In November 1914, Hearts led the Scottish First Division. In the middle of a debate about the morality of continuing professional football during the First World War and a campaign to shame footballers into joining up, eleven Hearts players enlisted in Sir George McCrae's battalion on 25 November. Hearts supporters and players and supporters from myriad other clubs flocked to join as well. Officially known as 16th Royal Scots, this unit was the first to be described as a footballers' battalion. On 1 July 1916, 15th and 16th Royal Scots attacked near the village of Contalmaison in the Somme Valley. Three Hearts players would die that day; seven would be killed in total during the war, and many more would be wounded. In this book, Tom Purdie tells the story of the Hearts players and supporters who served their country during the Great War and those who were left behind in Edinburgh who, with unstinting effort and sacrifice, helped to bring the club through that extremely trying time in its proud history.

"Becoming Big League" is the story of Seattle's relationship with major league baseball from the 1962 World's Fair to the completion of the Kingdome in 1976 and beyond. Bill Mullins focuses on the acquisition and loss, after only one year, of the Seattle Pilots and documents their on-the-field exploits in lively play-by-play sections.

The Pilots' underfunded ownership, led by Seattle's Dewey and Max Soriano and William Daley of Cleveland, struggled to make the team a success. They were savvy baseball men, but they made mistakes and wrangled with the city. By the end of the first season, the team was in bankruptcy. The Pilots were sold to a contingent from Milwaukee led by Bud Selig, who moved the franchise to Wisconsin and rechristened the team the Brewers.

"Becoming Big League" describes the character of Seattle in the 1960s and 1970s, explains how the operation of a major league baseball franchise fits into the life of a city, charts Seattle's long history of fraught stadium politics, and examines the business of baseball.

Bill Mullins received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington and is professor emeritus of history at Oklahoma Baptist University. He lives in Federal Way, Washington.

""Becoming Big League" is written with a verve and wit that makes the most of all the engaging and/or exasperating characters involved." -Carl Abbott, Portland State University

When Don Revie took over this club, Leeds were a rugby league town. No interest in football. Gates under 10,000. We'd never won a thing. He built one of the great clubs of English football, one of the great teams of English football, from scratch on barren ground from nothing more than spirit and fight and nous, which are the exact same qualities you used at Derby. And out of jealousy, you never tried to understand that. Never tried to make the most of that. Sad. 1974. Brian Clough, the enfant terrible of British football, tries to redeem his managerial career and reputation by winning the European Cup with his new team, Leeds United. The team he has openly despised for years, the team he hates and that hates him. Don Revie's Leeds. A West Yorkshire Playhouse and Red Ladder Theatre Company co-production, adapted from David Peace's ingenious and much-lauded novel, which was subsequently made into a film starring Michael Sheen, The Damned United takes you inside the tortured mind of a genius slamming up against his limits, and brings to life the beauty and brutality of football, the working man's ballet. Anders Lustgarten's stage adaptation of David Peace's novel received its world premiere at the West Yorkshire Playhouse on 3 March 2016.

The Man Who Made A Football Club Sir Matt Busby, who took Manchester United to unprecedented glory before seeing the club through profound tragedy, created the global entity that spreads from Old Trafford today. A player with Manchester City and Liverpool before the Second World War, Busby remained at the forefront of football through four decades and made an extraordinary contribution to the game in terms of both style and substance. In this definitive biography, Patrick Barclay looks back at Busby's phenomenal life and career, including the rise of the Busby Babes in the 1950s, the Munich disaster that claimed 23 lives and the Wembley victory ten years on that made United the first English team to win the European Cup. Denis Law, Pat Crerand and such other members of that great side as Alex Stepney, David Sadler and John Aston are among the host of voices testifying to the qualities that set Sir Matt apart. This is the story of one of the greatest figures in football history, and of the making of a legacy that will last for ever.

On January 6, 1975, Nottingham Forest were thirteenth in the old Second Division, five points above the relegation places and straying dangerously close to establishing a permanent place for themselves among football's nowhere men. Within five years Brian Clough had turned an unfashionable and depressed club into the kings of Europe, beating everyone in their way and knocking Liverpool off their perch long before Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United had the same idea. This is the story of the epic five-year journey that saw Forest complete a real football miracle and Clough brilliantly restore his reputation after his infamous 44-day spell at Leeds United. Forest won the First Division championship, two League Cups and back-to-back European Cups and they did it, incredibly, with five of the players Clough inherited at a club that was trying to avoid relegation to the third tier of English football. I Believe In Miracles accompanies the critically-acclaimed documentary and DVD of the same name. Based on exclusive interviews with virtually every member of the Forest team, it covers the greatest period in Clough's extraordinary life and brings together the stories of the unlikely assortment of free transfers, bargain buys, rogues, misfits and exceptionally gifted footballers who came together under the most charismatic manager there has ever been.

In Men in White Suits, Simon Hughes meets some of the most colourful characters to have played for Liverpool Football Club during the 1990s. The resulting interviews, set against the historical backdrop of both the club and the city, deliver a rich portrait of life at Anfield during a decade when on-field frustrations were symptomatic of off-the-field mismanagement and ill-discipline. After the shock resignation of Dalglish and Graeme Souness's ill-fated reign, the Reds - under the stewardship of Roy Evans - displayed a breathtaking style led by a supremely talented young group of British players whose names featured as regularly on the front pages of the tabloids as they did on the back. The Daily Mail was the first newspaper to tag Evans's team as the Spice Boys. Yet despite their flaws, this was a rare group of individuals: mavericks, playboys, goal-scorers and luckless defenders. Wearing off-white Armani suits, their confident personalities were exemplified in their pre-match walk around Wembley before the 1996 FA Cup final (a 1-0 defeat to Manchester United). In stark contrast to the media-coached, on-message interviews given by today's top stars, the blunt, ribald and sometimes cutting recollections of the footballers featured in Men in White Suits provide a rare insight into this fascinating era in Liverpool's long and illustrious history.

Richer Than God is an authoritative, emotional, provocative account of Manchester City's takeover by Sheikh Mansour, culminating in their remarkable last minute Premier League title victory in May 2012. By placing the club's extraordinary current rise in the wider context of its patchy modern history, this is also the story of English football's transformation - from the battlegrounds of the 1980s to today's moneyed, seated, global entertainment. Conn is led to question the very nature of football clubs and being a supporter, the underlying values and running of what used to be called 'the people's game'. A labour of love, this powerfully told account of Manchester City's fall and rise, based on meticulous research over many years, and exclusive access and interviews with key figures, is written in the gripping, revelatory style Conn has made his trademark.

Rugby union has undergone immense change in the past two decades - introducing a World Cup, accepting professionalism and creating a global market in players - yet no authoritative English-language general history of the game has been published in that time. Until now. A Game for Hooligans brings the game's colourful story up to date to include the 2007 World Cup. It covers all of the great matches, teams and players but also explores the social, political and economic changes that have affected the course of rugby's development. It is an international history, covering not only Britain and France but also the great rugby powers of the southern hemisphere and other successful rugby nations, including Argentina, Fiji and Japan. Contained within are the answers to many intriguing questions concerning the game, such as why 1895 is the most important date in both rugby-union and rugby-league history and how New Zealand became so good and have remained so good for so long. There is also a wealth of anecdotes, including allegations of devil-worship at a Welsh rugby club and an account of the game's contribution to the Cuban Revolution. This is a must-read for any fan of the oval ball.

AN EPIC SWINDLE is the inside story of how Liverpool FC came within hours of being re-possessed by the banks after the shambolic 44-month reign of American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett. It is the tale of a civil war that dragged Britain's most successful football club to its knees, through the High Court and almost into administration. Players Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher tell of their anger at the broken promises, as well as their pain at watching loyal fans in open revolt. Manager, chief executive, board members, leading fans and journalists reveal the turmoil at a revered sporting institution run by two men at war with each other, who trampled Liverpool's cherished traditions into the gutter. No story sums up the naked greed at the heart of modern football quite like Hicks' and Gillett's attempt to turn a buck at Liverpool. No-one has had as much access to the truth, or tells it with as much passion, wit and insight as Brian Reade. AN EPIC SWINDLE is the riveting story of how close one of the great football clubs came to financial implosion.

'MASTERFUL' Raphael Honigstein The story of superclub Bayern Munich by the critically acclaimed author of Tor! Bayern Munich is a team of extremes. They are the most passionately supported club in Germany and the most hated. There is no doubt that they are the most successful. Winners of twenty-four domestic titles since the late 1960s, they have stood at the pinnacle of European football for almost their entire existence. Through interviews with the key protagonists, Uli Hesse tells the story of this unique club. From early run-ins with the Nazis to being dubbed FC Hollywood for their egocentric stars in the 1990s up to the sensational undercover appointment of the best coach in the world, Pep Guardiola, Hesse opens the doors on Bavaria's superpower and takes you inside Bayern Munich.

***Includes a new foreword by Gary Lineker about football in lockdown*** Shortlisted for The Telegraph Sports Book Awards 'Lineker is nearly as good a presenter as I was a footballer' DIEGO MARADONA 'Hilarious, almost as funny as me' ALAN SHEARER 'This is Lineker unleashed. As a non-football nut I didn't expect to enjoy it, but between laddish anecdotes are passages of sudden tenderness. . . Lineker opens up, dislodging memories and reflections, not just about football but his whole life.' THE TIMES _______________________________________________________________ 'Football is a simple game. 22 players chase a ball for 90 minutes, and at the end the Germans always win.' This book is inspired by the stories Danny and I have shared with each other about what life in football is really like: in the dressing room, in the commentary box, on the pitch and - with the appropriate pixellation - in the showers afterwards. What's it really like to play with Messi? I wouldn't know, but I have starred alongside him in an advert for Walkers crisps. And, well, his performance was world-class. And what is a life in football really like? You won't learn much from the dull-as-dishwater post-match interviews - it's a world of secrets, superstitions, laughs and personalities, and let me tell you, half of it you won't believe. I've looked back at my playing days, from England to Leicester, Everton to Barcelona, Tottenham to, er, Nagoya Grampus Eight, and shared the chaotic behind-the-scenes secrets of Match of the Day - and Danny has chipped in with stories from a lifetime following the game as a fan. From Italia '90 to Leicester's Premier League fairytale, from yellow cards to World Cup trophies (I've never been awarded either), from Gascoigne to Maradona, you'll find it all here - everything you always wanted to know about football, but didn't realise that you did. Inspired by the No.1 podcast Behind Closed Doors

_________ 'WE ARE LIVERPOOL - THIS MEANS MORE.' JUERGEN KLOPP Allez Allez Allez is the inside account of Liverpool FC during the Klopp era, including the 2018/19 campaign which saw the club compete in the most gripping Premier League title race in history and become Champions of Europe for the sixth time. Featuring access to management, players and staff, Allez Allez Allez explains how Liverpool have emerged from what Jurgen Klopp described as the "depression" of 2015 to achieve feats that have eluded an entire generation of supporters. Through original research and exclusive interviews, Simon Hughes takes readers into Melwood, the club's training ground, and behind the dressing room door. He takes them to Chapel Street, where the club's business is determined, and to America, where it is owned. He takes them into Anfield, where many of the most important moments are defined, and he takes them on to the pitches of the Premier League and the Champions League, as we revisit how Liverpool stormed their way to the top of the Premier League this season.

In the 1880s, a Brooklyn baseball manager plotted to steal pitching signs and alert batters with a hidden electrical wire. In 1951, the Brooklyn Dodgers were robbed of a pennant via a sign-stealing scheme involving a center field office, a telescope and a button connected to the bullpen phone. In 2019, the Los Angeles Dodgers were robbed of a World Series championship via a sign-stealing system involving a TV camera, a monitor, a trash can and a bat. History has often repeated itself around the Dodgers franchise. From their beginnings as the Brooklyn Atlantics to their move from Flatbush to L.A. and into the 21st Century, the Dodgers and have seen heartbreaking losses and stirring triumphs, broken the color barrier, turned the game into a true coast-to-coast sport and produced many Hall of Famers, This is their story.

The story of the world's most formidable rugby team. The record of the All Blacks in world rugby is unmatched. From the famous pre match challenge of the haka to the scintillating brand of rugby they play, the team draws thousands around the world to stadiums and TVs to watch them play. Over the years, some of the greatest players to ever pick up a rugby ball have worn the iconic black jersey – names like Lomu, Meads, Carter and Barrett. From the first ever tours to the modern World Cups, the All Blacks embody a legacy of excellence that strikes fear into the heart of their opponents. 'Son, you've got to be prepared to piss blood to wear this jersey.' - All Black flanker Mark Shaw to debutant Mike Brewer, 1986. The 1924/5 All Black side won an astonishing 31 games in a row on their tour to the United Kingdom, France and North America. When they arrived back in New Zealand they were dubbed 'The Invincibles'.

Front Up, Rise Up is the story of Connacht's remarkable journey to becoming the 2016 Pro12 champions. The story goes inside the dressing-room, takes in their unscheduled, week-long, bonding trek to Siberia and back for a European Challenge Cup game, and all the key twists and turns along the way. It brings us the characters in this Band of Brothers, from the locals such as captain John Muldoon from Portumna to their iconic fans' favourite Bundee Aki - who like their talismanic coach Pat Lam is a Kiwi from Auckland of Samoan descent - and their Nigerian-born and Dublin-raised match-winner Niyi Adeolokun. The story takes in the province's troubled professional history, which had them on the brink of extinction as a professional entity in 2003 and led to Connacht and their supporters marching to the IRFU offices in a successful bid to keep them afloat. It covers their dethroning of the champions Glasgow in the Sportsground in Galway and their stunning performance in the final against Leinster in Edinburgh. In more than two decades of professional rugby, there has been no story quite like it.

The story of Manchester United told through ten key matches that have helped to shape its history. Award-winning football writer Jonathan Wilson selects ten landmark games from Manchester United's past, from the first time they lifted the FA Cup, beating Bristol City in 1909, to the Cup victory of 2016 that proved to be Louis van Gaal's last match in charge. In doing so, he identifies the pivotal moments in the club's rise to becoming one of the foremost teams of the twentieth century. With his trademark tactical acumen, Wilson goes back to the games themselves and subjects them to forensic examination, re-evaluating and reassessing, and going beyond the white noise of banal player quotes and instant judgements to uncover what really happened. The result is a unique football history of one of England's greatest and most famous clubs.

Olympic rowers Gary and Paul O'Donovan may be the face of Irish rowing and Skibbereen Rowing Club, and have enormously increased the popularity of rowing in Ireland, but they're just one piece of a much larger jigsaw. Without their club and the people behind the scenes, they wouldn't be Olympic silver medalists, 2018 world champions, former European champions and, in Paul's case, a three-time world champion. Almost one hundred Skibbereen Rowing Club athletes have represented Ireland at various regattas over the years; a staggering figure when viewed in light of the size of the club. Founded in 1970, it is now the undisputed most successful rowing club in the country, producing five Olympic rowers since 2000 and four world champions between 2016 and 2018. It is the characters involved in the club, the coaches, members and the athletes themselves, who come together to make Skibbereen Rowing Club what it is. Something in the Water reveals what goes on behind the scenes to create an environment that allows locals to excel on the national and international stages. The story is told through the people and families involved, showing how relatable they are to people around the country.

Sheffield Wednesday, the third oldest football club in England, have experienced contrasting fortunes in their first 150 years but remain one of the best-supported teams in the land, with a rich and fascinating history. Within these pages, the ups and downs of 'The Owls' are covered in detail, from the formation of the original cricket club in 1820 to the present day. At a general meeting held on Wednesday 4 September 1867 at the Adelphi Hotel, it was decided to form a football club from the membership of the Wednesday Cricket Club as a means of keeping together the members of the cricket club during the winter season. Thus began the story of one of the most respected and cherished football clubs in England, springing from the spiritual home of football itself. The Wednesday Football Club played their first ever game in September 1867 and within twenty years had turned professional as Sheffield Wednesday, making their home at Olive Grove. When the lease for Olive Grove expired in 1899, Sheffield Wednesday made the long trek north to the suburb of Owlerton, taking up residence at the Owlerton Stadium, later to be renamed Hillsborough. To mark Sheffield Wednesday's 150th anniversary, club historian Jason Dickinson has painstakingly researched and written a comprehensive history of this venerable old club, one that every self-respecting Wednesday fan will want to read.

Ray Didinger, like every die-hard Eagles fan, has been waiting since the 1960 NFL Title for the Birds to win the Super Bowl. In this "Champions Edition" of The Eagles Encyclopedia, beloved Eagles commentator Didinger celebrates his team and their remarkable, against-all-odds season that ended at Super Bowl LII, where they claimed victory over the Patriots in Minnesota. Didinger updates his best-selling book The Eagles Encyclopedia with the departure of Coach Chip Kelly and the dawn of the Doug Pederson era. He provides a new chapter on the 2017-18 season and postseason. And he includes dozens of new player, coach, and front-office profiles as well as Hall of Fame updates on 2018 inductees Brian Dawkins and Terrell Owens. But wait, there's more! An all-new 16-page color insert highlights key moments on the road to the Super Bowl Iconic photos old and new, from Concrete Charlie Bednarik's tackle of Frank Gifford to Nick Foles and the Philly Special More than 100 new photos from the recent season as well as from earlier periods in the Eagles' storied history TheEagles Encyclopedia: Champions Edition is more than a keepsake of a championship season. It is a book about a city and a team and the emotion that binds them.

He stayed out of the spotlight, but Leafs fans know J.P. Bickell cast a long shadow. A self-made mining magnate and the man who kept the Maple Leafs in Toronto and financed Maple Leaf Gardens, J.P. Bickell lived an extraordinary and purposeful life. As one of the most important industrialists in Canadian history, Bickell left his mark on communities across the nation. He was a cornerstone of the Toronto Maple Leafs, which awards the J.P. Bickell Memorial Award to recognize outstanding service to the organization. Bickell's story is also tied up with some of the most famous Canadians of his day, including Mitchell Hepburn, Roy Thomson, and Conn Smythe. Through his charitable foundation, he has been a key benefactor of the Hospital for Sick Children, and his legacy continues to transform Toronto. Yet, though Bickell was so important both to Toronto and the Maple Leafs, the story of his incredible life is today largely obscure. This book sets the record straight, presenting the definitive story of his rise to prominence and his lasting legacy - on the ice and off.

As an expansion Major League Soccer team, the Orlando City Soccer Club marked the return of professional soccer to Florida for the first time since 2001, selling out the sixty-thousand-seat Citrus Bowl for its home opener and going on to have the second-highest home attendance for the 2015 and 2016 seasons. It was the successful culmination of a nine-year process orchestrated by the team's owner, Phil Rawlins, who sold his successful sales consultancy company for a shot at sports ownership and a chance to tap into America's growing interest in pro soccer. Rawlins was relentless in building a franchise from the ground up, overcoming crippling setbacks, devious politics, and near financial ruin. Underpinning his efforts was a deep commitment to re-creating the tribal passion and community spirit of his hometown team in the United Kingdom, Stoke City, for which he served as board member for fourteen years. The payoff was the Orlando City Soccer Club, an attractive new team that galvanized the region. The subsequent acquisition of international superstar Ricardo Kaka catapulted the club to celebrity status and ensured that its debut season defied expectations. Defying Expectations gives insight into the challenges faced on the road to success, challenges through which Rawlins has remained focused on the six core values that he and his wife formulated at their kitchen table years ago, continuing to foster a community institution that gives back as much as it receives.

In 1932 laundry-store tycoon George Preston Marshall became part owner of the Boston Braves franchise in the National Football League. To separate his franchise from the baseball team, he renamed it the Redskins in 1933 and then in 1937 moved his team to Washington DC, where the team won two NFL championships over the next decade. But it was off the field that Marshall made his lasting impact. An innovator, he achieved many "firsts" in professional football. His team was the first to telecast all its games, have its own fight song and a halftime show, and assemble its own marching band and cheerleading squad. He viewed football as an entertainment business and accordingly made changes to increase scoring and improve the fan experience. But along with innovation, there was controversy. Marshall was a proud son of the South, and as the fifties came to a close, his team remained the only franchise in the three major league sports to not have a single black player. Marshall came under pressure from Congress and the NFL and its president, Pete Rozelle, as league expansion and new television contract possibilities forced the issue on the reluctant owner. Outside forces finally pushed Marshall to trade for Bobby Mitchell, the team's first black player, in 1962. With the story of Marshall's holdout as the backdrop, Fight for Old DC chronicles these pivotal years when the NFL began its ascent to the top of the nation's sporting interest.

This brand-new edition of Classic Cavs counts down the fifty greatest Cleveland Cavaliers games, from their 67-loss inaugural NBA season in 1970-71 through the franchise's renaissance following the triumphant return of LeBron James. The rich, colorful history of the Cavs is woven into tales that tie together the early games at rickety old Cleveland Arena, the incredible highs and heartbreaking lows played out at Richfield Coliseum, and the fierce battles waged at the "Q." Knight ranks last-second nail-biters alongside satisfying routs and postseason epics, from the phenomenon known as the "Miracle of Richfield" to the Cavs' trips to the NBA Finals. Included are the heroics of characters like Bingo Smith, Austin Carr, World B. Free, Mark Price, Craig Ehlo, Kyrie Irving, and, of course, LeBron James. Whether it was because of a fantastic finish or an amazing individual performance, each game included in Classic Cavs is worth remembering and revisiting, appealing to Cavaliers fans everywhere.

Baseball fans might know the story of the Brooklyn Dodgers, but they don't know the whole story. Until now. David Krell brings the magic of the Brooklyn Dodgers to life in Blue Magic: The Brooklyn Dodgers, Ebbets Field, and Baseball's Greatest Legacy. Utilizing archival documents, contemporary press accounts, and interviews with fans, he chronicles the genesis, glory, and demise of the team that changed baseball--and America--in excruciating detail that will satisfy the diehard baseball enthusiast. With a Foreword by Branch Barrett Rickey--Branch Rickey's Grandson--Blue Magic fills voids in Dodgers scholarship by exploring the impact of the Brooklyn Dodgers on popular culture, illuminating the genesis of the team's history, and revealing personal stories of the fans that embraced Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Carl Erskine, Roy Campanella, and the other sentinels of Ebbets Field.

John Fallon remains one of Celtic's great characters and is a lifelong supporter of the club. Now, for the first time, this Celtic legend tells the fascinating inside story of his career in football and his years with the club. Fallon joined Celtic in the late 1950s when the club was struggling, saw a fair amount of the desperate days of 1963 and 1964 but was there at the start of the glory years when Celtic won the Scottish Cup in 1965. He shared in good and bad times with the club, was the substitute goalkeeper at the European Cup Final in Lisbon in 1967, and was suddenly called into action in South America when Ronnie Simpson was felled by a missile - and performed brilliantly. He hit a low point in 1968 after one bad game against Rangers at the New Year, but fought back gloriously to play his part in the incredible month of April 1969 when Celtic won all three Scottish domestic trophies in one calendar month. It is a career he is rightly proud of and now John Fallon reveals the inside story and some brand new insights into his relationship with Jock Stein and other members of the Lisbon Lions, which were not always straightforward.There are accounts of his dealings with opponents, the clashes with Rangers and with European opposition in what was a fantastic era for the game in Scotland. He also shares his opinions on the art of goalkeeping, the state of Celtic at the moment and the future of the game in Scotland.