Biography Sports Coaches

In this New York Times best seller, College football’s most colorful, endearing, and successful pioneer, Steve Spurrier, shares his story of a life in football - from growing up in Tennessee to winning the Heisman Trophy to playing and coaching in the pros to leading the Florida Gators to six SEC Championships and a National Championship to elevating the South Carolina program to new heights - and coaching like nobody else.

When most people think of the celebrated greatness that is Coach Dan Gable, they think of an almost mythic intensity toward wrestling. Gable breathes and bleeds the sport and faithfully applies lessons learned from both on and off the mat. Expanding upon Gable's first collection of stories, A Wrestling Life 2 goes a little deeper into the mindset and life events that have shaped the man, the wrestler, and the coach.

The definitive autobiography of the legendary rugby coach who has led Wales to three Grand Slams and four Six Nations titles and masterminded two hugely successful Southern Hemisphere tours at the helm of the British and Irish Lions.

When Jen Welter became a linebackers coach for the Arizona Cardinals in 2015, she was the first woman to ever break the glass sideline of the NFL. In Play Big, Welter reveals the grit that it took to be a trailblazer in the ultimate boys' club.

In Phil Jackson: The Inspiring Life and Leadership Lessons of One of Basketball's Greatest Coaches, you will learn the story of how Phil Jackson became one of the greatest coaches of all time. A two-time NBA champion as a player, and an 11-time NBA champion as a coach, Phil Jackson knows how to win and knows how to inspire players to play at the highest of levels.

Since joining the Celtics organization in the summer of 2013, Brad Stevens has led the resurgence of the Celtics in the Eastern Conference. Stevens has demonstrated impressive leadership in his ability to quickly build rapport with many different personalities and to create a sustainable system of success. There are a number of key leadership lessons that can be learned from Stevens, such as instilling a strong work ethic, believing in your organizational philosophy, and fostering a growth mindset.

America's favorite sportswriter teams up with Red Auerbach, the most successful and admired coach in basketball history, to tell the best stories of a legendary life.

In this "powerful and inspiring" true story, follow Joe Moglia's legendary career transition from head football coach at Coastal Carolina University to the CEO of TD Ameritrade, one of the country's most successful financial firms. By the time Joe was in his early 30s, he had risen through the high school and college football ranks to become the defensive coordinator at Dartmouth. His dream was very much within reach. Problem was, Joe wasn't making enough money to support his growing family.

Collectively, Rick Pitino, Jim Calhoun, and Gary Williams have won more than 2,300 games and six national championships and reached thirteen Final Fours. Before Pitino became the face of the Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville programs, before Calhoun turned UConn into a national power, and before Williams brought Maryland to its first national championship, these coaches cut their teeth in front of modest-sized crowds in college gymnasiums of Boston during the '70s and '80s. Boston Ball charts how this trio of coaches, seemingly out of nowhere, started a basketball revolution

Come spend a week with legendary Coach John Wooden at his summer basketball camp! Filled with timeless basketball and life wisdom from Coach Wooden, this recollection of those summer days includes stories about campers, coaches, and the Dallas Cowboys who experienced camp alongside Coach, a humble hero who did not disappoint. Author Greg Hayes witnessed the beloved coach mentor, mold, teach, and inspire players and coaches of all ages, leaving a legacy that seeped into the future of all those he encountered.

Superstar coach Patrick Mouratoglou knows what it takes to win. An international icon in the world of tennis, he coached Serena Williams for a decade at the height of her career. More recently he’s worked with top-seeded players including Coco Gauff, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Simona Halep, and Holger Rune. Now, in Champion Mindset, Mouratoglou distills his lifetime of coaching excellence into ten commandments that are applicable to achieving success in all aspects of life, not just the court.

What would one call taking teens with no evident running talent and putting them through breakneck training combined with mantras from rock n' roll, techniques from Kenya, and philosophy from Australia, and turning them into champions? Is it revolutionary? Or just plain crazy? Bill Aris has heard both, but one thing is indisputable. Everything Aris does with his runners - male and female - is new and extraordinary, and he has created a new American running dynasty.

Harry Sydney III is known for his Straight Talk-Sound Direction. The story of Sydney’s path from North Carolina to three Super Bowls and on to the founding of My Brother's Keeper, will inspire and challenge you to overcome the odds standing between you and your destiny. Told in Harry's unique voice, Win from Within takes listeners on a journey across the U.S. and Canada, from an abusive and alcoholic home to locker rooms filled with world champions; chasing his dream, developing his story, defying all odds, and overcoming disappointments.

Gordie Gillespie’s coaching prowess stands alone: While coaching three sports - baseball, football, and basketball - his teams won 2,410 games, four national collegiate baseball titles, and five Illinois State High School football championships, he was inducted into 18 halls of fame, including the College Baseball Hall of Fame, won four NAIA national baseball coach of the year awards, named the NAIA Baseball Coach of the Century in 2000, and his 1,888 wins in collegiate baseball made him the highest winning collegiate baseball coach of all time.

That afternoon was the last time the high-school Patriots would see one another for weeks; some teammates they'd never see again. Hurricane Katrina was about to tear their lives apart. Hurricane Season is the story of a great football coach, his team, his family, and their school - and a remarkable fight back from shocking tragedy.

Warren Gatland's In the Line of Fire is the ultimate chronicle of this summer's remarkable Lions tour to New Zealand - home of the fearsome All Blacks, the double world champions - which culminated in a historic and nerve-shredding series draw. The book is the Head Coach's wonderfully candid and vibrant record of the withering ferocity, the turbulent peaks and troughs and the triumphs and despairs of one of sport's toughest challenges.

While the household was buffeted by the coach's tumultuous firings and hirings, which periodically propelled the family to a new city, Jennifer dreamed of being the first female quarterback in the NFL. But as she grew, she yearned mostly to be someone that her father would notice. In a world where only football mattered, what could she strive for, who could she become?

Charles Adams is a product of the Minneapolis’s North Side, the city’s poorest neighborhood, and of North High, the state’s poorest school. After graduation he joined the Minneapolis Police Department, overcoming racial prejudice within its ranks to become his alma mater’s resource officer. Then something magical happened. Adams stepped in as football coach, and transformed a winless team into state champions. As North High began to thrive, Adams was hailed as a model of what a Black man from a Black neighborhood might be. That lasted until Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd.

When Coach Joe Kennedy started offering a prayer on the field after each high school football game, the school district tried to shut him down, launching a seven-year legal battle that went to the Supreme Court—twice. In June 2022, he won. Average Joe is the story of an unlikely champion of religious freedom. A former atheist, Kennedy never imagined he’d lead the defense of Americans’ First Amendment rights. He certainly didn’t intend to be at odds with his wife, who was the school district’s personnel director.

In 1971, a small-town high school baseball team from rural Illinois playing with hand-me-down uniforms and peace signs on their hats defied convention and the odds. Led by an English teacher with no coaching experience, the Macon Ironmen emerged from a field of 370 teams to become the smallest school in Illinois history to make the state final, a distinction that still stands. There, sporting long hair, and warming up to "Jesus Christ Superstar", the Ironmen would play a dramatic game that would change their lives forever.