San Antonio College Library

"From nearly forgotten heroes like Tad Lucas (rodeo) and Tommy Kono (weightlifting) to celebrities like Amelia Earhart, Muhammad Ali, and Michael Phelps, Cait Murphy tells the stories of the people, events, and things that have forged the epic of American sports, in both its splendor and its squalor. Stories of heroism and triumph rub up against tales of discrimination and cheating. These objects tell much more than just stories about great games--they...

"Dan Jenkins calls Baugh "the greatest quarterback who ever lived, college or pro." Even though he played for the Washington Redskins mostly in the pre-TV era (1937-1952), he is still remembered and revered by fans, who consistently name him as the former player they would most like to see back in the game. Baugh was one of the first inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A living link between the leather-helmet era and the modern, Baugh spread...

Since the beginning of her career as Lady Vol head coach at twenty-two years old, Pat Head Summitt effectively established the University of Tennessee Lady Vols as the top women's athletics program in the nation. The winningest coach in the history of NCAA basketball, Summitt overcame one obstacle after another on the road to every victory, but it is the lives she has impacted along the way that tell the story of her true legacy. Forever a role model...

"Culturally, Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were light years apart. Yet they were nearly the same age, almost the same size, and came to New York at the same time. They possessed virtually the same talents, and played the same position. They were both products of generations of baseball-playing families, for whom the game was the only escape from a lifetime of brutal manual labor. Both were nearly crushed by the weight of the outsized expectations...

"A memoir written by baseball pitcher R.A. Dickey"-- A personal account about the author's unlikely journey to the big leagues describes how his athletic dream was destroyed by medical findings and how he was sustained by his Christian faith and the love of his family before emerging as a National League premier pitcher.

"Finally--a fascinating and authoritative biography of perhaps the most controversial player in baseball history, Ty Cobb. Ty Cobb is baseball royalty, maybe even the greatest player who ever lived. His lifetime batting average is still the highest of all time, and when he retired in 1928, after twenty-one years with the Detroit Tigers and two with the Philadelphia Athletics, he held more than ninety records. But the numbers don't tell half of Cobb's...

Our ancestors crossed deserts, mountains, and oceans-- feats of endurance that now seem impossible without modern technology. Can we hack our bodies and use the environment to stimulate our inner biology? Carney explores the true connection between the mind and the body and reveals the science that allows us to push past our perceived limitations.

"In the tradition of Friday Night Lights and Outcasts United, ONE GOAL tells the inspiring story of the soccer team in a town bristling with racial tension that united Somali refugees and multi-generation Mainers in their quest for state--and ultimately national--glory. When thousands of Somali refugees resettled in Lewiston, Maine, a struggling, overwhelmingly white town, longtime residents grew uneasy. Then the mayor wrote a letter asking Somalis...

"New York Times bestselling author Jim Dent pens the compelling story of how a black and white player came together to break the color barrier in Texas football in 1965. Jerry LeVias and Bill Bradley bonded as friends at the Big 33 high school all-star game, producing a dramatic finish that fans still talk about. Jim Dent takes the reader to the heart of Texas football with the incredible story of how two young men broke the chain of racism that had...

"Strong Inside is the dramatic, untold story of Perry Wallace, a brilliant student and talented athlete who became the first African-American basketball player in the SEC at Vanderbilt University during the tumultuous late 1960s. The fast-paced, richly detailed biography places Wallace's struggles and ultimate success into the larger contexts of civil rights and race relations in the South"--