The changing fortunes of Detroit, told through the lens of the city's major sporting events, by the bestselling author of Soccernomics, and a prizewinning cultural critic From Ty Cobb and Hank Greenberg to the Bad Boys, from Joe Louis and Gordie Howe to the Malice at the Palace, City of Champions explores the history of Detroit through the stories of its most gifted athletes and most celebrated teams, linking iconic events in the history of Motown sports to the city's shifting fortunes. In an era when many teams have left rustbelt cities to relocate elsewhere, Detroit has held on to its franchises, and there is currently great hope in the revival of the city focused on its downtown sports complexes—but to whose benefit? Szymanski and Weineck show how the fate of the teams in Detroit's stadiums, gyms, and fields is echoed in the rise and fall of the car industry, political upheavals ushered in by the depression, World War II, the 1967 uprising, and its recent bankruptcy and renewal. Driven by the conviction that sports not only mirror society but also have a special power to create both community and enduring narratives that help define a city's sense of self, City of Champions is a unique history of the most American of cities.

Three true-to-life, sixth grade friends encounter bullies, racial and transgender prejudice, and the untimely death of an admired adult. This inspiring story tells how they find their way through the many challenges of life in middle school. The message is one of encouragement and hope. In the end, they are the champions. Written by a middle school teacher with over twenty years experience. Age: 11 and up

Rip, Red, and their friends on the Clifton United basketball team travel to a spring sleep-away tournament.

Walsh takes a comprehensive view of over a century of controversy in America's college football national champions, breaking teams down into one of three categories: perennial powers, contenders, and former greats. He then details the ten most controversial championships, suggests candidates for the best overall football program, and concludes with some thoughts on the future of the BCS along with a complete appendix listing national champions since 1869.

The first book to gather firsthand accounts of successful practices, and thinking habits, of sports legends and super-athletes—from across sports including football, baseball, basketball, boxing, golf, car-racing, and swimming—this work holds lessons that can power not only athletic success, but winning in any daily challenges of life or work. The result of years of research, Psychology of Champions offers the very personal words of star athletes who explain how they overcame such obstacles as fear, discouragement, and anxiety, and were able to move on to success. Each story—including from those of baseball great Ted Williams, basketball star Michael Jordan, football's famed Deion Sanders, and dozens more from across sports —is unique. Yet, the authors determine that, when all is said and done, the overriding variables accounting for the greatest success fall into three categories: motivation, confidence, and concentration. Barrell and Ryback spell out the rules for such success after each section in this absorbing book. The result is a book that not only entertains and educates us with firsthand accounts of ever-popular sports heroes, but also instructs athletes, amateur or professional, and arguably anyone with a goal to achieve in work or life. In-the-moment accounts reveal just what to do in various critical periods of sports competition—from being at bat in baseball, to making an instantaneous decision as a quarterback, firing the winning basket in the dying moments of a game, or launching the winning move in boxing or judo. Barrell and Ryback draw the lessons together in what they term The Focus Edge mindset. That mindset—and this book— says one former Olympian, take greatness and make it accessible to you and me.

Ask most of the millions of pre-teen soccer-playing girls in America if they plan to make the U.S. Women's National Team someday and the answer for them - and most of their parents - will be a resounding "Yes!" Among the most successful international teams in any sport in the past three decades, the USNWT has emerged as a collective cultural icon, with its individual members redrafting the very definition of female across the globe. With the lines blurring between male and female behavior, girls are competing ferociously and celebrating wildly without apology. Women are demanding gender and racial equity, while dressing and speaking authentically, and loving however and whomever they choose. The reality is that making the National Team is about as likely as winning the lottery. Of the tens of millions of soccer players since the team was formed in 1985, fewer than 250 women have ever made it to the highest level as of 2020. In Raising Tomorrow's Champions, one of those players, 16-year professional Joanna Lohman, joins current soccer dad and 40-year journalist Paul Tukey to share the team members' stories, from the early pioneers like Michelle Akers, Brandi Chastain and Mia Hamm, who are now parents themselves, to modern-day household names like Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe. For a true picture of what makes these women champions, Joanna and Paul also talked to their parents, coaches and teammates. The result of this unprecedented access to the National Team is an intimately revealing portrait of what it takes to make it to the top, not just in soccer, but in life. Not every child will make the most elite team, but the choices they - and their families - make in the face of challenge and adversity may define their childhood, their high school experiences, their college options, and their path forward in life. Not every child will necessarily even play soccer, but the lessons shared within Raising Tomorrow's Champions can help him or her become accomplished, authentic, and satisfied adults no matter what path they choose.

A New York Times Bestseller Detroit, mid-1930s: In a city abuzz over its unrivaled sports success, gun-loving baseball fan Dayton Dean became ensnared in the nefarious and deadly Black Legion. The secretive, Klan-like group was executing a wicked plan of terror, murdering enemies, flogging associates, and contemplating armed rebellion. The Legion boasted tens of thousands of members across the Midwest, among them politicians and prominent citizens—even, possibly, a beloved athlete. Terror in the City of Champions opens with the arrival of Mickey Cochrane, a fiery baseball star who roused the Great Depression’s hardest-hit city by leading the Tigers to the 1934 pennant. A year later he guided the team to its first championship. Within seven months the Lions and Red Wings follow in football and hockey—all while Joe Louis chased boxing’s heavyweight crown. Amidst such glory, the Legion’s dreadful toll grew unchecked: staged “suicides,” bodies dumped along roadsides, high-profile assassination plots. Talkative Dayton Dean’s involvement would deepen as heroic Mickey’s Cochrane’s reputation would rise. But the ballplayer had his own demons, including a close friendship with Harry Bennett, Henry Ford’s brutal union buster. Award-winning author Tom Stanton weaves a stunning tale of history, crime, and sports. Richly portraying 1930s America, Terror in the City of Champions features a pageant of colorful figures: iconic athletes, sanctimonious criminals, scheming industrial titans, a bigoted radio priest, a love-smitten celebrity couple, J. Edgar Hoover, and two future presidents, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. It is a rollicking true story set at the confluence of hard luck, hope, victory, and violence. .

Each chapter tells the story of each champion's racing career, decade by decade, followed by past performances of these Thoroughbred legends. There is a chapter for each decade, recounting a few horses' careers and several memorable races, accompanied by pictures of horses in action and at rest, to celebrate and honor the greatest achievements of the Thoroughbred bloodline.

This is a stimulating and deeply insightful football narrative by Rafa Benitez which focuses on the legendary manager's dramatic six Champions League campaigns with Liverpool. Rafa expertly navigates fans through intriguing European adventures that embrace the triumph and despair of two Champions League finals, three semi-finals and five quarter-finals in what was a golden era for the Anfield club - an era that supporters felt gave them their pride back after years in the wilderness. What sets this apart is the unique ways in which Rafa allows fans into his high-pressured world, the fascinating glimpses he offers of a top manager's thought processes and decision making during the cut and thrust of a high-octane European campaign. Understand how a great manager prepares for, then executes, a master-plan for European success.

Year in and year out, the Wolverines have placed championship banner upon banner atop their record collection. The Wolverines have 47 national team championships, 281 Big Ten titles, more than 1,600 first team All-Americans, nearly 1,300 individual Big Ten champions, and the list goes on. While many schools note periods of success, the U-M has made winning a way of life, emerging from the battles victorious more than 10,000 times. This great tradition has been filled with notable names and spectacular performances.