The year: 1956. Four decades have passed since Eddie Lowery came to fame as the ten-year-old caddie to US Open Champion Francis Ouimet. Now a wealthy car dealer and avid supporter of amateur golf, Lowery boasts to George Coleman - an equally important figure in golf circles and a fellow millionaire - that two of his car salesmen are the best players in the world. These two, US amateur champion Harvie Ward and up-and-coming star Ken Venturi, could beat any two golfers in the world in a best ball...
A hundred and ninety-one. Mention the number anywhere near a ballpark and before you can ask who or what, fans will almost certainly shape their lips with a single word: Wilson. They'll tell you Hack Wilson, a burly, bull-necked outfielder who roamed Wrigley Field in the 1920s and 1930s, was the man who drove in 191 runs in 1930--more than most players had hits. A few of them will know that in 1929, Wilson racked up 159 RBI and hit 39 home runs. Still fewer might be able to tell you that for the...
One man, one bike, one hour. The inside story of Bradley Wiggins's record-breaking rideFor 60 minutes this summer, the British public stopped what they were doing, switched on their radios, their TVs, refreshed their Twitter feeds and followed Bradley Wiggins’s attempt to break one of sport’s most gruelling records: The Hour. The premise is simple enough: how far can you cycle in one hour. But it is thought to be one of the toughest events an athlete can endure, both physically and psychological...
Eddie Gray was among the most skilful and exciting players in Leeds United's history and whose links with the club have been further strengthened by his roles as manager, youth team coach, reserve-team coach and now assistant manager.;Gray takes readers back to his home town of Glasgow, explaining how he developed his skills as a boy and what life was like for him in the ten years in which he was not involved with Leeds and the upsurge in his fortunes since his return to the club after a ten-...
Peter Shilton is a legend in football. One of the greatest goalkeepers to play in this country, his 25 clean sheets in one season at Nottingham Forest, and 67 throughout a lengthy international career are landmarks in the modern game. He started out at 15 with Leicester City, achieved fame at Stoke City, then won two European Cups and a League Championship medal with Forest. He's played in numerous World Cup campaigns (both successful and unsuccessful), was the keeper involved with Maradona's 'H...
THANKS AND NO THANKS MR HITLER! The Dorothy Odam-Tyler Story
by Mike Fleet
The fully updated autobiography of football's bling king Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink -- the outspoken Dutch goalscorer extraordinaire, and former Leeds, Chelsea and Middlesbrough striker, now playing for Charlton. A predator in front of goal, Jerrell, as his mother calls him, had made his name in Portugal with Boavista, before George Graham snapped him up for Leeds in summer 1997. His goalscoring made him an instant hero at Elland Road, a status he lost when he asked to leave the club because they...
It seemed like any other season on Mount Everest. Ten expeditions from around the world were preparing for their summit push, gathered together to try for mountaineering's ultimate prize. Twenty-four hours later, eight of those climbers were dead, victims of the most devastating storm ever to hit Everest. On the North face of the mountain, a British expedition found itself in the thick of the drama. Against all odds, film-maker Matt Dickinson and professional climber Alan Hinkes managed to battl...
Together with Chris Bonington and other distinguished British climbers, Stephen Venables was high on the unclimbed and sacred mountain of Panch Chuli when, at 1am on a dark Himalayan night, his abseil failed and he fell catastrophically, somersaulting from rock to rock and landing, seriously-wounded, at the end of a rope suspended above a 50-degree icefield. This is the story of his arduous and almost miraculous survival, and of the brilliant, committed teamwork which brought him to safety.
Respected across the world, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is credited with revolutionising one of the biggest clubs in Europe – famously bringing free-flowing football to ‘boring, boring Arsenal’ – and with influencing approaches to the modern game. In an industry of disposable contracts and ruthless sacking, his long tenure is testament to his success and dedication, and to the loyalty of players and fans. Wenger cooperated with leading sports journalist Xavier Rivoire to write this authorised...
One of the biggest wrestling superstars of the past 20 years, and one of the greatest champions of all time, Ric Flair has carved out a legacy for himself that will never be surpassed. Born Richard Fliehr in Minneapolis, he made his professional wrestling debut in 1972, quickly rising to the top of the Mid-Atlantic region where he won the regional and tag-team titles as well as the US title. In 1975 however his career almost ended when he suffered a broken back, ironically in a plane crash, not...
In the Jim Crow South, is an inspiring story of 'Jackie Robinson in reverse'. At the outset of summer break in 1959, Texas Tech senior Jerry Craft had no more enticing options than to stay home and help on the family ranch-so the telephoned offer to play for a semipro baseball club he'd never heard of came as a welcome surprise. But Craft was in for an even bigger surprise when he reported for tryout and discovered he'd been recruited for the West Texas Colored League. Wichita Falls/Graham Stars...
Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Bobby Jones, and Bill Tilden were the legendary quartet of the "Golden Age of Sports" in the 1920s. They transformed their respective athletic disciplines and captured the imagination of a nation. The indisputable force behind the emergence of professional tennis as a popular and lucrative sport, Tilden's on-court accomplishments are nothing short of staggering. The first American-born player to win Wimbledon and a seven-time winner of the U.S. singles championship, he w...
'From my earliest tennis memories, Rod Laver stood above all others as the greatest champion our sport has known.' Roger Federer Rod Laver's autobiography tells the inspiring story of how a diminutive, left-handed, red-headed country boy became one of the greatest ever sporting champions. Rod was a dominant force in world tennis for almost two decades, playing and defeating some of the greatest players of the twentieth century. In 1962, Rod became the second man to win the Grand Slam - that is,...
Now a major film starring Jon Hamm, this is the wonderful story of two young Indians who became pro baseball pitchers. JB Bernstein seemed to have it all. One of the top sports agents in the US, he worked hard and enjoyed the bachelor lifestyle to the full. But he hankered for more, and when he set himself a challenge - to unearth someone in India capable of becoming a pro baseball pitcher - most people thought he was mad and doomed to face a costly and public failure. The reality show Milli...