Sports Culture

Speaking directly to sick, queer, trans, disabled, and BIPOC listeners, Deconstructing the Fitness Industrial Complex is part urgent inquiry, part radical deconstruction, and part call to action: to build spaces that welcome and work for all; to reclaim movement as a vital and liberatory practice; and to embody a model of joy and community care outside the mainstream fitness culture.

This book chronicles the long and tortured history of the NCAA's attempt to maintain the myth of amateurism and the student-athlete, along with the attendant fiction that the players academic achievement is the top priority of Division-I athletic programs. It is an indictment of the current system, making the case that big-time college sports cannot continue its connection to universities without undermining the mission of higher education. It concludes with bold proposals to separate big-time college sports from the university, transforming them into on-campus business operations.

The millions of fans who watch World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) programs each year are well aware of their role in building the narrative of the sport. #WWE: Professional Wrestling in the Digital Age explores the intersections between media, technology, and fandom in WWE's contemporary programming and business practices. In the Reality Era of WWE (2011 to the present), wrestling narratives have increasingly drawn on real-life personalities and events that stretch beyond the story-world created and maintained by WWE.

In the spring of 2013, a study showed that despite huge economic problems, 27 states were awarding their highest salaries to college football coaches. College football has doubled in size in the last decade thanks to generous tax breaks, lavish TV deals, and corporate sponsors eager to slap their logos on everything from scoreboards to footballs and uniforms. In one recent year, the 10 biggest programs took in $800 million from football, with profit margins far surpassing those of Fortune 500 companies.

In Pinstripe Nation, Will Bishop explores the myriad of ways in which the Yankees and their successes (or spectacular failures) became interwoven with the nation's larger cultural narrative. As this informative and entertaining audiobook amply shows, the Yankees have, through all their ups and downs, retained a hold on the American imagination unmatched by any other sports franchise.

On a scorching hot day in July 1936, thousands of people cheered as the US Olympic teams boarded the SS Manhattan, bound for Berlin. Among the athletes were the 14 players representing the first-ever US Olympic basketball team. This is the incredible true story of basketball, from its invention by James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891, to the sport's Olympic debut in Berlin and the eclectic mix of people, events, and propaganda on both sides of the Atlantic that made it all possible.

For most of the 20th century, the “Mr. America” image epitomized muscular manhood. From humble beginnings in 1939 at a small gym in Schenectady, New York, the Mr. America Contest became the world’s premier bodybuilding event over the next 30 years. Interviewing nearly one hundred major figures in the physical culture movement (including 25 Mr. Americas) and incorporating copious printed and manuscript sources, John D. Fair has created the definitive study of this iconic phenomenon.

Was Cleopatra the last Egyptian pharaoh? Can you really make diamonds out of tequila? Is the platypus actually poisonous? Think you can spot the fake? Get your bullsh*t radar warmed up, because each entry in Spot the Bullsh*t hides one well-crafted fib among a pair of unbelievable truths. And it’s up to you to figure out what’s fascinating and what’s full of sh*t in science, history, pop culture and more.

For years, I was a violent sociopath as a direct result of my childhood and then experiences as a soldier. My adventures in the methamphetamine culture certainly exacerbated that. I am not proud of this. I'm just saying what it is; that being said, this book will articulate that experience in a series of amusing anecdotes and thoughts that explain the important lessons that I learned during that time.

In Soccer in American Culture: The Beautiful Game’s Struggle for Status, G. Edward White seeks to answer two questions. The first is why the sport of soccer failed to take root in the United States when it spread from England around much of the rest of the world in the late 19th and 20th centuries. The second is why the sport has had a significant renaissance in America since the last decade of the 20th century, to the point where it is now the fourth largest participatory sport in the United States and is thriving at the high school, college, and professional levels.

Are you learning English? Then one of the BEST ways to speak and understand more English is to learn more words. Words that are relevant to American daily life and culture. These will make you sound like a native speaker. Since Americans love sports, with Learn English: Discover American Culture & Traditions (Sports in America) by Innovative Language Learning, you'll learn sports related vocab and insights. The best part? You'll be able to speak with native speakers about one of their most-loved topics - sports!

Eager to celebrate its history, and display its athletic potential, the United States hosted the nation’s first Olympic games in 1904 St. Louis. But within a few years, the publication of Coubertin’s memoirs turned the praised Olympics into the failed Olympics. America’s First Olympics corrects common misconceptions that began with Coubertin’s memoirs, and presents a fresh view of the 1904 games, which featured first-time African American Olympians, an eccentric and controversial marathon, and documentation by pioneering photojournalist Jessie Tarbox Beals.

In From Sandlots to the Super Bowl, Craig R. Coenen recounts the NFL's ascension from a cash-strapped laughingstock to a perennial autumn obsession for millions of sports fans. It offers an in-depth summary of the NFL's early years and its struggles to build an identity. This book approaches the history of the National Football League not only with stats and scores but with what happened beyond the gridiron.

This book contains a treasure trove of 1,001 facts that will astound you. Whether you're a trivia enthusiast, a parent looking for a fun learning tool, or simply someone who loves to learn new things, 1,001 Amazing Random Fun Facts for Adults and Kids is just the audiobook you need. Forget about boring textbooks and stale encyclopaedia entries! This audiobook captures the attention of both young and old with its easy-to-understand language and bite-sized snippets of knowledge. Perfect for road trips!

Katie Sandwina was the strongest woman the world had ever seen. In her circus performances, she bent steel bars, broke chains, and carried a cannon! She could lift men with one hand and twirl them around! In an era when “proper ladies” were expected to be helpless and frail, Katie showed everyone that women could be powerful. She also spoke up for women’s equality and the right to vote.

Borja Bauzá no escribe de oídas. Él mismo formó parte de una banda ultra en su juventud, y para escribir este libro ha pasado años recorriendo España de norte a sur y de este a oeste para entrevistarse con docenas de hooligans de todas las aficiones y de todas las ideologías. Este no es un libro denuncia ni un libro blanqueador. Es una enciclopedia sociológica, cultural y política de un fenómeno de masas desde sus orígenes en los años 70 hasta el día de hoy, pasando por el caos de los años 80, el salvajismo de los años 90 y la sofisticación que llegó a partir del 2000 con las nuevas tecnologías.

When Gerald Eskenazi started reporting, sports journalism had a different look than it does today. Eskenazi gives a behind-the-scenes look into the journalistic techniques that go into crafting a story, as well as the pitfalls reporters fall into. There are cautionary tales of journalistic excess, as well as moments of triumph such as the time Eskenazi got Joe Namath to open up to him by admitting he was a sportswriter who knew nothing about football. Along the way, Eskenazi discusses interviewing other reluctant subjects and writing under the intense pressure of a deadline.

In Praise of Famous Horses is an A-Z companion to perhaps the most loved of all domesticated animals. The book's entries include a wealth of unexpected, fascinating and serendipitous information, from horse-slang phrases to horses in British pub signs and from the horse in advertising to the horse as a food item. Themes such as the horse in warfare and the horse in folklore abound.

In Championship Culture, you learn the seven essentials for building a championship culture through a fun and exciting story. This story is about Pillar #2 in the 12 Pillars of Peak Performance and is the third book.

Introduced shortly after the United States declared its independence, poker's growth and development has paralleled that of America itself. As a gambling game with mass appeal, poker has been played by presidents and peasants, at kitchen tables and final tables, for matchsticks and millions. First came the hands, then came the stories - some true, some pure bluffs, and many in between. In Poker & Pop Culture: Telling the Story of America's Favorite Card Game, Martin Harris shares these stories while chronicling poker's progress.