Showing titles in Sports History

In December 1935, Zdenek Koubek, one of the most famous sprinters in European women’s sports, declared he was now living as a man. Around the same time, the celebrated British field athlete Mark Weston, also assigned female at birth, announced that he, too, was a man. Periodicals and radio programs across the world carried the news; both became global celebrities. A few decades later, they were all but forgotten. In The Other Olympians, Michael Waters uncovers, for the first time, the gripping true stories of Koubek, Weston, and other pioneering trans and intersex athletes from their era.

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.

As a new decade dawned, 2020 was supposed to be the best year to be a wrestling fan. Few in the industry realized that in China, a mysterious virus had begun to spread. By the time a pandemic was declared in March, the business—and the world—was in disarray. Still, when everything else shut down, wrestling never went away. The entire time, New York Times bestselling author and historian Keith Elliot Greenberg was chronicling the scene, juxtaposing pro wrestling developments with actual news events like the U.S. presidential election and Brexit.

Barcelona and Real Madrid: two of the most powerful and popular clubs in world football, and one of the world's most bitter sporting rivalries. Going far beyond the boundaries of just sport alone, this is a rivalry at the heart of Spanish life, taking in politics and culture and splitting a country in two. El Clasico gets to the heart of that rivalry, investigating the intrigue, the larger-than-life characters, the key flashpoints and their consequences.

Few sports have had a more eventful last 50 years than rugby union. Even fewer involve such a range of different cultures, contrasting characters or diverse geographical settings. With the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France and the 200th anniversary of the game’s ‘birth’ on the horizon, Around the World in 80 Minutes sets out to find the game’s most inspiring people and places. Observant, amusing and thought-provoking, the book takes listeners on a global journey to meet key figures from rugby’s ‘golden age’ between 1973 and 2023.

Born out the docks in the Victorian East End, Millwall and West Ham United's rivalry precedes the formation of both football clubs. The two areas of East London viewed each other with suspicion and discontent—something that only heightened after Millwall's move south of the River Thames in 1910.

In A Giant Win, Coach Tom Coughlin reveals the intricacies of football, sharing details only a coach would know. He also details relationships with some of the most iconic players from the Giants, including Eli Manning and Michael Strahan. A Giant Win provides a frame for Coach Coughlin to discuss his life in football—including his years with the Giants as an assistant coach in the late 1980s and 1990, when he helped win a Super Bowl working under Hall of Fame Head Coach Bill Parcells and alongside the coach he’d oppose in Super Bowl XLII: Bill Belichick.

For 14 years during the golden age of sports, Paul Gallico was one of America's ace sportswriters. He saw them all - the stars and the hams, the immortals and the phonies in boxing, wrestling, baseball, football, golf, tennis, and every other field of muscular endeavor in which men and women try to break hearts and necks for cash or glory. Then in 1937, at the height of his game (and the height of the payroll), Gallico suddenly and famously called it quits and left the New York Daily News.

Thoroughbred racing was one of the first major sports in early America. Horse racing thrived because it was a high-status sport that attracted the interest of both old and new money. It grew because spectators enjoyed the pageantry, the exciting races, and, most of all, the gambling. In The Sport of Kings and the Kings of Crime, author Steven Riess fills a long-neglected gap in sports history, offering a richly detailed and fascinating chronicle of thoroughbred racing's heyday.

The Paris-Roubaix bicycle race, nicknamed "The Hell of the North," is famous for sending riders over brutal cobblestone roads. Only the strong, brave and lucky survive the hours of bone-shaking racing without suffering some mishap or catastrophe. It is so difficult no one wins it by accident, and winning Paris-Roubaix automatically puts a rider among the immortals of the sport. Why did Paris-Roubaix emerge to be such a special race? Les Woodland tells the inside story of one of cycling's classics.

In June 2002, the world watched a U.S. Open like no other. The most prestigious golf championship was played, for the first time in history, on a public golf course. Feinstein takes us through every step of the event, from how the players qualified to how pairings were made, from preparing the course to the negotiations between the USGA and NBC. You will meet golf's biggest stars - and come to understand why playing in the Open at Bethpage meant so much to so many.

For millions of people worldwide, running is an essential part of life. It is seen as a path to health, longevity and mental wellbeing – but what is at the root of this international obsession? Where did our desire and ability to run come from, and what role has running played in communities through the ages? Talking to scientists, historians, athletes and authors, Helen Mort follows a trail leading from neolithic times to now, to find out why we run, how our relationship to running has changed and how running has been depicted in our culture across the ages.

Learn about these golf legends as they were learning to master the game on their home turf. In Grown at Glen Garden, the early friendship of Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson is shown, from their caddying days at Glen Garden Country Club to their chummy rivalry at the Masters decades later. With a peek at their family backgrounds, the story shows both the hardships and joys of growing up and learning to golf in Fort Worth, Texas, in the 1920s.

Even in their worst of seasons, the Philadelphia Eagles maintained their tradition of toughness, thanks to great players - from legends like Chuck Bednarik and Steve Van Buren to modern-day heroes. In Tales from the Philadelphia Eagles Sideline, veteran football writer Gordon Forbes profiles the individuals who have thrilled Philadelphia fans since the team’s inception in 1933 through Andy Reid’s last championship contenders during his 14 years as head coach.

Sue's personal history of Wimbledon is as tightly packed with stories as the courts are with blades of grass. From the most memorable matches to the fashions and trends, the famous rivalries, the upsets and the 'You Cannot Be Serious' unforgettable moments, this is a Centre Court seat on all the riveting drama that has defined British sporting summers for all of our lifetimes.

Lost in the annals of boxing is the sport's true Cinderella story. James J. Braddock, dubbed "Cinderella Man" by Damon Runyon, was a once promising light heavyweight for whom a string of losses in the ring and a broken right hand happened to coincide with the Great Crash of 1929.

Boxing is Steve Bunce's game. He has filed thousands and thousands of fight reports from ringside. He has written millions and millions of words for national newspapers previewing boxing, profiling boxers and proselytising on the business. He has been the voice of British boxing on the airwaves, both radio and television, with an army of loyal fans. And now it's time to put those many years of experience into penning his history of the sport of kings on these isles. It's Bunce's Big Fat Short History of British Boxing.

In a tiny, decaying aluminum smelting town in southern Tajikistan, a short drive from a raging war zone, Afghanistan take on Palestine in the first Asian qualifier for 2014's World Cup in Brazil. Every player on both teams is risking something by playing: Their careers, their families, even their lives. Thirty-One Nil is the story of how footballers from all corners of the globe begin their journey chasing a place at the World Cup Finals.

Catching up with the greatest Aggies players - newly updated! Since the beginning of A & M football, in 1894, the Aggies have produced some of the greatest athletes to ever come out of Texas. Legendary players have plowed their way to greatness while carving their names into the heart of Texas fans under the Aggies banner. But what happened to these juggernauts after the final score was tallied and the game was over? The answer can only be found in this newly updated edition of Texas A & M Where Have You Gone?

The story of NASCAR's legendary racer - newly revised Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s name virtually assured that his life would not be ordinary. Over the past decade, he has fulfilled that destiny. His father, one of the most successful drivers in the history of international motorsports, gave his son more than his name. Dale Earnhardt Sr. placed Dale Jr. in position to follow the footsteps and tire tracks he had left from Darlington to Daytona, from coast to coast, from one championship to the next.