In the half-century since its birth, as Sports Illustrated grew from a struggling start-up to America's preeminent sports magazine, one thing has remained constant: the commitment to great storytelling. That part of the magazine's mission has always been easy to define: Identify the most compelling sports stories of our time and get the best writers in the business to tell them. This book brings together a lineup of writing talent worthy of the Hall of Fame and the classic stories they produced for Sports Illustrated over the past 50 years. Many of the writers whose work is collected here are longtime favorites of SI readers (Frank Deford, Rick Reilly, Steve Rushin, Gary Smith). Others are former SI staffers or contributors who left the fold, but not before making an indelible mark on SI's history (Dan Jenkins, Rick Telander, Mark Kram, Roy Blount Jr., William Nack). There are celebrated journalists (A.J. Liebling, Jimmy Breslin, George Plimpton), screenwriters (Budd Schulberg and Kenny Moore), renowned novelists (Thomas McGuane, Pete Dexter, Wallace Stegner, Don DeLillo) and even a couple of Nobel Prize winners in literature (William Faulkner and John Steinbeck). The stories themselves are a mirror of our times. Included in this volume are accounts of some of the most memorable athletic feats of our era (Secretariat's Belmont victory, the Thrilla in Manila, and Bobby Thomson's shot heard round the world). Profiles of the towering athletic figures of our time (Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, Ted Williams and Johnny Unitas). Good guys (Yogi Berra and Harry Caray) and bad guys (Sonny Liston and Mike Tyson). The fast (Roger Bannister) and the furious (Dick Butkus). The ridiculous (Howard Cosell) and the sublime (Josh Gibson). And the stories that simply touch our hearts and inspire us (Frank Deford's masterpiece on light heavyweight champ Billy Conn). This is the very best of the world's best sports magazine ¾ and it just doesn't get any better than that.
Inundated with offers, Gretzky's agent Gus Badali added Michael Barnett to Number ... took time to visit the set of the popular television show M*A*S*H, ...
... Roger Neilson formany years,”Olczyknow remembers, “and as soon asI stepped into the room he bluntly toldme that the trade had been Neil Smith'sdeal.
Before the deal could be completed , however , the player's union voiced its ... Todd Walker left as a free agent and was replaced by Mark Bellhorn ...
TODD BERTUZZI DISGRACES HOCKEY All-Star right-winger Todd Bertuzzi of the Vancouver Canucks lost ... The case generated a great deal of media attention.
Subsequently, Savard and the team issued a standard “we will deal with this ... Describing the trade, Todd colorfully termed the blunder as “a full-scale ...
Nineteen-year-old captain Al Fortin, who had been playing for Notre Dame for four years, blocked a field goal attempt to preserve the standoff.
The special plays section, featuring many of the book's 450-plus Xs and Os diagrams, will be especially popular among coaches seeking the out-of-bounds and last-second plays that work when the game is on the line.
There was a three-way tie at 85 with Mclaughlin, Kenneth Monteagle of San Francisco, and R. Walker Salisbury of Salt lake city, a four-time Utah amateur champion. an 18-hole playoff was required after the match play was finished. after ...
... Franklin D., 18, 43,147,157 Roper, Jim, 289, 292, 293 Rose, Mauri, 184,204, 207 Rubirosa, Porfirio, 348 Rum, 55, 56 Russell, D.C. “Fat,” 200, 204, 205, 224, 277m Ruth, Babe, 7, 359 Salisbury, North Carolina, 107, 109 Samples, Eddie, ...
The 2010 winner was 28-year-old Brendan Hall and his crew in Spirit of Australia.