Hardwood Heroes


Book Description

A biography of nine NBA players.




Tricksters in the Madhouse


Book Description

The story of the pivotal first meeting between the all-white Minneapolis Lakers and the black Harlem Globetrotters in 1948 re-creates the game play by play and demonstrates how it represented an important step toward equality.




Marvels of the Texas Plains: Historic Chronicles from the Courthouse to the Caprock


Book Description

Assemble a composite portrait of the Texas plains through these historic tales. Many thousands of years ago, Clovis Man hunted huge mammoths here. More recently, Waylon Jennings drew his musical inspiration here. In the intervening time, the Texas prairie has been the backdrop for the wildest of Wild West shootouts, landmark legal battles and epic achievements in sports, music and medicine. Familiar icons like Roy Orbison and Dan Blocker, as well as forgotten characters like Charlie "Squirrel-Eye" Emory and John "the Catfish Kid" Gough all helped shape the colorful history of the Texas Plains. Who shot the sheriff? Who was the earliest American? Who invented the slam dunk? Author Chuck Lanehart answers these questions and many more in a wide-ranging collection of stories.




The NBA Finals


Book Description

The clock ticks down. The point guard sets up the play at the top of the key while his center jockeys for position at the hoop. A quick toss into the lane, and the center sinks the shot. The home fans roar. The National Basketball Association's ultimate prize is on the line. The NBA Finals are full of amazing shots, legendary games, and star players. Readers will discover it all in this book.




Rivals


Book Description

The sixteen original essays in this collection cover influential and famous rivalries from a variety of sports, including track and field, golf, boxing, basketball, tennis, ice skating, baseball, football, soccer, and more. The essays are diverse, but together they illustrate what is common to any rivalry: equally matched opponents that often have decidedly different backgrounds, styles, and personalities. These differences may center on race and culture, political and societal ideologies, personality, geography, or religion—a mix intensified by fans and the media. From highly publicized and emotionally charged individual competitions to bitterly fought team contests, Rivals illuminates what one-of-a-kind opponents and the passion they inspire tell us about ourselves and our society.




Sweet 'stache


Book Description

"I am personally offended by this book because my mustache wasn't included. However, I endorse it because I am, and always will be, a huge fan of Tom Selleck's 'stache." --Meredith Vieira, The Today Show If a man has a mustache, it's hands-down his most distinguishable facial feature. Whether it's a handlebar, pencil-thin, fu Manchu, toothbrush, or horseshoe--it's how he's identified and described. This book recognizes this fact and celebrates the most famous mustaches--and the faces behind them. From politicians and ball players to pop stars and actors, this book covers them all with wit and humor. Authors Jon Chattman and Rich Tarantino have provided profiles and 'stache-analysis for the forty-nine men and one woman who made the cut. (One can't count out Frida Kahlo's artistic bigote!) It also includes sidebar lists that rank the top 'staches in all sorts of categories as well as mustache trivia and a timeline that traces the facial hair's evolution. It's hip again to rock full on facial hair. And Sweet 'Stache is the guide for anyone looking to get in on the must-have mustache action.




All-Star Sports Trivia


Book Description

Collection of weird sports trivia.




Bloomington Days


Book Description

Frat boys who think Mario Lanza is an Italian sports car; journalists who consider "Man arrested for blowing mucus from nose at an officer" a news story . . . Welcome to Bloomington: a world of grey cells and limestone, catfish and cheerleaders, binge drinking and bigots, Ockham's razor and buzz cuts. This is the tiny college town where Alfred Kinsey catalogued gall wasps before stinging a nation into belated sexual awareness. If you're gay or Greek, love opera or hoops, Bloomington is heaven on earth; we have as many same-sex couples as sorority sisters, as many divas as athletes. Welcome to my home, a quixotic mix of small-town life and larger than life campus, squirreled away in the flatlands of Middle America, where torpor is sometimes mistaken for nirvanic serenity, irony for insult and "ethnographic dazzle" for deep differences.




Rusted Heroes


Book Description

Anoushka Demaine and her fearsome tank squad know war. Thirty years ago, for a reasonable rate, they could be hired to fight for anyone. Now, with the war between Rammelstaad and the orcs threatening to spread, Anoushka wants to get the team back together. But it was a lot easier to be a hero back then. Because not only does Rammelstaad’s queen want her enemies vanquished; now she wants the story of her victories read far and wide. Any would-be champions for the realm must be joined by a bard who will write their story—with enough spin to inspire awe and fear. Anoushka’s squad trust the slippery bard Ruprecht LeFevre about as far as they can throw him, but she knows she and her squad can get the job done—even if the bard turns their efforts into pulpy trash. They’ll cooperate if it lets them go back to the good old days of bullets, blood, and rock ’n’ roll. Five squaddies, a bard, and a dog. Their target: some necromancer. Great. Got it. Get in the tank.




The WNBA Finals


Book Description

A speedy defender steps in front of a pass and takes off down the court. As the home fans roar, her opponents race to catch up. The Women's National Basketball Association's championship is on the line. Hoops fans will find plenty of thrills as they discover the amazing stories of the WNBA Finals and the legendary stars who have made their names in the championship series.