Prepare students for a career in sport media relations.As sport media communication has become intertwined with the frenetic pace of technology, global interconnectivity and versatility have become the bywords. Media Relations in Sport, Fifth Edition, examines the intersection and trajectory of emerging technology, platforms, and trends with foundational principles of communication to give students and industry professionals alike a nuanc...

For many football fans, the National Football League season of 1970 was a landmark year in the history of the game. The NFL and the American Football League finally began playing as a merged league—one that featured such legendary figures as George Blanda, Tom Dempsey, Vince Lombardi, George Allen, Sid Gillman, Lamar Hunt, and Al Davis. The NFL, Year One focuses on several key games throughout this thrilling initial season. One saw the Raiders and Browns play in Cleveland. This co...

Recent years have been among the most challenging in NFL history, culminating in the 2020-21 coronavirus and social justice issues. Yet a complete understanding of where the NFL is today begins with a five-year period that was the most transformative for the league. From 1957 to 1962, the NFL saw: the advent of unionization, with a landmark Supreme Court decision; the legendary 1958 title game, the first to go into sudden death overtime; a challenge from the American Football League that w...

A tight, dramatic NFL playoff game is exciting on its own, but two of the most dramatic in the same afternoon might result in the most compelling day in football history. This book is the first to capture the excitement and tension of December 23, 1972, when Pittsburgh played Oakland and Dallas met San Francisco in a pair of first-round playoff games that captivated millions. One game saw Dallas rally from three scores down in the fourth quarter, while the other featured the most famous en...

The year 1970 was grim in the United States and worldwide. Vietnam, continuing civil and political divisions, a fear of growing lawlessness, all seemed to point to a bleak future. The 70s were also a time when traditional boundaries were being challenged, from the color of skin to the length of hair. Sports events, issues, and athletes from the very first year of this tumultuous decade reflect the dramatic changes that were taking place around the country. Nowhere was this more evident tha...

This book examines the relationship between sport and religion with regard to twenty-first century topics such as race, fandom, education, and culture. The contributors provide new insights into the people, movements, and events that define the complex relationship between sport and religion around the world. A wonderful addition to any academic course on religion, sports, ethics, or culture as a whole.

The story of legendary Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play major league baseball, is recounted in this title.

“Seldom does a sports biography—especially a page-turner—so comprehensively explain the forces that made an icon the way they are.” – Sports IllustratedFrom the author of The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron comes the definitive biography of Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, baseball’s epic leadoff hitter and base-stealer who also stole America’s heart over nearly five electric decades in the game.Few names in the history of...

The story of the remarkable 1968 baseball season. "Seldom does an era, and do sports personalities, come alive so vividly, and so unforgettably." — The Boston GlobeIn 1968, two remarkable pitchers would dominate the game as well as the broadsheets. One was black, the other white. Bob Gibson, together with the St. Louis Cardinals, embodied an entire generation's hope for integration at a heated moment in American history. Denny McLain, his adversary, was a ...

Legendary chairman of the five-time Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, Dan Rooney, tells his life story for the first time. From growing up on Pittsburgh's notorious North Side, to vying with Johnny Unitas for top high school quarterback honors in Western Pennsylvania, from learning how to run a major sports franchise from his father, Art Rooney ("the Chief"), to helping shape the modern NFL, Rooney serves up a fascinating account of personal and professional achievement.He a...

The story of Mickey Mantle's magnificent 1956 seasonMickey Mantle was the ideal batter for the atomic age, capable of hitting a baseball harder and farther than any other player in history. He was also the perfect idol for postwar America, a wholesome hero from the heartland.In A Season in the Sun, acclaimed historians Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith recount the defining moment of Mantle's legendary career: 1956, when he overcame a host of injuries ...

A compulsively readable sports narrative by senior NFL writer for ESPN's The Undefeated (now Andscape), Jason Reid, chronicling both the history of Black players in the NFL, such as Warren Moon, and the recent careers of groundbreaking Black quarterbacks, including Colin Kaepernick.In September 2019, ESPN's The Undefeated website (now Andscape) began a season-long series of articles on the emergence of Black quarterbacks in the NFL. The first article in the series w...