Showing results for "The Stars" in Sports History

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.

Wartime Athletes is an unusual combination of sports history and military history in major wars. Profiles of more than 80 professional athletes are intertwined with the narrative about American history and stories of its heroes. During more than a century of warfare, athletes were side by side with many other heroic soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. Hall of Famers in every major sport join relatively unknown athletes who sacrificed their lives, their limbs and their careers for their country.

We'll start with the monks amusing themselves in the monasteries by playing jeu de paume, and we'll trace the history and development of the game right up to the present day. Along the way, we'll find out why it's called tennis, and why we use that weird scoring system. We'll learn about the major tournaments of the modern Open Era: the Grand Slams – Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open – and the ATP and WTA Finals.