Among many legendary episodes from the life and career of men's basketball coach Dean Smith, few loom as large as his recruitment of Charlie Scott, the first African American scholarship athlete at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Drawn together by college basketball in a time of momentous change, Smith and Scott helped transform a university, a community, and the racial landscape of sports in the South. But there is much more to this story than is commonly told. In Game Changers, Art Chansky reveals an intense saga of race, college sport, and small-town politics. At the center were two young men, Scott and Smith, both destined for greatness but struggling through challenges on and off the court, among them the storms of civil rights protest and the painfully slow integration of a Chapel Hill far less progressive than its reputation today might suggest. Drawing on extensive personal interviews and a variety of other sources, Chansky takes readers beyond the basketball court to highlight the community that supported Smith and Scott during these demanding years, from assistant basketball coach John Lotz to influential pastor the Reverend Robert Seymour to pioneering African American mayor Howard Lee. Dispelling many myths that surround this period, Chansky nevertheless offers an ultimately triumphant portrait of a student-athlete and coach who ensured the University of North Carolina would never be the same.

In their seven years together, quarterback Johnny Unitas and coach Don Shula, kings of the fabled Baltimore Colts of the 1960s, created one of the most successful franchises in sports. Unitas and Shula had a higher winning percentage than Lombardi’s Packers, but together they never won the championship. Baltimore lost the big game to the Browns in 1964 and to Joe Namath and the Jets in Super Bowl III—both in stunning upsets. The Colts’ near misses in the Shula era were among the most confounding losses any sports franchise ever suffered. Rarely had a team in any league performed so well, over such an extended period, only to come up empty.  The two men had a complex relationship stretching back to their time as young teammates competing for their professional lives. Their personal conflict mirrored their tumultuous times. As they elevated the brutal game of football, the world around them clashed about Vietnam, civil rights, and sex. Collision of Wills looks at the complicated relationship between Don Shula, the league’s winningest coach of all time, and his star player Johnny Unitas, and how their secret animosity fueled the Colts in an era when their losses were as memorable as their victories.   Purchase the audio edition.

Forfar Athletic have had some dreadful times, but they have had their share of success as well. Here the author has found something memorable that has happened on every single day in the year - a chronicle by a man who first watched the Loons in 1954 and whose father and grandfather watched them way before. This is a football book, but it is more than that - it is a glimpse of the social history of the town, the area and the nation. Outstanding players like Davie McLean, Alec Troup and Craig Brewster are mentioned, the red letter days when Forfar took on Rangers, Celtic and Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup, and the day when they astonished the world by beating Hearts at Tynecastle. But credit is given to the less spectacular of days as well, like defeats at Cowdenbeath, Stenhousemuir and Dumbarton in the pouring rain. Such days are also part of supporting a small team like Forfar.

On 10 February 1981 Coventry City stood 29 minutes from Wembley in the League Cup semi-final second leg at West Ham United's Upton Park. Victories over Manchester United, Brighton and Hove Albion, Cambridge United and Watford had taken Gordon Milne's side to the first semi-final in the club's 97-year history. City's youngsters missed out on a trip to Wembley in the cruellest of circumstances after a fantastic first leg at Highfield Road in front of 36,000 fans. For the first time, the cast of 1981 are reunited to tell their stories. 29 Minutes From Wembley features exclusive interviews with players, management, supporters and opposition stars. Contemporary media reports appear alongside memories and retrospectives to recall a wonderful time in Sky Blue history, the team's age averaging just 21. By the summer of 1983 the majority had left the club; here, they tell their individual stories of their time at Coventry City, a club still close to their hearts after all these years. Just how good could that team have been?

Between 2008 and 2012, everything changed for Celtic and the supporters. Everything changed for the Author as well. The Internet Bampots were on the rise, going after songs, Referees and an old enemy... Read how Referees thought about Celtic straight from the mouth of a Grade 1 Ref and marvel at how the Internet Bampots refused to take it any more. There are also stories of seedy trips to Atlantic City, mixing with the Mafia and breakfast with The Latin Kings. Well, it is a Paul Larkin book after all...

'pulls no punches' The Sun 'full of eventful tales from the past' Daily Mail 'punchy, earthy ... entertaining stories that capture football in an era long before sanitised PR and Instagram self-promotion' The Independent From West Ham's cult hero, Julian Dicks, a hugely entertaining romp through football and the East End of the Eighties and Nineties. 'Cult figure' is a term hardly used in football these days: where have they all gone? In the sterile and corporate modern game, is there room for the mercurial midfielder or the tough-tackling defender or the pot-bellied goal poacher? Rewind two or three decades and British professional football was stuffed to the gunnels with these 'one-offs': players with bags of talent, yes, but also lorryloads of personality and a hugely relatable quality which meant they'd all be playing Sunday morning park football if they hadn't become professionals. No media training, no filter, no 5% body fat, no cryotherapy chambers, and no quiet nights in with a curly kale salad and a glass of carrot juice. Meet Julian Dicks. Wonderful name, wonderful player and undoubtedly one of the greatest cult figures to play for West Ham United. Hammer Time is Dicks' hugely entertaining romp through his career with West Ham, shot through with all the great anecdotes of life as a pro back then, and peppered with all the marvellous characters who crossed his path in those halcyon days. It evokes memories of intimidating away crowds, muddy pitches, no-nonsense tackling, card schools on the bus, big nights out after matches, and the special camaraderie that was forged between players of that era. Hammer Time is also an open love letter to the unique character and atmosphere of West Ham United and East London, conjuring up - with great warmth and nostalgia - a fast disappearing world of strong working-class communities, proper East End boozers and those iconic pie and mash shops.

Fowler: My Autobiography is a personal and honest account of a phenomenal life in football by goal-poacher Robbie Fowler. Pronounced as the greatest goal scoring talent since Jimmy Greaves, seventeen-year old Robbie Fowler was immediately catapulted to fame and fortune. The thin, baby-faced Toxteth lad, who had trampled the same streets as the rioters, was now a millionaire, an idol and inspiration to every kid who kicked a football. Yet his incredible potential was never quite realized. Injuries and persistent rumours of drug abuse and depression meant that though Fowler remains one of the most celebrated of Premiership stars, he never became the world-beater so many predicted. This is a fascinating and unbelievably frank insight into the beautiful game, taking us behind the closed doors of professional football to expose what really happens at both club and international level. This is a truthful and candid account of an incredible career, examining not just the records and the glory, but the low points and the miseries of a footballing life that many people now believe somewhere, somehow went wrong. Brilliance and controversy have stalked Robbie Fowler from his five goal performance in only his second full game for Liverpool, to his snorting of the touchline in the Merseyside derby. In this utterly compelling autobiography, Robbie Fowler looks back on what was, what wasn't and what might have been. This is the story of one of the game's true icons, and the story of the modern game itself.

The Cleveland Indians of 1928 were a far cry from the championship team of 1920. They had begun the decade as the best team in all of baseball, but over the following eight years, their owner died, the great Tris Speaker retired in the face of a looming scandal, and the franchise was in terrible shape. Seeing opportunity in the upheaval, Cleveland real estate mogul Alva Bradley purchased the ball club in 1927, infused it with cash, and filled its roster with star players such as Bob Feller, Earl Averill, and Hal Trosky. He aligned himself with civic leaders to push for a gigantic new stadium that-along with the team that played in it-would be the talk of the baseball world. Then came the stock market crash of 1929. Municipal Stadium was built, despite the collapse of the industrial economy in Rust Belt cities, but the crowds did not follow. Always the shrewd businessman, Bradley had engineered a lease agreement with the city of Cleveland that included an out clause, and he exercised that option after the 1934 season, leaving the 80,000-seat, multimillion-dollar stadium without a tenant. In No Money, No Beer, No Pennants, Scott H. Longert gives us a lively history of the ups and downs of a legendary team and its iconic players as they persevered through internal unrest and the turmoil of the Great Depression, pursuing a pennant that didn't come until 1948. Illustrated with period photographs and filled with anecdotes of the great players, this book will delight fans of baseball and fans of Cleveland.

In October 1960, Omaha Central and Creighton Prep met for what many Nebraskans consider the greatest high school football game ever played. Future NFL Hall of Famer Gale Sayers scored seventy points while leading Central's powerful offense through its first four games. Prep's strong defense, on the other hand, allowed only twenty points all season. Legendary coaches patrolled both sidelines, and Prep was aiming for its third straight state championship. The stage was set for a Friday-night showdown. Fifteen thousand fans packed into Omaha's Municipal Stadium to watch the early season championship clash. Stubborn defenses ensured parity. Back and forth the teams battled, mired around the 50-yard line, punt after punt soaring into the sky. With no overtime to settle things and the defenses holding fast, the game ended in a scoreless tie. When both teams won their remaining games, they shared the state title that year. Scoreless retells the details of this legendary game, the buildup to it, and the story behind the teams and their renowned coaches and players. It is the tale of one of the most remarkable football games in Nebraska high school sports history.

The Players League, formed in 1890, was a short-lived professional baseball league controlled and owned in part by the players themselves, a response to the National League's salary cap and "reserve rule," which bound players for life to one particular team. Led by John Montgomery Ward, the Players League was a star-studded group that included most of the best players of the National League, who bolted not only to gain control of their wages but also to share ownership of the teams. Lasting only a year, the league impacted both the professional sports and the labor politics of athletes and nonathletes alike. The Great Baseball Revolt is a historic overview of the rise and fall of the Players League, which fielded teams in Boston, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. Though it marketed itself as a working-class league, the players were underfunded and had to turn to wealthy capitalists for much of their startup costs, including the new ballparks. It was in this context that the league intersected with the organized labor movement, and in many ways challenged by organized labor to be by and for the people. In its only season, the Players League outdrew the National League in fan attendance. But when the National League overinflated its numbers and profits, the Players League backers pulled out. The Great Baseball Revolt brings to life a compelling cast of characters and a mostly forgotten but important time in professional sports when labor politics affected both athletes and nonathletes.

Home of the legendary Tar Heels basketball team, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill enjoys a sporting brand known the world over. The alma mater of Michael Jordan and Mia Hamm, winner of forty national championships in six different sports, and a partner in what Sporting News calls "the best rivalry in sports," UNC-Chapel Hill is a colossus of college athletics. Now, it has become ground zero in the debate on how the $16 billion college sports industry operates--an industry that coexists uneasily within a university system professly dedicated to education and research. Written by notorious UNC athletics department whistleblower, Mary Willingham, and her close faculty ally, Jay Smith, Cheated: The UNC Scandal, the Education of Athletes, and the Future of Big-Time College Sports exposes the fraudulent inner workings that for decades have allowed barely literate basketball and football players to take fake courses, earning fake degrees from one of the nation's top universities while faculty and administrators looked the other way. In unobscured detail, Cheated recounts the academic fraud in UNC's athletic department, even as university leaders attempted to sweep the matter under the rug in order to keep the billion-dollar college sports revenue machine functioning, and it makes an impassioned argument that the"student-athletes" in these programs are being cheated of what, after all, has been promised them from the start--a college education.

Who are the fifteen best players ever to represent Wales at rugby? We all know the answers, but all our answers are different! In pubs and clubs, in classrooms and chat rooms the length and breadth of this rugby-mad nation, this is a question that prompts energetic and entertaining debate; a question that has divided households and destabilized lifelong friendships. In The Greatest Welsh XV Ever, which includes over 130 full-colour photographs, Eddie Butler has gone where angels (and ex-international back-row forwards) fear to tread. Devoting a chapter to each position on the field, he produces a shortlist of the great players, before making his final, decisive, definitive choice in each case. So will it be Barry John or Phil Bennett at number 10? Jamie Roberts or John Dawes at number 12? Graham Price or Adam Jones at number 3? This is your chance to join in the greatest national debate since devolution.

Leeds United AFC was formed in 1919 following the disbanding of Leeds City FC by the Football League. The team took over the Elland Road stadium and have won three First Division League titles, one FA Cup and one League Cup. The club also won two Inter-Cities Fairs cups. The majority of the honours were won under the management of Don Revie in the golden age of the 1960s and '70s. In Leeds United: A History, author Dave Tomlinson relates the complete and definitive history of the club from foundation to the present day. He reveals the voices of the people involved with the club, including supporters, players and former players, owners, administrators and local writers, to describe the club's history within its social context, how changes have affected the club and how developments in football itself have made an indelible impact upon both the football club and the wider community. This is a must-have for any fan of the 'Mighty Whites'.

One of the most influential and controversial team owners in professional sports history, Walter O'Malley (1903-79) is best remembered-and still reviled by many-for moving the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. Yet much of the O'Malley story leading up to the Dodgers' move is unknown or created from myth, and there is substantially more to the man. When he entered the public eye, the self-constructed family background and early life he presented was gilded. Later his personal story was distorted by some New York sportswriters, who hated him for moving the Dodgers. In Mover and Shaker Andy McCue presents for the first time an objective, complete, and nuanced account of O'Malley's life. He also departs from the overly sentimentalized accounts of O'Malley as either villain or angel and reveals him first and foremost as a rational, hardheaded businessman, who was a major force in baseball for three decades and whose management and marketing practices radically changed the shape of the game.

Chicago in the Roaring Twenties was a city of immigrants, mobsters, and flappers with one shared passion: the Chicago Cubs. It all began when the chewing-gum tycoon William Wrigley decided to build the world's greatest ball club in the nation's Second City. In this Jazz Age center, the maverick Wrigley exploited the revolutionary technology of broadcasting to attract eager throngs of women to his renovated ballpark. Mr. Wrigley's Ball Club transports us to this heady era of baseball history and introduces the team at its crazy heart-an amalgam of rakes, pranksters, schemers, and choirboys who take center stage in memorable successes, equally memorable disasters, and shadowy intrigue. Readers take front-row seats to meet Grover Cleveland Alexander, Rogers Hornsby, Joe McCarthy, Lewis "Hack" Wilson, Gabby Hartnett. The cast of characters also includes their colorful if less-extolled teammates and the Cubs' nemesis, Babe Ruth, who terminates the ambitions of Mr. Wrigley's ball club with one emphatic swing.