Provided You Don't Kiss Me: 20 Years with Brian Clough

Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success

Phil Jackson, Hugh Delehanty · 384 pages

The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game

Michael Lewis · 345 pages

Follows one young man from his impoverished childhood with a crack-addicted mother, through his discovery of the sport of football, to his rise to become one of the most successful, highly-paid players in the NFL.

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

Daniel James Brown · 416 pages

Daniel James Brown’s robust book tells the story of the University of Washington’s 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals first from eastern and British universities and finally the German crew rowing f

The Boys of Summer

Roger Kahn · 445 pages

"A ... narrative of growing up within shouting distance of Ebbets Field, working for the Herald Tribune in the Jackie Robinson years ... and what's happened to everybody since."

Seabiscuit: An American Legend

Laura Hillenbrand · 453 pages

Retraces the journey of Seabiscuit, a horse with crooked legs and a pathetic tail that made racing history in 1938, thanks to the efforts of a trainer, owner, and jockey who transformed a bottom-level racehorse into a legend.

Michael Jordan: The Life

Roland Lazenby · 708 pages

Traces the life of one of the most legendary basketball players in the history of the sport, drawing upon interviews with Jordan's friends, family, and teammates, and following his career from college to the NBA.

Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times

Thomas Hauser · 544 pages

A portrait of Ali's life and career, from his childhood in Louisville, his triumphs and tragedies, to the life he leads today.

Paterno

Joe Posnanski · 511 pages

Joe Posnanski's biography of the late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno follows in the tradition of works by Richard Ben Cramer on Joe DiMaggio and David Maraniss on Vince Lombardi. Having gained unprecedented access to Paterno, as well as the coach's personal notes and files, Posnanski spent the last two years of Paterno's life covering the coach, on (and off) the field and through the scanda

True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson

Kostya Kennedy

True is a probing, richly-detailed, unique biography of Jackie Robinson, one of baseball's—and America's—most significant figures. For players, fans, managers, and executives, Jackie Robinson remains baseball’s singular figure, the person who most profoundly extended, and continues to extend, the reach of the game. Beyond Ruth. Beyond Clemente. Beyond Aaron. Beyond the heroes of today. Now, a half

The Horse God Built

Lawrence Scanlan · 304 pages

In The Horse God Built Lawrence Scanlan gives the reader a groom's-eye view of the most exciting time in racing history. But more than anything else, it is a moving portrait of the powerful bond between human and horse.

King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero

David Remnick · 326 pages

There were mythic sports figures before him - Jack Johnson, Babe Ruth, Joe Louis, Joe DiMaggio - but when Cassius Clay burst onto the sports scene from his native Louisville in the 1950s, he broke the mold. He changed the world of sports and went on to change the world itself. As Muhammad Ali, he would become the most recognized face on the planet. This unforgettable story of his rise and self-cre

The Grand Slam

Mark Frost · 448 pages

In the wake of the stock market crash of 1929, as the shadows of depression lengthened into every corner of American life, one ray of light emerged from the world of sports: Bobby Jones. THE GRAND SLAM covers the life of this amateur golfer who mounted his final campaign against the record books, and produced a legacy of excellence that has yet to be matched: In a period of four months, Bobby Jone

Secretariat: The Making of a Champion

William Nack · 362 pages

The Bronx Zoo

Sparky Lyle, Peter Golenbock · 248 pages

Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy

Jane Leavy · 282 pages

In an era when too many heroes have been toppled from too many pedestals, Sandy Koufax stands apart and alone, a legend who declined his own celebrity. As a pitcher, he was sublime, the ace of baseball lore. As a human being, he aspired to be the one thing his talent and his fame wouldn't allow: a regular guy. A Brooklyn kid, he was the product of the sedate and modest fifties who came to define a

Cantona: The Rebel Who Would Be King: The Turbulent Life of Eric Cantona

Philippe Auclair · 288 pages

Many have tried to persuade Eric Cantona to write his autobiography. He never will. Philippe Auclair has interviewed every key player in Cantona's life, from his family and first coach to his wife Isabelle, to produce a biography that reveals the heart and inner thoughts of this most extraordinary character.

Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team

Steve Sheinkin · 288 pages

An astonishing underdog sports story and more. It's an unflinching look at the US government's violent persecution of Native Americans and the school that was designed to erase Indian cultures. Native American Jim Thorpe became a super athlete and Olympic gold medalist. Indomitable coach Pop Warner was a football mastermind. In 1907 at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, they

The Punch: One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight That Changed Basketball Forever

John Feinstein · 375 pages

When a fistfight broke out between the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers one night in 1977, All-Star Rudy Tomjanovich raced to break it up. He was met by Kermit Washington, a good player with a great reputation, and by an astonishingly ferocious punch, a single blow that has reverberated in both men's lives ever since. With his unerring insight into the deeper truths of professional sport

The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams

Ben Bradlee Jr. · 855 pages

Ted Williams was the best hitter in baseball history. His batting average of .406 in 1941 has not been topped since, and no player who has hit more than five hundred home runs has a higher career batting average. Those totals would have been even higher if Williams had not left baseball for nearly five years in the prime of his career to serve as a Marine pilot in World War II and Korea. He hit ho

When the Game Was Ours

Larry Bird, Earvin Johnson, Jackie MacMullan · 340 pages

With intimate, fly-on-the-wall detail, "When the Game Was Ours" transports readers to an electric era of basketball and reveals for the first time the inner workings of two players--Larry Bird and Earvin "Magic" Johnson--dead set on besting one another.

Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life

Richard Ben Cramer · 553 pages

"In this biography, Richard Ben Cramer presents a stunning, often shocking portrait of the hero nobody knew. It is a story that sweeps through the twentieth century, bringing to light along the way not just America's national game, but her movie stars, mobsters, pols, writers...the birth (and the price) of modern national celebrity.". "This is the story Joe DiMaggio never wanted to tell - and nev

Wooden: A Coach's Life

Seth Davis · 607 pages

A provocative assessment of legendary UCLA coach John Wooden by the best-selling author of When March Went Mad draws on hundreds of interviews from all periods of his career to offer insight into his driving ambition, divided relationships and hard-won lessons.

Pre!

Tom Jordan · 168 pages

For five years, no American runner could beat him at any distance over a mile. But at the age of 24, with his best years still ahead, long-distance runner Steve Prefontaine finally lost. Driving alone at night after a party, Prefontaine crashed his sports car, putting a tragic, shocking end to the life and career of one of the most influential, accomplished runners of our time. From his humble ori

Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How the Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Chess Match of All Time

David Edmonds, John Eidinow · 368 pages