In this stunning work of narrative nonfiction, Lars Anderson recounts one of college football's greatest contests: Carlisle vs. Army, the fateful 1912 gridiron clash that had far-reaching implications both real and symbolic. The story centers on three men: Glenn "Pop" Warner, who came to the Carlisle Indian School in 1903 and saw beyond its assimilationist agenda, molding the Carlisle Indians into a football juggernaut and smashing prejudices along the way; Jim Thorpe, who arrived at Carlisle as a troubled teenager-only to become one of America's finest athletes, dazzling his opponents and gai... View More...
The New York Times BestsellerEndzone tells the story of how college football's most successful, richest and respected program almost lost all three in less than a decade - and entirely of its own doing. It is a story of hubris, greed, and betrayal - a tale more suited to Wall Street than the world's top public university. Author John U. Bacon takes you inside the offices, the board rooms and the locker rooms of the University of Michigan to see what happened, and why - with countless eye-opening, head-shaking scenes of conflict and conquest. But Endzone is also an inspiring story of redemption... View More...
Like the Moneyball of college football, Three and Out blows the lid off one of the sports world's most perplexing mysteries.--Entertainment Weekly Three and Out tells the story of how college football's most influential coach, Rich Rodriguez, took over the nation's most successful program, only to produce three of the worst seasons in the University of Michigan's celebrated history. Coach Rich Rodriguez granted author and journalist John U. Bacon unrestricted access to the Michigan Wolverines' program. Bacon saw it all, from the meals and the meetings, to the practices and the games, to the si... View More...
Perhaps the best undefeated team in the history of college football--the dramatic true story of the 1988 Notre Dame Fighting Irish and their incredible unbeaten seasonThey were an unlikely crew tasked with a seemingly impossible mission: restore Notre Dame's place as a college football power. In 1988, led by a scrawny, bespectacled coach who spoke with a lisp, a black Baptist quarterback from South Carolina, and a ferocious defense, they returned Notre Dame to the top.Before Lou Holtz's arrive, the one-storied program of Rockne, Leahy, Parseghian, and George Gipp and the Four Horsemen had beco... View More...
One of only two remaining charter members of the National Football League, the Chicago Bears are a team steeped in history. With nine pro football championships and twenty-six hall of famers, the Bears are also among the most successful franchises in all of professional sports.Revised and updated to include the latest seasons on the gridiron, Chicago Bears: The Complete Illustrated History brings the team's vibrant history to life. Beginning with the franchise's 1919 origins as the Decatur Staleys, this lavishly illustrated book presents the highs and lows from more than nine decades of footba... View More...
In Chicago, the Bears's grip on the city spans generations and cultures, endures disappointments, and impels celebration of triumphs great and small. From the team's humble beginnings to its century-long status as the flagship NFL franchise, the Chicago Tribune has documented every season. The Chicago Tribune Book of the Chicago Bears is an impressive testament to Bears tradition, compiling photography, original box scores, and entertaining essays from Hall of Fame reporters. This expanded second edition will include updated writing from the past five years, and will be released to coincide w... View More...
"Papa Bear is everything a sports book should be: Passionate, encyclopedic, utterly biased and filled with endearingly anachronistic phrases. . ." --New York Times Book Review
Granted unprecedented access to George Halas's former players, friends and associates, author Jeff Davis tells the incredible story of how one man grabbed an outlaw game by the throat, shook it up, and made it into the most popular spectator sport on the planet.
This book is the story of one of the greatest football teams in the history of the NFL: the '85 Bears. They were, for a brief, magical moment, a band of eccentrics who went from nobodies to rock stars and cult figures--they took America on a wild ride in the middle of one of the wildest times in history. TheRise and Self-Destruction of the Greatest Football Team in History reveals all the stories from that year, like how Walter Payton ended up hiding in a storage closet and why the team collapsed under the weight of its own greatness. View More...
AN EXPLOSIVE AND REVELATORY PORTRAIT REPORTED FROM DEEP BEHIND THE SCENES OF BIG-TIME NCAA COLLEGE FOOTBALL: THE PASSION, THE THRILLING ACTION AND THE SHOCKING REALITIES THAT LIE BENEATH THIS COLOSSAL, MULTIBILLION-DOLLAR BUSINESS COLLEGE FOOTBALL has never been more popular or more chaotic. Millions fill 100,000-seat stadiums every Saturday; tens of millions more watch on television every weekend. The 2013 Discover BCS National Championship game between Notre Dame and Alabama had a viewership of 26.4 million people, second only to the Super Bowl. Billions of dollars from television deals now ... View More...
"A lyrical memoir . . . about his teammates, his coaches, his parents and the magnetic power of football in Louisiana."--NPR "The best sports book of the year."--Sports Illustrated Inspired by a classic essay about a visit to a dying coach, It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium explores in gorgeous detail the inescapable pull of college football--the cocky smiles behind the face masks, the two-a-day drills, the emotionally charged bus rides to the stadium, the curfew checks, the film-study sessions, the locker room antics, and the yawning void left in one's soul the moment the final whistle sound... View More...
Jim Thorpe was one of the greatest athletes who ever lived. He played professional football and Major League baseball, and won Olympic gold medals in track and field. But his life wasn't easy. Born on a reservation, he endured family tragedy and was sent to various Native American boarding schools. Jim ran away from school many times, until he found his calling under the now-legendary coach Pop Warner. This is a book for history buffs as well as sports fans?an illuminating and lively read about a truly great American by award-winning author Joseph Bruchac. The novel is a superb blend of ficti... View More...
The New York Times bestselling gripping account of a once-in-a-lifetime football team and their lone championship season For Rich Cohen and millions of other fans, the 1985 Chicago Bears were more than a football team: they were the greatest football team ever--a gang of colorful nuts, dancing and pounding their way to victory. They won a Super Bowl and saved a city. It was not just that the Monsters of the Midway won, but how they did it. On offense, there was high-stepping running back Walter Payton and Punky QB Jim McMahon, who had a knack for pissing off Coach Mike Ditka as he made his w... View More...
An unrivaled portrait of day-to-day life in the NFL: "Riveting . . . an instant classic" (New York Times Book Review). By spending a year with the New York Jets, Nicholas Dawidoff entered a mysterious and private world with its own rituals and language. Equal parts Paper Lion, Moneyball, Friday Night Lights, and The Office, this absorbing, funny, and vivid narrative gets to the heart of a massive and stressful collective endeavor. Here is football in many faces: the polarizing, brilliant, and hilarious head coach; the general manager, whose job is to support (and suppress) the irrepressible ... View More...
Follow the fascinating spurts of growth and introspection that helped a fiery coach with a wild temper learn to control himself and get the most from his players whose salaries and egos exceed his own. View More...
The football team in Smith Center, Kansas, holders of the nation's longest high-school winning streak, embrace a philosophy of life taught by their legendary coach, Roger Barta: Respect each other, then learn to love each other and together we are champions. But as the Redmen embarked on a quest for a fifth consecutive state title, they faced a potentially destabilizing transition: the greatest senior class in school history had graduated, and Coach Barta was contemplating retirement. In Smith Center--population: 1,931--this changing of the guard was seismic. Hours removed from the nearest ci... View More...
2008 Retailer's Choice Award winner Tony Dungy's words and example have intrigued millions of people, particularly following his victory in Super Bowl XLI, the first for an African American coach. How is it possible for a coach--especially a football coach--to win the respect of his players and lead them to the Super Bowl without the screaming histrionics, the profanities, the demand that the sport come before anything else? How is it possible for anyone to be successful without compromising faith and family? In this inspiring and reflective memoir, Coach Dungy tells the story of a life lived ... View More...
"Keith Dunnavant's triumph is that he takes us into the heart of Alabama, into the darkness and the light, and there we see Joe Namath, Kenny Stabler, Ray Perkins, and their band of brothers play football for Bear Bryant the way life should be lived, at full throttle, indomitably."---Dave Kindred, author of "Sound and Fury: Two Powerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship" The Missing Ring" is more than a football book. It is both a story of a changing era and of an extraordinary team on a championship quest." Very few institutions in American sports can match the enduring excellence of the Universi... View More...
Bill Belichick: "Julian is the epitome of competitiveness, toughness, and the great things that are possible when someone is determined to achieve their goals." Tom Brady: "It's a privilege for me to play with someone as special as Julian." The Super Bowl champion wide receiver for the New England Patriots shares his inspiring story of an underdog kid who was always doubted to becoming one of the most reliable and inspiring players in the NFL. When the Patriots were down 28-3 in Super Bowl LI, there was at least one player who refused to believe they would lose: Julian Edelman. And he said ... View More...
A Civil War portrays American college football in what the author believes is its purest form: two teams who play for love of the game and the honor of their schools, rather than for money or fame. Bestselling sportswriter John Feinstein follows the Army and Navy teams for a single season. View More...
