. This is the untold story, the one Ernie has lived after the lights are turned off and the cameras stop rolling. Sports fans, cancer survivors, fathers and sons, adoptive parents, those whose lives have been touched by a person with special needs, anyone who loves stories about handling life's surprises with grace--Unscripted is for all of these.

Abel Kiviat (1892-1991) was one of track and field's legendary personalities, a world record-holder and Olympic medalist in the metric mile. A teenage prodigy, he defeated Hall of Fame runners in Madison Square Garden before his twentieth birthday. Alan S. Katchen brings Kiviat's fascinating story to life and re-creates a lost world, when track and field was at the height of its popularity and occupying a central place in America's sporting world. The seventh and oldest child of Moishe and Zelda Kiviat, Jewish immigrants from Poland, Abel competed as 'the Hebrew runner' for New York's famed Irish-American Athletic Club and was elected its captain. Katchen offers a detailed account of the I-AAC's evolution, including its close ties to the Tammany Hall political machine, and sheds light on the rapid modernization of the sport and the ways it provided a vehicle for the assimilation of working-class, immigrant athletes. Overcoming bigotry and prejudice from several of the sport's leaders, Kiviat served for fifty years as the Amateur Athletic Union's press steward during the emergence of broadcast media. He died at ninety-nine, just months short of carrying the torch for the opening ceremonies of the Barcelona Olympics. Abel Kiviat, National Champion pays tribute to a remarkable athlete and the sport during its most dynamic and celebrated era.