Showing titles in Sports History

Through most of the Roaring '20s, Jack Dempsey was the heavyweight champion of the world. With his fierce good looks and matchless dedication to the kill, he was a fighter perfectly suited to his time. In A Flame of Pure Fire, renowned sports writer Roger Kahn not only chronicles the thrilling, brutal bouts of the Manassa Mauler, but also illustrates how the tumultuous 1920s shaped Dempsey - and how the champ, in turn, left an indelible mark on sports and American history.

In football, as in life, the value we place on people changes with the rules of the games they play. When we first meet the young man at the center of this extraordinary and moving story, he is one of thirteen children by a mother addicted to crack; he does not know his real name, his father...

First broadcast in 1948, Sports Report is the longest-running radio sporting programme in the world and one of the BBC’s hardy perennials. Pat Murphy has been a reporter on the programme since 1981 and here he sifts comprehensively through the experiences of his contemporaries and those who made their mark on Sports Report in earlier decades. Drawing on unique access from the BBC Archives Unit, he highlights memorable moments from Sports Report.

An entertaining look at one of sport's greatest rivalries - The Ashes - by former England spin bowler Graeme Swann. Graeme Swann leads us on a compelling adventure through one of world sport's most engrossing rivalries. He knows as much as anybody about the heat of England v Australia battles...

The Boxing Kings tells the story of the heavyweight title in the days when it was a defining institution in the United States. Author Paul Beston places special emphasis on those champions who held a central place in American culture beyond just in the boxing ring, including John L. Sullivan, who made the title a commercial property; Jack Johnson, who in 1908 became the first black man to claim the title; Joe Louis, whose contributions to racial tolerance and social progress transcended even his greatness in the ring; and many more.

This is the story of Barbara and Larry Savage's sometimes dangerous, often zany, but ultimately rewarding 23,000-mile global bicycle odyssey, which took them through 25 countries in two years. Miles from Nowhere is an adventure not to be missed! Along the way, these near-neophyte cyclists encountered warmhearted strangers eager to share food and shelter, bicycle-hating drivers who shoved them off the road, various wild animals, rock-throwing Egyptians, overprotective Thai policeman, motherly New Zealanders, meteorological disasters, bodily indignities, and great personal joys.

One of the greatest and most beloved golf books ever written is now available on audio—“a cause for celebration” (The Wall Street Journal)—with a new introduction by Golf in the Kingdom author Michael Murphy, and a new afterword. Thirty years (and counting!) after publication, To the...

Brought to you by Penguin. Hurling is Ireland’s national game – a source of fascination and pride, even to people who have never played it. Ciarán Murphy, a lifelong club footballer, used to be one of those people. Then he spent a summer trying to play hurling with a tiny club in the West...

What will it take to run a marathon in less than two hours? The world's fastest times for the marathon have been dropping since the distance of 26.2 miles was made official nearly one hundred years ago. But after a noticeable decline that occurred for a half century, the times, while still edging lower, have stalled several minutes north of two hours for the past decade. For the first time, 1:59 examines what it will take for an elite distance runner to go subtwo hours.

After a lifetime of writing about the professional sport, Michael Bamberger, “the poet laureate of golf” (GOLF magazine), delivers an exhilarating love letter to the amateur game as it’s played—and lived—by the rest of us. Over Michael Bamberger’s celebrated writing career, he has...

My Story in Black and White is the fascinating story of Newcastle United's head physio, Derek Wright, and his time at the club from the early 1980s to 2022. Growing up on a tough council estate in a County Durham mining town, Derek's footballing ability was discovered by Arsenal, who signed him as an apprentice at 16. Injury ended his playing career but he remained in football, becoming the youngest physio in the Football League at Malcolm Macdonald's Fulham.

A celebration of the beautiful game and its 100 greatest players, from the pre–World War II exploits of Dixie Dean to the modern-day genius of Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi These players left legacies, redefined the game with trademark skills, and grew into national icons. They have their...

The Tour de France may provide the most obvious fame and glory, but it is cycling’s one-day tests that the professional riders really prize. Toughest, longest and dirtiest of all are the so-called ‘Monuments’, the five legendary races that are the sport’s equivalent of golf’s majors or the grand slams in tennis. Milan–Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris­–Roubaix, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the Tour of Lombardy date back more than a century, and each of them is an anomaly in modern-day sport. Peter Cossins tells the history of these extraordinary races and the riders they have immortalised.

‘Our incredible story under a supreme manager shared in all its glory.’ Jordan Henderson The definitive account of Jürgen Klopp’s astonishing revival of Liverpool Football Club. Liverpool Football Club’s stunning 2020 Premier League title victory deserves a place in the official record...

Scyld Berry attended his first Test match in a professional capacity in June 1973, as EW Swanton's 'amanuensis'. With his 501st Test now on the horizon – an achievement never reached by any other greats of the cricket-writing world – Berry has watched the sport evolve like no other. Test cricket is a steady stream: England have not had a winter off-season since 1972, some Test series almost overlap with the next, and players span eras.

1972. The Munich Olympics. Palestinian members of the Black September group murder 11 Israeli athletes. Nine hundred million people watch the crisis unfold on television, witnessing a tragedy that inaugurates the modern age of terror.

Downloaded over 10 million times a year, The Football Ramble podcast has established itself as the essential independent voice of football punditry. The weekly podcast has resonated with supporters around the world, and their sold-out live shows have been a massive hit with supporters. This audiobook is a collaboration by all four presenters and tackles the real issues from fans you won't see or hear on Sky Sports - or anywhere else, for that matter.

This compelling and moving story of Manchester United's rejuvenation after the Munich Air Crash revisits an era that is fundamental to the club's place in the modern game. The 1958 Munich Air Crash that ripped the heart from one of Britain's greatest ever teams. Barton focuses on the five years immediately after the tragedy, how the shattered ambitions of the club were revived and rejuvenated by recovering manager Matt Busby and his assistant Murphy. The engrossing story is told through in-depth research and exclusive interviews with many players from the era.

The inside story of one football club's astonishing revival Featuring exclusive interviews with Jack Grealish, John McGinn, Ollie Watkins, Tyrone Mings and Ezri Konsa, along with many other key figures In early July 2018, Aston Villa were staring into the abyss. Locked in a cash crisis triggered...

In 1967, seven young men, members of a twelve-man expedition led by twenty-four-year-old Joe Wilcox, were stranded at 20,000 feet on Alaska's Mount McKinley in a vicious Arctic storm. Ten days passed while the storm raged, yet no rescue was mounted. All seven perished in what remains the most tragic expedition in American climbing history.