Showing titles in History of Sports

Swift, brutal, and utterly final: with knockouts, there are no grey areas; a KO is a KO. But what actually is a knockout, and why are we so fascinated by it? The Knockout is the most dramatic and devastating moment in sport. There is nothing to rival it: Not the last second goal, not the basket...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist comes “the best Jordan book so far” (The Washington Post), the story of Michael Jordan’s legendary years with the Chicago Bulls, capped by the 1998 NBA Finals and the team’s second three-peat. From The Breaks of the...

The author, a native of Philadelphia and an alumnus, as was Wilt Chamberlain, of Overbrook High School, spent four years researching and interviewing the most important people in Wilt's life. The result is a capturing of Wilt's personality and thoughts that relatively few people other than family and closest friends ever knew.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER History was made at the 2015 Belmont Stakes when American Pharoah won the Triple Crown, the first since Affirmed in 1978. As magnificent as the champion is, the team behind him has been all too human while on the road to immortality. Written by an award-winning New York...

The World Cup is the largest sports event outside the summer Olympics: the progress of the 32 countries which qualify for the finals is watched by billions all over the globe. Since the very first World Cup in Uruguay in 1930, there have been 18 finals, held every four years (with a 12-year break over the World War II period). The World Cup in South Africa will be the 19th. Brian Glanville, the distinguished journalist and World Cup historian, has written a fascinating history of the event.

Full of adventure, mishaps and audacious attempts at cheating, the first Tour de France in 1903 was a colourful affair. Its riders included characters like Maurice "The White Bulldog" Garin, an Italian-born Frenchman whose parents were said to have swapped him for a round of cheese in order to smuggle him into France as a 14-year-old; and Hippolyte Aucouturier, who, with his jersey of horizontal stripes and handlebar moustache, looked like the villain from a Buster Keaton movie.

Former NBA star and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Kareem Abdul-Jabbar explores his 50-year friendship with Coach John Wooden, one of the most enduring and meaningful relationships in sports history. When future NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was still an eighteen-year-old high school...

By creating WrestleMania, jumping into the pay-per-view field, and expanding across North America, Vince McMahon changed professional wrestling forever. 

Bloomsbury presents This is esports (and How to Spell it) – LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK AWARD 2020 by Paul 'Redeye' Chaloner, read by Paul Chaloner and Sarah Ovens. LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK AWARD 2020 'You need this. Trust me, buy it now.' – Weekly GG 'a...

Is Man o’ War, the legendary champion who revitalized American Thoroughbred racing, truly the greatest racehorse in history, or has time produced an even more extraordinary champion? Through meticulous research and compelling analysis, award-winning writer Mark Shrager presents the first...

Boston fans are passionate about sports and are proud of their players and teams, all of which have enjoyed tremendous success through the years. In The 50 Greatest Athletes in Boston Sports History, Martin Gitlin ranks the top 50 superstars in the city’s rich sports history with legends like...

Do futebol brasileiro, o mundo sempre espera o melhor. Nossas seleções devem reunir o melhor do melhor. E o que dizer, então, das melhores seleções brasileiras? Aquelas cuja escalação os boleiros sabem de cor. As seleções que faziam...

Bloomsbury presents White Hot by Tim Wigmore and Matt Roller, read by John Sackville. SHORTLISTED FOR THE SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2024 – CRICKET BOOK OF THE YEAR SHORTLISTED FOR THE CRICKET SOCIETY AND MCC BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2024 'The gripping story of England’s transformation from prissy...

In the 1970s the US military believed they could create a ‘super soldier’ - one who could use psychic powers to walk through walls, disarm the enemy through telepathy or kill a goat by staring at it. The brain behind these techniques was Michael Murphy, one of the founders of New Age spiritualism in the hippy enclaves of San Francisco. But Murphy’s primary goal was to use these powers in sport to create a supreme athlete capable of extraordinary feats.

Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe share their diaries from three incident-filled Grand Tours, the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España. These take listeners behind the scenes and explore the culture and landscape as well as the racing while the ‘Lionel of Flanders’, complete with beer recommendations, does the same for the Classics in Belgium.

A cultural history of sneakers, tracing the footprint of one of our most iconic fashions across sports, business, pop culture, and American identity When the athletic shoe graduated from the beaches and croquet courts of the wealthy elite to streetwear ubiquity, its journey through the heart of...

In Blood Feud, Colorado Avalanche beat writer Adrian Dater not only submits that the Red Wings-Avalanche rivalry was the most feverish match-up in recent years, but also that there was none better played. No fewer than twenty players have or will eventually make it to the Hall of Fame; the best...

In The 50 Greatest Players in Detroit Lions History, sports historian Robert W. Cohen examines the careers of the top 50 men ever to perform for one of the National Football League’s most historic franchises. Using as measuring sticks the degree to which they impacted the fortunes of the team...

On the shores of the Chesapeake, two hard-fought Army–Navy games left a lasting mark on football and the service academies. On two cool late fall Saturday afternoons, separated by forty-nine years, the spectacle of Army–Navy football unfolded at Annapolis, Maryland, on the grounds of the...

Bloomsbury presents Fanzine: The story of football's alternative press, written and read by Daniel Gray ‘A love letter to an era that needed its story told' – Josh Widdicombe ‘This is an absolutely fabulous book' – Duncan Hamilton The vivid story of the fanzine movement that gave...