The extraordinary New York Mets rookie pitcher recalls his first major league season, a season highlighted by electric excitement among fans, a strikeout shootout at the All-Star Game, and an unprecedented strikeout record

Recounts the life and career of the flamboyant, outspoken, and controversial black pitcher, tracing his sometimes outrageous way from Los Angeles childhood, through eight seasons with Pittsburgh, to his current stand with the Yankees

Describes how Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, recounts the problems he faced after becoming a popular celebrity, and looks at the ideals which guided his life

A classic history of Negro League baseball provides a definitive account of the game, from the post-Civil War era to Jackie Robinson's debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, documenting the athletes, key games, statistics, records, and more. (view table of contents)

World champion at 19... One of the first black athletes to become world champion in any sport... 1-mile record holder... American sprint champion in 1898, 1899, 1900... triumphant tours of Europe and Australia... Victories against all European champions...Until now a forgotten, shadowy figure, Marshall Walter "Major" Taylor is here revealed as one of the early sports world's most stylish, entertaining, and gentlemanly personalities. Born in 1878 in Indianapolis, the son of poor rural parents, Taylor worked in a bike shop until prominent bicycle racer "Birdie" Munger coached him for his first professional racing successes in 1896. Despite continuous bureaucratic―and, at times, physical―opposition, he won his first national championship two years later and became world champion in 1899 in Montreal. This beautifully illustrated, vividly narrated, and scrupulously researched biography recreates the life of a great international athlete at the turn of the century. Based on ten years of research―including extensive interviews with Major Taylor's 91-year old daughter―this is the dramatic story of a young black man who, against prodigious odds, rose to fame and stardom in the tempestuous world of international professional bicycle racing a century ago.

A history of black athletes spanning three hundred years traces the history of sports to African, culture, features profiles of black athletic stars, and explores the impact of the Emancipation Proclamation and other events on black sports (view table of contents)

Product Description: For 60 years professional baseball was a segregated sport. Even today, 44 years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, most of the great black players of the Negro Leagues are forgotten or ignored. With this book, Holway sets out to rectify that...read more

National Football League Hall of Fame player Jim Brown describes what it means to be an athlete and recounts behind-the-scenes stories involving sex, the Hollywood fast lane, and his encounters with the law

The son of the legendary 'Brown Bomber' presents the private side of the fighter, weaving into the account reminiscences from siblings, former wives, trainers, opponents, and sportswriters

The former star running back recounts his two years with the champion Dallas Cowboys, his subsequent years in the NFL and WFL and the decline of the Cowboys

Traces the tumultuous career of a baseball superstar who has also seen his share of trouble--from ongoing wars with the baseball establishment to on-the-field brawls, to his experience as the first black player in Arkansas

The legendary athlete discusses his greatest plays, his greatest teammates and opponents, his personal life, his days in the Negro Leagues, Contemporary baseball, and his most bitter moment in major league baseball

Shares the story of the New York Yankees superstar, from his beginnings in St. Paul's striving black community to his twenty-three million dollar contract with the Yankees that made him the symbol of 1980s baseball

The All-Pro wide receiver recounts his childhood in Tacoma, college days during the tumultuous 1960s, playing with the St. Louis Cardinals, his conversion to Islam, family life, and friends in the worlds of sports and entertainment

One of baseball's finest players offers frank and outspoken commentary on the prejudice he has suffered as a black athlete, the continuing problem of racial tension off the field, serious drug and alcohol abuse problems in his sport, and unfair spending and training practices

Dubbed 'Wizard' for his on-field magic, the Saint Louis Cardinals' All-Star shortstop recounts his youth in riot-torn Watts and his climb to become baseball's highest paid player, and offers fresh and outspoken opinions on very aspect of baseball today

Traces the life and career of Doby, the first Black to play in the American League, looks at his family life, and describes his encounters with prejudice (view table of contents)

The former star player for the Harlem Globetrotters recounts how he got his start in basketball, and explains how Christian faith became an important part of his life

Traces the life of the first Black man to break baseball's color line and reveals how Robinson opened the way for Blacks and minorities to enter into the mainstream of American life

Blending biography and social history, this portrait of one of the first Black Americans to win fame and respect in the twentieth century draws on new interview material and translations from German press coverage

The extraordinary New York Mets rookie pitcher recalls his first major league season, a season highlighted by electric excitement among fans, a strikeout shootout at the All-Star Game, and an unprecedented strikeout record

A biography of Black heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson details his boxing career and his extravagant, unconventional personal life, which led to his persecution by the white society of early twentieth-century America

Traces the life of Reggie Jackson, describes his career as a baseball player, and depicts the experience of being a member of the New York Yankees