Biography & Autobiography : Sports

Leslie Heywood and Shari L. Dworkin examine the role of empowered female athletes in American popular culture through interviews with girls and boys; readings of ad campaigns by Nike, Reebok, and others; discussions of movies like Fight Club and Girlfight; and explorations of their own sports experiences. Important, refreshing, and engrossing, Built to Win examines sport in all its complexity. more...

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The true story of the 1986 U.S. National Gymnastics champion whose lifelong dream was to compete in the Olympics, until anorexia, injuries, and coaching abuses nearly destroyed her. Fanciful dreams of gold medals and Nadia Comaneci led Jennifer Sey to become a gymnast at the age of six. She was a natural at the sport, and her early success propelled her family to sacrifice everything to help her become, by age eleven, one of America’s elite,. competing at prestigious events worldwide alongside such future gymnastics’ luminaries as Mary Lou Retton. But as she set her sights higher and higher—the senior national team, the World Championships, the 1988 Olympics—Sey began to change, putting her needs, her health, and her well-being aside in the name of winning. And the adults in her life refused to notice her downward spiral. In Chalked Up Sey reveals the tarnish behind her gold medals. A powerful portrait of intensity and drive, eating disorders and stage parents, abusive coaches and manipulative businessmen, denial and the seduction of success, it is the story of a young girl whose dreams would become eclipsed by the adults around her. As she recounts her experiences, Sey sheds light on the destructiveness of our winning-is-everything culture where underage and underweight girls are celebrated and on the need for balance in children’s lives. more...

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With a journalist’s eye for detail and a novelist’s feel for storytelling, Tom Swift takes readers on Bender’s improbable journey—from his early years on the White Earth Reservation, to his development at the Carlisle Indian School, to his big break and eventual rise to the pinnacle of baseball. The story of a paradoxical American sports hero, one who achieved a once-unfathomable celebrity while suffering the harsh injustices of a racially intolerant world, Chief Bender’s Burden is an eye-opening and inspiring narrative of a unique American life. more...

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Set in New York in the Depression, this is the story of Jim Braddock, who takes up boxing to make money to feed his family, and eventually goes up against champ Max Baer, notorious for having killed two men in the ring. James J. Braddock, born in New York City, was known locally for his thunderous right hand and successful amateur boxing career. After turning professional, he defeated foe after foe, and his rapid rise from obscurity earnt him the nickname, the Cinderella Man. He was given a shot at the world light heavyweight title against champion Tommy Loughran in 1929, but lost in a 15–round decision. Following that defeat and the stock market crash of 1929, Jim Braddock struggled to win fights and provide for his young family. Eventually Jim's luck turned. In 1934 he had upset wins against Corn Griffin and John Henry Lewis. With these two wins, Braddock set himself up for another shot at the world title – against heavyweight champion, Max Baer. On 13 June 1935, as a 10 to 1 underdog, Jim took the world title from Max Baer in what was described as, 'the greatest fistic upset since the defeat of John L. Sullivan by Jim Corbett'. Braddock would lose his heavyweight title two years later in an eight–round KO to 'The Brown Bomber', Joe Louis. Jim was inducted into the Ring Boxing Hall of Fame in 1964, the Hudson County Hall of Fame in 1991 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2001. more...

Price: $11.99