In Don Nehlen's Tales from the West Virginia, the man that is considered to be the most successful coach in West Virginia history talks about his 21-year tenure in his own words.When Coach Nehlen arrived in Morgantown in December, 1979, he had a large task in front of him -- turn a losing team into a force to be reckoned with. In this book, he shares how he made it happen. Coach Nehlen discusses his theories about coaching, the staff that supported him, and the strategies that he employed to create a stronger team. He shares stories about some of his best players like Major Harris, Barret Green, Rich Braham, and Marc Bulger. He gives the play by play for some of his biggest wins and most disappointing losses. Coach Nehlen guides you through his 1988 and 1993 undefeated seasons. In addition, he shares his Hall of Fame experience with you, and muses about the future of college football.

No one knows Mountaineers football better than Don Nehlen, head coach of the Mountaineers from 1980 until 2001. Now fans of this dynamic collegiate powerhouse will relive the greatest moments in West Virginia football through the eyes of its most successful coach. When Coach Nehlen arrived in Morgantown in December 1979, he had a large task in front of him—turn a losing team into a force to be reckoned with. In Tales from the West Virginia Mountaineers Sideline, first published in 2006 and now revised, Nehlen, along with former Sports Information Director Shelly Poe, share how he made it happen. Nehlen explains his theories about coaching, the staff that supported him, and the strategies that he employed to create a stronger team. He shares stories about some of his best players like Major Harris, Barrett Green, Rich Braham, and Marc Bulger. He gives the play-by-play for some of his biggest wins and most disappointing losses. Coach Nehlen guides you through the legendary undefeated seasons of 1988 and 1993. In addition, he shares his Hall of Fame experience with you, and muses about the future of college football. Without a doubt, this insider’s look at West Virginia football is a must-have for any Mountaineers fan. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports—books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team. Whether you are a New York Yankees fan or hail from Red Sox nation; whether you are a die-hard Green Bay Packers or Dallas Cowboys fan; whether you root for the Kentucky Wildcats, Louisville Cardinals, UCLA Bruins, or Kansas Jayhawks; whether you route for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Los Angeles Kings; we have a book for you. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Did you know that one former star for the Pittsburgh Steelers went on to lower the driving age to 16 as a member of his state's legislature? Or that one former Steeler now leads the St. Patrick's Day Parade every year in Chicago? Or that another owned a casino in Reno? And that's just the players from the dark ages of the Steelers' organization.Where have guys like Ted Marchibroda, Roy Jefferson, Frenchy Fuqua, Jack Lambert, and Dermontti Dawson gone? What about Levon Kirkland, Kevin Greene, Carnell Lake, Bubby Brister, Bruce Van Dyke, and Frank Lewis? The answers are inside. Men of Steel profiles a Who's Who list of Steeler greats, catching up with the former players while taking each for a nostalgic walk down memory lane. Through interviews with the players themselves-including Joe Greene, Dick Hoak, Rod Woodson, Donnie Shell, and Tunch Ilkin-fans can relive the past as well as catch up to the present.From Elbie Nickel and the second-most famous play in team history to the group from the 1960s that legendary writer Myron Cope once blasted for abstaining from alcohol, Men of Steel chronicles 60 years of Steelers history dating back to the 1940s. Most Steeler fans will enjoy recalling each player's athletic accomplishments, but this book also delivers the rest of the story-both on and off the field. For fans of Pittsburgh football, it gets no better than Men of Steel.

Now lengthily updated to include Myron Cope's odyssey into retirement and the Steelers' breathtaking Super Bowl XL run, this entertaining, revealing memoir of the Pittsburgh writer-turned-broadcaster recounts memories and behind-the-scenes stories from a career that many call truly special. No broadcaster has come even close to matching his stretch of 35 years as radio color analyst for an NFL team's games -- in Cope's case, the five-time Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers. He now returns to his earlier profession of writer-author and gives you even further insight into the performers who have inspired the Steelers Nation. Their path to the top is reflected in observ-ations he offers with admiration, amusement, and blunt criticism.Seasoned with laugh-out-loud anecdotes and touching vignettes, Double Yoi! shares Cope's most personal moments, from labor pains in birthing the "Terrible Towel" to the reason behind his charity work with the physically and mentally afflicted -- among them, his son Danny -- to his emotional dedication to his late wife, Mildred, who died after a long battle with cancer. The author's most embarrassing moments, including getting the hook during his Pro Football Hall of Fame acceptance remarks, are here as well.Famed for his raspy voice and incendiary style, Myron Cope transcended mere broadcasting to become part of the Pittsburgh Steelers mythos and a football legend. From firsthand experiences, Cope brings his takes on the famous, such as Terry Bradshaw, Muhammad Ali, the Dallas "Cryboys," and Bill Cowher. Cope also explains how he helped John F. Kennedy become America's first Catholic President and how Frank Sinatra nearly cost him his job. You'll alsolearn why he was kidnapped by Franco's Italian Army and how his birth name was deemed "too Jewish" to be his byline. Double Yoi! is the ultimate collector's item for the Pittsburgh-loyal and the standard for accomplished sportswriters

This chronicle of sports at West Virginia's 40 black high schools and three black colleges illuminates many issues in race relations and the struggle for social justice within the state and nation. Despite having inadequate resources, the black schools' sports teams thrived during segregation and helped tie the state's scattered black communities together. West Virginia hosted the nation's first state-wide black high school basketball tournament, which flourished for 33 years, and both Bluefield State and West Virginia State won athletic championships in the prestigious Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association (now Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association). Black schools were gradually closed after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, and the desegregation of schools in West Virginia was an important step toward equality. For black athletes and their communities, the path to inclusion came with many costs.

Readers have the chance to meet the Pittsburgh Penguins, one of the wildest, wackiest, most wonderful sports franchises that ever waddled its way across North America. If Penguins fans are not shedding tears of sadness, they are crying for joy or simply laughing so hard they cannot stop. The team's games once played on a station called WEEP, and its first mascot, a penguin named Pete, died of pneumonia. In Tales from the Pittsburgh Penguins, sportswriter Joe Starkey takes fans inside the locker rooms, onto the team buses (including the one defenseman Bryan "Buggsy" Watson hi-jacked) and behind the personalities that have shaped Penguins hockey since 1967. No franchise has survived more near-death experiences than this one, which twice went bankrupt and many times escaped the threat of relocation. In 1975 things were so tough that players had their postgame oranges taken away.The bitter, often comical lows only made the ride to the top that much sweeter, and the Penguins have spent quality time at the summit. Mario Lemieux led the team to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships and later bought it out of bankruptcy court. Rarely has this franchise ever taken the middle ground. When it was bad, it was very, very bad. When it was good, it was sublime, graced with some of the greatest hockey personalities of the 20th Century. Hall of Fame coaches Herb Brooks, Bob Johnson, and Scotty Bowman plied their trade in Pittsburgh, as did Hall of Fame talents such as Lemieux, Paul Coffey, Jaromir Jagr and Ron Francis. The characters, too, were the cream of the crop. Wild men such as Eddie Shack, Brian "Spinner" Spencer, and Darius Kasparaitis provided entertainment in the best and worst of times, likethe night Kasparaitis was tossed into a Calgary police car for jaywalking or the time Shack drove his dune buggy onto the ice at the Civic Arena. To borrow a phrase from legendary Penguins announcer Mike Lange, you'd have to be h

Heart of a Husker is a portrait of Nebraska football coaching legend Tom Osborne, drawn with interviews from former players and coaches who were with the team during his 25 seasons as head coach. Osborne is a congressman now, in his third term in the House of Representatives.Among the most successful coaches in college football history, Osborne's Cornhuskers had a combined record of 255-49-3 from 1973-1997. They won or shared 13 conference titles, went to bowls in each of his 25 seasons and won three national championships in his final four seasons. Osborne reached 200 victories and 250 victories quicker than any major college head football coach and is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.Heart of a Husker is an intimate look at a man whose quiet, but intense, demeanor touched thousands of lives, both on and off the college gridiron.

A.J. Hawk can isolate the game of his life, the 2006 Fiesta Bowl against Notre Dame, not because of individual statistics, but because of what the game represented. "I think the fact that it was the end of an amazing four years-four big bowl wins; three Michigan wins; lots of victories in those four years; and an amazing group of teammates and coaches is why it felt like the game of my life," Hawk said.Jan White has a different reason for the game of his life: He scored his first touchdown as a Buckeye, playing a position he didn't want to necessarily play. "It became a footrace I was determined to win," White says of his 72-yard reception from Rex Kern against Northwestern in 1968. "It was incredible. The only chance there was of me not scoring on that play was if I had fallen down. I had enough confidence in my speed-I was a state record-holder in track in high school-but you just never know."Whoever they are and whatever the reason, there always is "the" game in a player's memory bank. The folks, whose stories are chronicled in Game of My Life: Memorable Stories of Ohio State Football, are a compendium of the shy, gregarious, polite, reverent, modest, and honest. They tell you why a certain game was the best, providing the detail, the color, and the emotion that only a player can share.Football fans, most especially those card-carrying members of Buckeye Nation, will be enlightened and entertained by these stories. Buckeye greats such as Archie Griffin, Cris Carter, Mike Lanese, and Bob Hoying relive their legendary moments-from the sidelines to the huddle, from the depths of impending defeat to the pinnacle of glory. It just doesn't get any better.

Virginia Tech's Shayne Graham trots onto the field at West Virginia on November 6, 1999, with two thoughts in his mind. One is a missed field goal that would have beaten Miami a year earlier. The other is the 44-yard field goal he is about to try against the Mountaineers, a kick he must make if the Hokies are to stay unbeaten and on track for a national championship. Head down, he focuses on his mark as the ball is snapped. He steps forward, the dream of an entire team resting with his leg.Now, hear Graham's memory of that kick in his own words, for the first time. Game of My Life: Virginia Tech celebrates the extraordinary football and basketball moments that have shaped the college's rich athletic heritage. Through interviews with some of the school's most prestigious athletes, Hokies fans can relive the big games that defined the school's winning tradition.Carroll Dale, later a fixture with the Green Bay Packers, dove-arms outstretched-to haul in a crucial two-point conversion in a 1957 game against the University of Richmond. Les Henson shot from the baseline-the other baseline-as the clock neared zero against Florida State in 1980. Chris Smith went well beyond the "double-double" standard for points and rebounds. How about 30 and 31 against Marshall in 1959? Corey Moore made life miserable for Clemson quarterback Brandon Streeter one night in 1999. Bruce Smith did the same for Duke quarterback Ben Bennett in 1983. The Hokies' Jim Pyne, meanwhile, made sure Syracuse's Kevin Mitchell didn't do the same to Tech quarterback Maurice DeShazo in 1993.Carlos Dixon, Mike Imoh, Andre Davis, Dell Curry, Bryan Still, Don Strock, Bryan Randall-all the Tech greats from the gridiron and hardwoodare in these pages, including coach Frank Beamer. Join thousands of Virginia Tech fans in remembering these cherished stories. For the athletes within, these truly were the games of their lives.

A richly illustrated overview of the storied football program at Notre Dame combines year-by-year accounts of the accomplishments of the school's greatest athletes, as well as profiles of hundreds of players and coaches, such as the Four Horsemen, Knute Rockne, Joe Montana, Digger Phelps, and others.