This book details the life of Percy Haughton, college football's first modern coach. A true innovator of the game, his Harvard squads went 71-7-5 during his tenure and were deemed national champions three times. In many ways, college football in the 1910s resembled what we still see today. A half century old, there were already concerns about violence and corruption. There were skyrocketing coaches' salaries, stadium arms races, bragging rights, and meddling boosters. There were recruiting excesses and cheating. And from Harvard coach Percy Duncan Haughton, there was a sophistication of football that would surprise many fans today. In The Coach Who Strangled the Bulldog: How Harvard's Percy Haughton Beat Yale and Reinvented Football, Dick Friedman tells the fascinating story of a football genius. The sport's first modern coach, Haughton systematized the game and utilized passing, speed, and deception. In nine seasons at Harvard, Haughton's squads went 71-7-5 and three times during his tenure the Crimson were deemed national champions. Haughton's system perfected line blocking, employed tactics such as the delayed handoff, and eschewed huddles. His practices were scripted to the minute and he had revolutionary ideas on conditioning. The Coach Who Strangled the Bulldog is not only a captivating biography of an influential coach from the early days of college football; it is also a history of the sport itself. Featuring timeless photos and tirelessly researched, this book provides valuable insight into the game today-how it has evolved and how it has stayed surprisingly the same.

This is the book that speedway fans the world over have been waiting for: the inside story of the Californian hell-raiser, Kelly Moran. The charismatic American was one of the most spectacular and naturally talented riders to race speedway and very few share that incredible ability which ensured that he performed at the highest level for most of his career. A three-times World Finalist, double World Team Champion and US National Champion, Kelly's talent as a racer took him around the world, while his exploits off the track have become legendary - making him one of the most popular riders ever. From leading the USA to world glory, via a near-death hotel accident, to joy-riding in a president's bus, Brian Burford's new book mixes the legendary tales of excess off the track with the success and popularity on the race circuit. With contributions from his family, friends and rivals, and written by one his closest friends, this book finally brings you the real story of Kelly Moran.

Let Stephen Curry, Charles Barkley, Grant Hill, Reggie Miller, and more, tell you what it was like to take the floor against one of the Greatest of All Time. With a Foreword by Jerry West, and a new tribute from the author about Kobe's tragic death. When he entered the NBA in 1996 as a high-school star from Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, Kobe Bryant faced enormous expectations. No one can deny that he rose to the challenge. Today Bryant's status as a future Hall of Fame player is assured. During his stellar career, Bryant won five NBA championships; was a seventeen-time All-Star, NBA MVP, and two-time NBA Finals MVP. He led the league in scoring in 2006 and 2007. Now for the first time, hear stories from opponents, teammates, and players about what it was like to go against Kobe in Remembering Kobe Bryant. Contributors include: Chris Webber Jeff Van Gundy Rick Barry Doc Rivers Dwayne Wade Draymond Green Giannis Antetokounmpo Russell Westbrook Carmelo Anthony And many more Kobe Bryant was the greatest basketball player of his generation-a former schoolboy prodigy whose moves are now imitated in gyms and playgrounds around the world. Remembering Kobe Bryant provides an unprecedented glimpse into what it was like to play against one of the best of all time. Skyhorse Publishing and our Sports Publishing imprint is proud to publish a range of books for readers interested in sports-baseball, pro football, college football, pro basketball, college basketball, hockey, soccer, and more, we have a book about your sport or your team. Whether you are a New York Yankees fan or hail from Red Sox nation; whether you are a die-hard Green Bay Packers or Dallas Cowboys fan; whether you root for the Kentucky Wildcats, Louisville Cardinals, UCLA Bruins, or Kansas Jayhawks; whether you route for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Los Angeles Kings; we have a book for you. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Shortlisted for Biography of the Year at the Telegraph Sports Book Awards 2020 Shortlisted for Adventure Travel Book of the Year at the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2020 On June 3rd 2017, professional climber Mark Synnott was in Yosemite to witness something that only a handful of people knew was about to occur: his friend, Alex Honnold, was going to attempt to summit one of the world's most challenging ascents, a route called Freerider on the notorious rock formation El Capitan. It is an extraordinarily dangerous and difficult climb, and yet Alex was going to do it 'free solo'. Meaning no help. No partner. No equipment. No rope. Where a single small mistake would mean certain death. Indeed, to summit El Cap free solo was a feat likened to Neil Armstrong first walking on the moon. As Alex plots, rehearses and ultimately attempts his heart-stopping ascent, Mark also shares his own personal history of climbing, filled with triumphs, defeats and dilemmas, in this deeply reported, inspiring exhortation to live life to the fullest.

Set against the background of the Great Depression, this book looks at the life of Ralph Guldahl, who for a brief period in the 1930s was recognized as the best golfer in the world. From 1936 to 1940, he won two successive U.S. Opens, one Masters title and three successive Western Opens, held the best scoring average award and was a Ryder Cup player with a 100 percent record. After this memorable run, he ""lost his game"" and almost disappeared from view. This biography is the first to trace the rise and decline of his career and answer the question: ""What happened to Ralph Guldahl?

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).

Named a Best Baseball Book of 2020 by Sports Collectors Digest New York Times 2020 Summer Reading List From the day he first stepped into the Yankee clubhouse, Jim Bouton (1939-2019) was the sports world's deceptive revolutionary. Underneath the crew cut and behind the all-American boy-next-door good looks lurked a maverick with a signature style. Whether it was his frank talk about player salaries and mistreatment by management, his passionate advocacy of progressive politics, or his efforts to convince the United States to boycott the 1968 Olympics, Bouton confronted the conservative sports world and compelled it to catch up with a rapidly changing American society. In Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original, Mitchell Nathanson gives readers a look at Bouton's remarkable life. He tells the unlikely story of how Bouton's Ball Four, perhaps the greatest baseball book of all time, came into being, how it was received, and how it forever changed the way we view not only sports books but professional sports as a whole. Based on wide-ranging interviews Nathanson conducted with Bouton, family, friends, and others, he provides an intimate, inside account of Bouton's life. Nathanson provides insight as to why Bouton saw the world the way he did, why he was so different from the thousands of players who came before him, and how, in the cliquey, cold, bottom-line world of professional baseball, Bouton managed to be both an insider and an outsider all at once.

This is a biography of Brian Robinson, racing cyclist. Brian Robinson, the first Englishman ever to complete the Tour de France, went on to make a career as a professional cyclist in what is generally regarded as one of the toughest eras in a very tough sport. He adapted to French life, the continental style of racing and the taxing demands of a long season with clear-headed tenacity. For all the British riders who later followed him to Europe - and there have not been many since his days as a lone coureur anglais, still a comparatively rare breed - he was, without dispute, the great pioneer.

Five-time Mr. Universe, seven-time Mr. Olympia, and Mr. World, Arnold Schwarzenegger is the name in bodybuilding.

Here is his classic bestselling autobiography, which explains how the "Austrian Oak" came to the sport of bodybuilding and aspired to be the star he has become.

"I still remember that first visit to the bodybuilding gym. I had never seen anyone lifting weights before. Those guys were huge and brutal....The weight lifters shone with sweat; they were powerful looking, Herculean. And there it was before me -- my life, the answer I'd been seeking. It clicked. It was something I suddenly just seemed to reach out and find, as if I'd been crossing a suspended bridge and finally stepped off onto solid ground."
Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold shares his fitness and training secrets -- demonstrating with a comprehensive step-by-step program and dietary hints how to use bodybuilding for better health. His program includes a special four-day regimen of specific exercises to develop individual muscle groups -- each exercise illustrated with photos of Arnold in action.

For fans and would-be bodybuilders, this is Arnold in his own words.

The King of Dens Park is the authorised life story of Alan Gilzean, the legendary, world-class Dundee, Spurs and Scotland footballer. Exclusive insights provided by his family, closest friends and colleagues add to the author's own experience to reveal Gilzean, the man and the player. A reserved, charming and intelligent individual who shunned the limelight off the field, Gilzean played with a swagger as a maker and taker of goals. We discover how the native of the Perthshire town of Coupar Angus became one of the greatest performers in the history of both his clubs. Gilzean emerged a Scottish folk hero having scored the winning goal against England in front of 133,000 at Hampden Park - and was later welcomed back with open arms by the game after ending a self-imposed exile during which the uninformed conjured often defamatory myths. The elegant striker dubbed 'Nureyev in Boots' left us on Sunday, 8 July 2018. There will never be another like him.

This first biography of W. Glenn Killinger highlights his tenure as a nine-time varsity letterman at Penn State, where he emerged as one of the best football, basketball and baseball players in the U.S. Situating Killinger in his time and place, the author explores the ways in which home-front culture during World War I-focused on heroism, masculinity and sporting culture-created the demand for sports and sports icons and drove the ascent college athletics in the first quarter of the 20th century.

When African American first baseman George "Boomer" Scott made his debut in the major leagues in 1966, he took the field for the Boston Red Sox--the last major league team to field a black ballplayer, only seven years before. An eight-time Gold Glove Award winner, a three-time All-Star, and an important member of the Red Sox 1967 Impossible Dream American League Champions, Scott stroked 271 "taters"--a term he coined for home runs that has been memorialized in baseball lexicon. Yet throughout his career, the outspoken player faced an ongoing struggle to gain racial acceptance. This detailed biography chronicles Scott's youth in violently racist Mississippi, his impressive 14-year professional career, and the challenges he faced off the field. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews with the former slugger, this work celebrates one of Boston's legends and reveals the barriers that still existed for black ball players years after Jackie Robinson paved the way.

Many books have been written about the 1966 World Cup but this one is different. Brian Scovell was the only national newspaper sports writer-for the 'Daily Sketch'-to report on both the World Cup and the England v West Indies series dominated by Gary Sobers. He had full access to the heroes like Bobby Charlton, who was nearly run over on the day of the Final, Bobby Moore, who was sacked by West Ham just before the event and reinstated, Eusebio, Alf Ramsey, Colin Cowdrey, Tom Graveney, Brian Close, Ken Barrington, Wes Hall and all the leading figures. He contrasts these stirring and sportsmanlike happenings against what is occurring now-greed and corruption in football and the absence of genuine heroes in cricket. His 'on the spot reports' from his cuttings and the book he wrote on the Test series at the time, 'Everything that's cricket,' brings to life the action which captivated the nation. This is his 27th book and four of them have been short listed by the British Sports Books Award. After the 'Sketch' was merged with the 'Daily Mail' in 1971, he completed forty years with Associated Newspapers before retiring to write books.

Inside Diego is an intimate portrait of the greatest footballer of all time, from the person in football who knew him best. As Diego Maradona's personal trainer, Fernando Signorini spent more than a decade at the superstar's side, witnessing a dizzying array of highs and lows, from helping Diego recuperate from a broken ankle in 1983 to his dramatic exit from the 1994 World Cup after a failed drugs test. Signorini offers a unique perspective on the troubled legend, giving us the lowdown not only on Diego's evolution as an athlete, but on Diego the human being, a far cry from the character we saw on TV screens. He brings us the inside track on Maradona's preparation for three World Cups: Mexico 86, Italia 90 and USA 94. We also get an insider view on his battles with fame, drugs and extramarital paternity, plus his time in charge of the Argentine national team. Brimming with incredible stories and anecdotes, Inside Diego is an intensely personal rollercoaster account of a flawed football genius.

Beginning in the late 1970s, "Gentleman" Gerry Cooney's professional boxing career was marked by exhilarating fights, exciting wins, and a powerful left hook. In 1982, Cooney landed a lucrative match against world heavyweight champion Larry Holmes on one of the biggest stages in championship boxing. Yet Cooney's bouts in the ring were nothing compared to the inner turmoil that he dealt with and eventually overcame. Gentleman Gerry: A Contender in the Ring, a Champion in Recovery chronicles the career of a boxing legend, the challenges and triumphs of a trauma survivor, and an alcoholic's journey to sustained recovery. Gerry Cooney and John Grady provide a detailed account of how the former contender went from an abused childhood to becoming a two-time Golden Gloves champion. More than just a biography, this book explores the challenges of surviving difficult moments and overcoming obstacles such as alcohol addiction. The authors also provide historical perspectives of the era and behind-the-scenes insight into the world of professional boxing. Complete with photographs from esteemed sports photographer Joe DiMaggio and stories directly from Cooney himself, this book offers an unprecedented look into Cooney's life and the lessons he learned. Fans of boxing, as well as sports enthusiasts and others recovering from addiction, will find Gentleman Gerry a must-read.

When UK Sport removed funding for women's BMX, Bethany Shriever's dream of Olympic glory seemed shattered. Throw in the impact of a broken leg sustained in childhood, plus an untimely arm injury weeks before the final Olympic qualification event, and few would have thought the 22-year-old would be on the plane to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, let alone the podium. And with the uncertainty caused by a global pandemic, the external pressures on Beth were intense and pervasive. However, the BMX racer from Essex is made of stern stuff and, perhaps just as importantly, so are the team around her. From her deeply involved family, to her dedicated coaching team, to her friends within the BMX community, Beth's story recognises the team behind an athlete. This compelling tale of triumph over adversity reveals how the power of belief overcame the obstacles that threatened to derail Bethany's dreams of becoming the best ever female BMX racer.

This vivid portrait of Bart Giamatti encompasses his entire eventful life but focuses especially on his years at Yale University (1966-1986) and his brief career as a major league baseball executive (1986-1989). As scholar, teacher, and then university president, Giamatti was an admired and respected figure on campus. He forged his academic career during turbulent decades, and his tenure in baseball was no less contentious, for as commissioner of baseball he oversaw the banishment of Cincinnati's Pete Rose from the game for gambling. The book draws on Giamatti's numerous writings and speeches to illuminate the character and complexities of the man and to understand the values that motivated his leadership.
Bart Giamatti was a cultural conservative and institutional moderate at a time when such values were out of favor and under attack. At Yale, as a baseball executive, and indeed in all things, Giamatti championed the related values of freedom and order. Robert P. Moncreiff places Giamatti in the context of major events at Yale, recounts in detail the legal context in which the Pete Rose affair unfolded, and arrives at a nuanced understanding of this memorable man's life.

The 100 Greatest Jews in Sports takes the greatest Jewish athletes in all major sports from the past eleven decades and ranks them against each other, using a limited scope and quantitative criteria. Each decade has seen someone new emerge as the greatest Jewish athlete, from boxer Abe Attell to baseballs' Sandy Koufax and Ken Holtzman, to golf's Amy Alcott, to footballs' Harris Barton. Sports profiled include baseball, basketball, hockey, tennis, golf, auto racing, boxing, soccer, football, swimming, and many others. Silverman takes a scholarly approach to ensure reliability and validity of the statistics given. The author identified the most common categories of statistics in which the highest paid athletes in all sports had excelled, and he assigned numeric values to reflect the performance categories. That provided a proportional representation of the most important individual accomplishments in sports. By applying those numbers to the records of selected athletes, each was ranked against the other. Additionally, the author asked selected experts of each sport to perform the same ranking with no specific criteria, and the results were the same. Filled with historic photographs of the athletes profiled, and interspersed with interesting tidbits of each athlete's personal life and career, this book is certain to be of interest to the casual to serious sports enthusiast alike.