Los Angeles Sports Memories


Book Description

For five decades, distinguished sportswriter Doug Krikorian chronicled LA's most transcendent sports moments. Revisit revered columns enshrining iconic achievements like when rookie Magic Johnson scored forty-two points and collected fifteen rebounds, leading the Lakers to the NBA title against the Philadelphia 76ers. Celebrate with the Angels all over again after their 2002 World Series victory. Reflect on momentous stories featuring Eric Dickerson, Wayne Gretzky, Muhammad Ali and many other illustrious personalities. From Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's fervent feud to Dodger Kirk Gibson's legendary game-winning 1988 World Series opener home run, relive the triumphs and tribulations of one of America's marquee sports towns.




The Great Book of Los Angeles Sports Lists


Book Description

With multiple franchises in pro sports -- Lakers and Clippers (NBA), Dodgers and Angels (MLB), and Kings and Ducks (NHL) -- plus major interest in UCLA and USC athletics, LA's fans are some of the most sports-crazed in the country. Matt "Money" Smith and Steve Hartman -- two of the leading authorities on So-Cal sports -- stir up the scene with this entertaining compilation, including guest lists from Kobe Bryant, Phil Jackson, Luc Robitaille, Jeanie Buss, Steve Garvey, and many more.




Sporting Blackness


Book Description

Sporting Blackness examines issues of race and representation in sports films, exploring what it means to embody, perform, play out, and contest blackness by representations of Black athletes on screen. By presenting new critical terms, Sheppard analyzes not only “skin in the game,” or how racial representation shapes the genre’s imagery, but also “skin in the genre,” or the formal consequences of blackness on the sport film genre’s modes, codes, and conventions. Through a rich interdisciplinary approach, Sheppard argues that representations of Black sporting bodies contain “critical muscle memories”: embodied, kinesthetic, and cinematic histories that go beyond a film’s plot to index, circulate, and reproduce broader narratives about Black sporting and non-sporting experiences in American society.




St. Louis Sports Memories: Forgotten Teams and Moments from America's Best Sports Town


Book Description

What city broke barriers by welcoming some of the first African American baseball players in addition to the first female owners of both an MLB and NFL team? Where have local colleges dominated a specific sport, winning dozens of national titles over as many years? The answer, of course, lies in St. Louis, a hotbed of professional and amateur sports with a diverse history and an evolving legacy of success. In St. Louis Sports Memories: Forgotten Teams and Moments from America’s Best Sports Town, relive the highlights from the championships to the crossroads of social change that have characterized St. Louis’s sports scene for more than a century. Learn about the tennis legend who found an accepting environment to master his game during the racial turmoil of the 1960s. Make sure you can recite both the four MLB teams and the four NFL teams that have called St. Louis home. Each moment or memory is accompanied by history and anecdotes to form an indelible vignette showcasing some of the most loved as well as the long forgotten stories of the names you know and the ones you should know. Local award-winning author Ed Wheatley brings his die-hard fan perspective to this unique and nostalgic look at St. Louis’s winning record. Root for the home teams and for the bygone heroes in this town that boasts one of the greatest histories in the annals of sports.




Sport, Memory and Nationhood in Japan


Book Description

This book clarifies and verifies the role sport has as an alternative marker in understanding and mapping memory in Japan, by applying the concept of lieux de mémoire (realms of memory) to sport in Japan. Japanese history and national construction have not been short of sports landmarks since the end of the nineteenth century. Western-style sports were introduced into Japan in order to modernize the country and develop a culture of consciousness about bodies resembling that of the Western world. Japan’s modernization has been a process of embracing Western thought and culture while at the same time attempting to establish what distinguishes Japan from the West. In this context, sports functioned as sites of contested identities and memories. The Olympics, baseball and soccer have produced memories in Japan, but so too have martial arts, which by their very name signify an attempt to create traditions beyond Western sports. Because modern sports form bodies of modern citizens and, at the same time, offer countless opportunities for competition with other nations, they provide an excellent ground for testing and contesting national identifications. By revealing some of the key realms of memory in the Japanese field of sports, this book shows how memories and counter-memories of (sport) moments, places, and heroes constitute an inventory for identity. This book was originally published as a special issue of Sport in Society.




Changing the Game


Book Description

The modern day youth sports environment has taken the enjoyment out of athletics for our children. Currently, 70% of kids drop out of organized sports by the age of 13, which has given rise to a generation of overweight, unhealthy young adults. There is a solution. John O’Sullivan shares the secrets of the coaches and parents who have not only raised elite athletes, but have done so by creating an environment that promotes positive core values and teaches life lessons instead of focusing on wins and losses, scholarships, and professional aspirations. Changing the Game gives adults a new paradigm and a game plan for raising happy, high performing children, and provides a national call to action to return youth sports to our kids.




The Steamer


Book Description

For nearly sixty years, Bud Furillo wrote and talked about sports in Southern California. For fifteen of those years, he authored a popular column for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner called The Steam Room, which gave him the nickname that lasted him for the rest of his life: “the Steamer.” As a reporter, columnist, editor, and pioneer of sports talk radio, the Steamer dished out insight and understanding to Southern California sports fans while Los Angeles grew into a sports empire. On his watch, L.A. acquired the Rams from Cleveland, the Dodgers from Brooklyn, and the Lakers from Minneapolis. He covered them all while they won championships for the city. In The Steamer: Bud Furillo and the Golden Age of L.A. Sports, Furillo’s son, Andy, himself a longtime newspaperman, uses his father’s lens to give focus to the city’s rise as a sports empire. The Steamer is a history of a great sports town at its most dynamic, told from the point of view of a legendary reporter who used his phenomenal access to reveal the inside story of the greatest athletes and teams to ever play in Los Angeles.




Chicago's Greatest Sports Memories


Book Description

From the Bears' 73-0 win in 1940 over the Redskins in the most lopsided playoff game in NFL history to Michael Jordan and the Bulls' six NBA championships in the '90s, Chicago's Greatest Sports Memories presents the greatest moments in Chicago sports history. This book features stories and photographs from the archives of the Chicago Sun-Times, plus introductions and original essays by award-winning writer Roland Lazenby. The book contains historical and eyewitness accounts of such feats as Rocky Marciano's knockout of Jersey Joe Walcott in 1953; Walter Payton breaking Jim Brown's rushing record in 1984; and Bobby Hull becoming the first NHL player to exceed 50 goals in a season in 1966.




Kobe Bryant


Book Description

After 20 unforgettable years in the NBA, Kobe Bryant is calling it a career. All he’s done in those two decades is establish himself as one of the best to ever play the game, arguably the greatest Laker ever and the most popular athlete in the history of Los Angeles sports. The Black Mamba’s path to iconic status started quietly as the 13th pick of the 1996 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Hornets but with a draft day trade to the legendary Lakers, the rest is resounding history. Kobe’s credentials are impeccable with five NBA championships, two NBA Finals MVPs, one NBA regular season MVP, 18 All-Star game appearances and countless other accolades to his name. Kobe Bryant: Laker for Life is the ultimate tribute to the Lakers superstar as he concludes his legendary career, covering 20 years of hardwood genius. Including nearly 100 full-color photographs, fans are provided a glimpse into the early days of Kobe’s career, bursting onto the NBA scene winning the Slam Dunk Contest to his individual brilliance and NBA titles with the Lakers to his celebratory swan song through the league during his final season. A must-have keepsake for Lakers fans and Kobe aficionados alike, Kobe Bryant is the perfect commemoration of a Los Angeles icon and Laker for Life.




It's How You Play the Game


Book Description

“It’s How You Play the Game tells us what [athletes] were looking for when they started and what they found.” — Teddy Atlas, boxing trainer and commentator “Really gets at the heart of what sports is all about. ...Great read for anyone who ever played a sporyt.” — Tommy Lasorda, former Los Angeles Dodgers manager “I’ve watched many great players, but this is the first book that shows me how they became great people. ” — Joe Buck, Fox Sports “Brian does a masterful job laying out the values that have made America great.” — Gen. Tommy R. Franks, U.S. Army (Retired) “This is essential reading for sports fans and sports parents everywhere.” — Rick Wolff, host, “The Sports Edge” WFAN Radio “It’s How You Play the Game is a great read—insightful and well written.” — Donald J. Trump “...Humanizes our icons in a way that makes their success seem achievable and their life lessons invaluable.” — Jake Steinfeld, Chairman & CEO, Body by Jake Global “Helps to understand the value of sports and how it prepares you to deal with the stresses of everyday life.” — Bob Ferraro, President of the National High School Coaches Association “Like having a library of motivational books by successful people...a book you’ll refer to the rest of your life.” — Lou Holtz, former college football coach “This book taught me more about some of my favorite leaders than any profile of them I had ever read...” — Don Yaeger, Sports Illustrated writer, New York Times bestselling author