Showing titles in History of Sports

"I can lick any son of a bitch in the world." So boasted John L. Sullivan, the first modern heavyweight boxing champion of the world, a man who was the gold standard of American sports for more than a decade and the first athlete to earn more than a million dollars. He had a big ego, a big mouth, and even bigger appetites. His womanizing, drunken escapades, and chronic police-blotter presence were godsends to a burgeoning newspaper industry.

In the wake of the Tour de France’s fallen heroes, the story of one of history’s most legendary cyclists provides a much-needed antidote. In 1907 the world’s most popular athlete was not Cy Young or Ty Cobb. Rather, he was a black bicycle racer named "Major” Taylor. In his day, Taylor became a spiritual and athletic idol. He was the fastest man in America and a champion who prevailed over unspeakable cruelty. The men who aided him were among the most colorful to emerge from the era.

Bruce Lee remains the gold standard that all martial artists are compared to. But could he actually fight? World Champions in karate competition have gone on record to point out that he never once competed in tournaments. Were his martial abilities merely a trick of the camera? For the first time ever, Bruce Lee authority and bestselling author John Little takes a hard look at Bruce Lee's real-life fights to definitively answer these questions with over thirty years of research that took him thousands of miles.

Since 2015, Fred Segal has chronicled "unprophetic" sports predictions on the internet. His Freezing Cold Takes social media pages feature quotes and predictions from members of the sports world that have aged poorly or were, in hindsight, flat-out wrong. The pages have become a guilty pleasure for hundreds of thousands of sports fans who love to see sports media's infamous "hot takes" that went cold.

Think you know everything about football? Which football match triggered a war? How did "the beautiful game" push back against the tyranny of dictatorship, and usher another into power? Kicking Off Around the World includes 55 incredible stories in which football clubs have been a mirror to—and a maker of—world history and politics.

Combining extensive historical research with dozens of oral history interviews, Pamela Grundy and Susan Shackelford bring life and depth to stories of the many generations of female athletes who have fought for liberation on and off the court.

This telling of the 2024 Tour de France is an addition to our two-volume The Story of the Tour de France: How a Newspaper Promotion Became the Greatest Sporting Event in the World, and five supplements.

Charlamos de Usain Bolt, el jamaicano que es el hombre más veloz del planeta. Diego A. Maradona, el 10, el Dios que para muchos es el mejor jugador de la historia y Michael Phelps, quien se adueñó de las albercas para hacerlas sus campos de juego.

Charlamos de Johan Cruyft, el símbolo holandés del futbol total y astro del futbol de los 70s; además hablamos del rey del golf Tiger Woods y de 'El Bambino' Babe Ruth, beisbolista que es uno de los primeros ídolos y héroes del deporte.

Was there ever a year in golf like 1960? It was the year that the sport and its vivid personalities exploded on the consciousness of the nation, when the past, present, and future of the game collided. Television, still a new medium, provided a fresh window to this fascinating show and enabled this "rich man's sport" to win over millions of new fans.

Award-winning journalist John Taylor projects the stories of Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and other stars from the NBA's golden age onto a backdrop of racial tensions and cultural change. Taylor's electrifying account of two complex men is an epic narrative of sports in America during the 1960s. Filled with dramatic conflicts and some of the great moments in sports history, and building to a thrilling climax, The Rivalry has at its core a philosophical question: Can determination and a team ethos, embodied by the ultimate team player trump sheer talent?

Dive into the exhilarating journey of Brazilian football, a sport that transcends fields and unites a nation. From the humble beginnings of kicking a ball on sandy beaches to the roaring stadiums filled with fans singing in unison, this book unravels the rich tapestry of Brazil's football history.

From spring training to the World Series, 1978 gave baseball fans one of the sport's greatest seasons, full of legendary moments like the battle between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox for the American League East pennant, Gaylord Perry's three thousandth strikeout, Tom Seaver's only career no-hitter, Willie McCovey's five hundredth home run, and Pete Rose's marathon forty-four-game hitting streak.

Yoga in its authentic form is focused on inclusivity, inner work and peace. But the yoga that is practised in the Western world has got a little lost along the way… Join Nikita Desai on her mission to help us understand yoga beyond the physical poses and pricey outfits that we’re so familiar with today. Drawing on research and teachings from ancient sources, Desai helps us navigate this complex practice.

Millions follow the F1 racing season from March to November, but few realise the enormity and complexity of a sport that encompasses so much more than 20 or so Sunday afternoons in the year. With access to drivers, pit crews, backroom operations, strategists, journalists, PR executives and promoters, journalist Phillip Horton shares his extensive knowledge and experience, and provides an up-close-and-personal insight into the world and workings of Formula One.

When James Montague first began covering football in the Middle East two decades ago, people asked him what future there could possibly be for the beautiful game in one of the most volatile regions in the world. In the years that followed, it would become one of the biggest stories in global sport, from the from revolutionary ultras of the Arab Spring and the takeover of some of the world's biggest clubs by the Emirati super rich, to Qatar's controversial journey towards hosting the 2022 World Cup finals.

In full and intricate detail, featuring an amazing cast of characters from the worlds of politics, athletics, entertainment and more, this is the story of how President Theodore Roosevelt helped shepherd in a sports and fitness revolution that forever changed the complexion of the United States.

Soccer has been America's Sport of the Future since 1972. The Men in Blazers are two English-born, soccer-obsessed broadcasters who have savored the dizzying growth of the game along with millions of Americans, as if it was a rollicking, sporting telenovela playing out in real life. Written in such a way that fully immerses Americans in the history and culture of the world's game, their Encyclopedia Blazertannica relives the careers of such greats such as George Best, Maradona, Beckham...and Alexi Lalas.

There are certain moments that simply transcend sports. They become larger than life and bigger than anyone ever thought possible, leaping off the field, the court, or the diamond and into the annals of not only history, but the very fabric of the American milieu. We all just witnessed such a moment on February 5th, 2017, when the New England Patriots battled back from the largest deficit in Super Bowl history to once again become world champions and secure Tom Brady’s legacy as the greatest quarterback of all time.

In the 1960s, on the heels of the “Greatest Game Ever Played”, professional football began to flourish across the country - except in Texas, where college football was still the only game in town. But in an unlikely series of events, two young oil tycoons started their own professional football franchises in Dallas the very same year: the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, and, as part of a new upstart league designed to thwart the NFL’s hold on the game, the Dallas Texans of the AFL. Almost overnight, a bitter feud was born.