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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Winter sports
When the NHL announced in early 1976 that its two worst teams, the
Washington Capitals and Kansas City Scouts, would travel to Japan
for a four-game exhibition series dubbed the Coca-Cola Bottlers'
Cup, fans and media were baffled. The Capitals and the Scouts were
both expansion teams, with a combined 46 wins, 236 losses and 38
ties in their first two seasons--stats made more dismal when
considering seven of those wins were against each other. Yet
lagging so hopelessly behind the rest of the NHL, they were perfect
for a one-off event on the other side of the globe. The series was
an eye-opening success. Players skated on an Olympic swimming pool
ringed with rickety boards hung with fishing nets that boomeranged
pucks into their faces, as curious Japanese fans gasped at the
gap-toothed Canadians wrestling on the ice. Filled with rare photos
and player recollections, this book tells the story of how two
league doormats became hockey heroes half-way around the world.
Skiing in movies, like the sport itself, grew more prevalent
beginning in the 1930s, when it was a pastime of the elite, with
depictions reflecting changes in technique, fashion and social
climate. World War II saw skiing featured in a dozen films dealing
with that conflict. Fueled by postwar prosperity, the sport
exploded in the 1950s-filmmakers followed suit, using scenes on
snow-covered slopes for panoramic beauty and the thrill of the
chase. Through the free-spirited 1960s and 1970s, the downhill
lifestyle shussed into everything from spy thrillers to beach party
romps. The extreme sports era of the 1980s and 1990s brought
snowboarding to the big screen. This first ever critical history of
skiing in film chronicles a century of alpine cinema, with
production information and stories and quotes from directors,
actors and stuntmen.
Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Boston Bruins' 1970 Stanley
Cup championship season by reliving all the moments in Kooks and
Degenerates on Ice. While the United States seethed from racial
violence, war, and mass shootings, the 1969-70 "Big, Bad Bruins,"
led by the legendary Bobby Orr, brushed off their perennial losing
ways to defeat the St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup Finals for
their first championship in 29 years. In Kooks and Degenerates on
Ice: Bobby Orr, the Big Bad Bruins, and the Stanley Cup
Championship That Transformed Hockey, Thomas J. Whalen recounts all
the memorable moments from that championship season. Behind the
no-nonsense yet inspired leadership of head coach Harry Sinden, the
once laughingstock Bruins became the talk of the sporting world.
Nicknamed the "Big, Bad Bruins" for their propensity to out-brawl
and intimidate their opponents, the team rallied around the
otherworldly play of Bobby Orr and his hard-hitting teammates to
take the NHL by surprise in a season to remember. Kooks and
Degenerates on Ice brings to life all the colorful personalities
and iconic players from this Stanley Cup-raising team. In addition,
the season is placed into its historical context as the United
States struggled with issues of war, race, politics, and class,
making this a must-read for sports enthusiasts, hockey fans, and
those interested in twentieth-century American history.
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