Biographies and Team Stories - Books at Amazon.com
What It Takes to Be #1 : Vince Lombardi on Leadership
by Vince Lombardi (Books)
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Book Description
Legendary leadership lessons from the greatest football coach of all time
Leadership continues to be one of the most trained-for skills in business today. And no figure so fully embodies the leadership qualities managers hope to cultivate in their professional and personal lives than Vince Lombardi, the greatest NFL coach of all time.
In What It Takes to Be #1, author Vince Lombardi Jr.--America's most sought-after motivational speaker-- examines the leadership qualities that his father considered essential to success. He explores the leadership philosophy of Vince Lombardi, extracts powerful lessons about what it takes to bean effective leader, and shows how to apply those qualities to one's own life and career.
For all business leaders, or those who aspire to leadership, What It Takes to Be #1 is a blueprint for achieving Lombardi-like success in virtually any endeavor.
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In this inspiring book, Vince Lombardi, Jr. explores his father's leadership philosophy, and extracts powerful lessons about what it takes to be an effective leader.The Junction Boys : How 10 Days in Hell with Bear Bryant Forged A Champion Team at Texas A&M
by Jim Dent (Books)
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When Bear Bryant took over the Texas A&M football program in 1954, he inherited a team that had lost its last five games by a combined score of 133-41. That season more than 100 Aggie hopefuls arrived in the small town of Junction for the first practice of a now legendary training camp. The sun bore down. The drills escalated. Trainers doled out water like gold, and meals and accommodations were horribly spartan. Ten hellish days later, only 34 remained to form the 1954 team that would only win one game, but those survivors--and that's what they were--formed the nucleus of the squad that would go undefeated just two years later.This is the story of that team, that coach, the 10 days that shook their world, and the seasons they played together. "We lost alot (sic) of games," recalls Gene Stallings, who endured those days as a player and eventually followed Bryant as head coach both at A&M and Alabama, "but Coach Bryant knew what he was doing. Out of the yellow dust and the broiling heat of Junction, he forged a team of champions." Jim Dent's evocative recounting is so real and immediate you'll feel your throat getting scratchy as you read. You'll also feel remarkable respect for the players who toughed it out--and for Bryant, who begins as a man possessed, but, day after day, as he breaks the backs of some and helps instill true grit in others, transforms into a human being. --Jeff Silverman
Book Description
The Junction Boys tells the story of Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's legendary training camp in the small town of Junction, Texas. In a move that many consider the salvation of the Texas A&M football program, Coach Bryant put 115 players through the most grueling practices ever imagined. Only a handful of players survived the entire 10 days, but they braved the intense heat of the Texas sun and the burning passion of their coach, and turned a floundering team into one of the nation's best. The Junction Boys is more than just a story of tough practices without water breaks. An extraordinary fellowship was forged from the mind-numbing pain. The thirty-five survivors bonded together like no other team in America. They profited from the Junction experience; the knowledge they took back with them to College Station, about themselves and what they were capable of, would be used for the rest of their lives.
In vivid and powerful images reminiscent of Friday Night Lights, Hoosiers, and The Last Picture Show, these young men and their driven coach come to life. The Junction Boys contains all the hallmarks of a classic sports story, and it combines America's love of college football with an extraordinary story of perseverance and triumph.
Every Week a Season : A Journey Inside Big-Time College Football
by Brian Curtis (Books)
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Book Description
“Brian Curtis tells the stories behind the stories. He brings the meetings, practice sessions, recruiting calls and game day experience to light like never before. Fans who want to know what goes on behind the scenes will find out in this book.”–RON ZOOK, head football coach, the University of Florida
In Every Week a Season, acclaimed sports reporter and author Brian Curtis takes readers on an unprecedented whirlwind tour of NCAA Division I football. It’s a world that breeds great drama, a world that millions watch but few understand. It is a multibillion-dollar business. It is an obsession.
To get to the beating heart of college football, Curtis embarked on a breakneck itinerary that took him where all red-blooded college football fans long to be: behind the scenes at nine big-time programs. In nine weeks, Curtis visited Colorado State University, the University of Georgia, Boston College, the University of Tennessee, the University of Maryland, the University of Wisconsin, Louisiana State University, Florida State University, and Arizona State University. He braved the rain to watch Wisconsin pull off the upset of the year; he was at Neyland Stadium to see Tennessee manage a thrilling overtime victory; he was in Tallahassee to witness Florida State’s dramatic double overtime battle for the ACC title. As added bonuses, he was with Georgia when the team fought for the SEC Championship, and on the LSU sideline when the boys from Baton Rouge defeated Oklahoma to capture the BCS National Championship. At each stop, he brings us inside the game’s inner sanctum: in team meetings and scouting sessions; on the field and on the sidelines, during scrimmages, practices, and games; at pre-game traditions, meals, and religious services; in the locker room before the game and at half-time. Virtually nothing and no one was off-limits.
Along with the players, Curtis got to know the coaches–from the young guns to the legends–spending time with them in their offices and on the road. We see firsthand the challenges of running a major college football program–when called on, coaches must serve as CEOs, PR gurus, lawyers, politicians, and policemen. We also learn of the sacrifices made by wives and children that enable coaches to keep the numerous young athletes under their supervision focused, secure, and happy.
Brian Curtis gives a no-holds-barred insider’s account that will rank as one of the most honest and accurate books on big-time sports in America. Short of strapping on a helmet, you’ll never get closer to the game.
The Final Season: My Last Year as Head Coach in the NFL
by Bill Parcells, Will McDonough (Books)
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Football genius Bill Parcells isn't one to mince words. "I'm 56 years old," he says at the beginning of The Final Season, "and I don't intend to be coaching when I'm 60." Unless something changes radically, he's already honored that intention with three years to spare.The coach who led the Giants to two Super Bowl victories and turned the New England Patriots into AFC champions came back to New York in 1997 to tackle the rebuilding of the woeful 1-15 Jets. Within a year they were legitimate contenders, playing for the AFC Championship. When the 1999-2000 season kicked off, hopes were soaring at the Meadowlands. But there was new ownership to contend with. Keyshawn Johnson demanded a renegotiation. Injuries sidelined Wayne Chrebet, and quarterback Vinnie Testaverde went down in the season opener, lost for the year. Suddenly, the Jets were 1-6. Then came the turnaround. Sparked by the inspired--and unexpected--play of third-string QB Ray Lucas, the Jets wound up winning seven of their last nine, and then, equally unexpected, Parcells retired as head coach. In perhaps the season's most bizarre fiasco, his designated heir, Bill Belichick, resigned immediately.
The Final Season is Parcells's week-by-week account of the campaign. If you love football, the chronicle is good inside football. Parcells provides detailed analysis of every win and loss and uncensored assessments of his players, himself--"Our general manager (that would be me) didn't have a great year," he admits--and the flap-turned-farce that attended his exit. But it's more than that, too. Final Season is a story of ups and downs, of strong emotions, of coping with frustration and disappointment, and of unifying a team when the chips are down. Parcells is savvy, complex, never shy, and never boring. With The Final Season, he cannily marches readers down the field just as he did his teams. --Jeff Silverman
Book Description
As unflinching, candid, and tough as the man himself, The Final Season is Bill Parcell's swan song as head coach in the NFL. During 1999, a grueling, difficult season, Parcell's found his resolve and coaching ability tested at every turn.
It wasn't supposed to be like that, though.
The two-time champion coach who had guided two different teams to the Super Bowl was expected by fans and pundits to drive the New York jets all the way. After all, they had reached the AFC Championship the year before. But fate would not allow it. In the preseason, respected and longtime owner Leon Hess died, casting a season-long pall of uncertainty over the organization. During training camp, two players were arrested after a bar fight. In the final game of the preseason, Wayne Chrebet one of their top receivers, was injured. Then a huge blow-in the season opener Vinny Testaverde, the Pro Bowl quarterback, ruptured his Achilles tendon and was out for the year. Things grew progressively worse-at one point Parcells had lost nine starters. He also endured personal suffering when his dear friend and agent Robert Fraley died in the same plane crash that killed Payne Stewart.
Parcells struggled to keep his team on track, trying to maintain their confidence in the face of enormous odds. "When you're losing, you coach better. You're on top of every detail. You scrutinize yourself, your coaches, your players, and the system you're using." He became his own fiercest critic: "No matter how long you have coached, no matter how many games you have won, no matter how many playoff games, conference championships, Super Bowls you've won, it's all irrelevant. You are not winning now and that's what counts. You think you suck. You are a loser as a coach."
Things hit rock bottom when the team went 1-6. But
Parcells the coaches, and the players would not lie down. "If you don't play to win, then you shouldn't play at all." Parcells called up every strategic and motivational ploy he could dream up, and through sheer force of will and a great amount of pride, the jets won seven of their last nine games.
In The Final Season, readers will not only get an unsparing look inside one of football's greatest minds and a champion's philosophy but also Parcells frank take on good owners; his battles with "owner-operators"; the greatest "warriors" he's coached for and against; the players who are "dogs"; the game's most challenging coaches; and his seasons with the Giants and the Patriots. Parcells also provides the reasons for retiring from coaching as well as his perspective on Bill Belichick's controversial resignation and eventual departure for New England.
A rare, behind-the-scenes football memoir, The Final Season brims with insights and revelations, a testament to a great competitor and future Hall of Famer.
Winning Every Day : The Game Plan for Success
by Lou Holtz (Books)
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Book Description
"Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it."-- Lou Holtz
Meet Lou Holtz, the motivational miracle worker who revitalized the Notre Dame football program by leading the legendary Fighting Irish to nine bowl games and a national championship. During his twenty-seven years as a head football coach, Holtz garnered a 216-95-7 career record. Each new assignment brought a different team with different players, but, invariably, the same result--success. How did he do it? By designing a game plan for his players that minimized obstacles while maximizing opportunities.
Now he wants to pass his game plan on to you. In Winning Every Day, you'll discover ten strategies that will drive you to the top of your professional and personal life. Coach Holtz will reveal how you can acquire the focus and commitment it takes to be a champion. It won't be easy; it takes sacrifice to be the best. But now you'll have a proven winner alongside you in the trenches. Winning Every Day demonstrates how you can elevate your performance while raising the standards of everyone around you. Follow Coach's strategies and winning becomes habitual. You will learn to welcome sacrifice as you dedicate yourself to excellence. He will show you how to clearly define your short-term and long-term goals, to develop an unwavering sense of purpose without compromising flexibility.
Through it all, Coach Holtz will help you discover the courage you need to live a life of unremitting triumph. You couldn't have a better guide. He will provide you with the strategies he has shared with Fortune 500 companies, groups, and organizations. Voted the top motivational speaker two years running by a survey of speakers' bureaus, Coach is going to present you with all the Xs and Os, the basics of his game plan for success in life and business.
Saturday Shrines : Best of College Football's Most Hallowed Grounds
by (Books)
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I Ain't Never Been Nothing but a Winner: Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's 323 Greatest Quotes About Success, on and Off the Football Field
by Paul W. Bryant, Creed King, Heidi Tyline King (Books)
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Bud Wilkinson: An Intimate Portrait of an American Legend
by Jay Wilkinson, Gretchen Hirsch (Books)
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Book Description
Home Run: The Year the Records Fell chronicles the record setting home run chase and features every home run by Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa. This attractive hardcover is filled with interesting sidebars and loaded with color graphics and pictures. Some highlights include features on Ruth and Maris, McGuire's son Matt, Sosa's 20 home run month in June stats, notes and quotes and the All-Star hom-run contest.Lombardi
by (Books)
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His shadow was long, his legacy large, and his place in the pantheon immovable. Green Bay Packer coach Vince "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing" Lombardi was such a legend in his life that even he had a hard time keeping himself in focus: "I don't know," he once said hauntingly, "what I am." This fascinating oral history, originally published in 1971, the year after Lombardi's death, helps unravel the conundrum. It brings a complex combination of benevolent father figure and tyrannical martinet back into view. What the hundreds of reminiscences from Lombardi lovers and haters both in and out of football don't completely capture--and that's not much--Vernon Biever's stark black-and-white photography fills in. The late poet James Dickey's surreal epilogue in the form of a free-verse eulogy is a curiosity for today's more politically correct world; it is daringly unafraid to charge through the neutral zone and tackle Lombardi's dark side.I Remember Bud Wilkinson: Personal Memories and Anecdotes About an Oklahoma Sooners Legend As Told by the People and Players Who Knew Him (I Remember)
by (Books)
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Book Description
It would be impossible to talk about the great college football teams and not include the mind-boggling exploits of Bud Wilkinson and his great Oklahoma Sooners teams. In his seventeen years as the Sooners’ head coach, Wilkinson amassed a 145-29-4 record. Included in that span were separate winning streaks of 31 and 47 games, three national titles, four undefeated seasons, and thirteen consecutive conference championships. His career .826 winning percentage surpassed that of other coaching legends whose careers overlapped his, such as Woody Hayes and Paul "Bear" Bryant. It wasn’t just the steady stream of victories and titles, however, that distinguished Wilkinson in a profession dominated by Type-A personalities and Xs-and-Os savants. Tall, blond, handsome, charming, and soft-spoken, Wilkinson was well-liked and would have fit well into today’s media-driven model of the "successful coach." A star quarterback at the University of Minnesota, Wilkinson emerged as a sports star who wasn’t just an athlete. He earned a master’s degree in English from Syracuse University and later pioneered the role of football-coach-turned-expert-television-analyst, beginning in the early fifties with his own coach’s show at Oklahoma. He later achieved a different kind of notoriety in the sixties and seventies as a network-television commentator. Along the way, he also took a foray into politics and a brief return to coaching in the late seventies with the NFL’s St. Louis Cardinals. I Remember Bud Wilkinson is the newest in the popular I Remember series, offering hundreds of anecdotes and memories of Wilkinson by dozens of people who knew him. Sources include former players, fellow coaches, television personalities, friends, and others. This comprehensive work goes into the locker room, between the white lines, and behind the scenes to explore and explain what made the multitalented, innovative Wilkinson a legend in his own time and beyond.When the Game Stands Tall: The Story of the De LA Salle Spartans and Football's Longest Winning Streak
by Neil Hayes (Books)
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Book Description
De La Salle High School in Concord, California, is home to perhaps the greatest dynasty in sports history. At age 23, Coach Bob Ladouceur launched a legend, "The Streak," with no teaching or head-coaching experience, and with his teams amassed the highest winning percentage in all of football history with 138 consecutive victories. This book takes readers behind the scenes, closely following individual players, as Ladouceur guides his team through the most daunting schedule in school history, the 2002 season. Numerous interviews with major-league coaches such as Bill Walsh, Steve Mariucci, and John Gruden show the depth of respect accorded to Ladouceur and his methods and philosophies. Written with full cooperation from the coach and including dozens of photographs, this book is perfect for anyone interested in the factors behind phenomenal team success.Turnaround: Bear Bryant's 1st Year at Alabama
by Tom Stoddard (Books)
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Book Description
By 1958, the once legendary Bama football program had reached an all-time low - only four wins in three years. The proud tradition that included national titles and Rose Bowl victories was a source of state pride that had to be saved. Paul "Bear" Bryant became the football program's savior, and the University gave him free rein to work his miracles. Comprehensive interviews with players and coaches, detailed accounts of practice sessions, play-by play recordings of the games, and numerous photos take the reader back in time to that critical year in Alabama football history.Gladiators: 40 Years of Football
by (Books)
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Book Description
A mainstay of Sports Illustrated, Walter Iooss Jr. ranks among the world's preeminent sports photographers. His newest collection, Gladiators, collects 175 photographs, most of them in color, celebrating the game of football. In his gritty and lyrical portraits of the game's greatest players and coaches, his candid studies of passionate fans and kids at play, and his sweeping panoramas of electrifying action shots, Iooss offers a vision of the game that is at once brutal and beautiful.The Road to Glory
by Josh Heupel (Books)
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Book Description
Josh Heupel’s road to a national championship with Oklahoma was filled with obstacles, from the near-death experience of his mother to a serious injury that could very easily have ended Josh’s career.In "The Road to Glory: The path of faith that led to Oklahoma and a national championship." Josh Heupel writes about the lessons he’s learned and how young people can take that information and apply it to their own lives. He also writes about the proper way for parents to be involved in their children’s sports careers, and how faith has led to Josh’s development as a person.
The book also honors the National Championship season at Oklahoma in 2000, with game boxes and personalized stories from Josh about each game. In addition to having COMPLETE regular season game boxscores and game notes, there is also complete play-by-play action from the Big 12 Championship and Orange Bowl National Championship Games, making this book a keepsake for Sooner fans for decades.
Through hard work and commitment, Josh was able to see the journey through to the finish at Oklahoma, as he now looks forward to his next challenge: The NFL. This 192-page book has a 16-page photo section. The Foreword is by Oklahoma’s Football Coach, Bob Stoops, and the Introduction is by Sooner Coaching Legend Barry Switzer.
100 Toughest Players / Sports
by (VHS)
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Pure Payton
by (VHS)
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Walter Payton, whose tragic death from liver disease stunned and saddened the sports world, ran to glory in 13 thrill-packed seasons with the Chicago Bears before retiring in 1987, and this video serves as a tribute to his exploits on the field as well as his contributions in charitable endeavors. At first thought to be too short, too slow, and too small to have a professional career as a running back, Payton worked hard to make himself one of the game's all-time great runners. Interviews with colleagues, including Payton's coach with the Bears, Mike Ditka, as well as interviews with Payton himself, are interspersed with game films in this very professional presentation that tells the Payton story in vivid detail. As a production of NFL Films, the video features the trademarked gorgeously shot footage (complete with stirring background music) that shows Payton's intensely physical style of play to great advantage. One former opponent explains that Payton never took the easy way out, and at times would purposely initiate hard contact with a defender. And perhaps Mike Ditka sums it all up when he comments that though Payton wasn't physically large, "he had heart." Walter Payton was a respected and beloved athlete, and Pure Payton is a wonderful tribute to one of football's all-time greats. --Robert J. McNamaraDescription
For 13 seasons Walter Payton inspired wonder in all those who had the privilege to watch him play. Now you can relive the story of the NFL's All-Time leading rusher. From humble beginnings to Mississippi, through record setting performances at Jackson State, to stardom with Chicago Bears, Pure Payton takes a unique and inside look at the astounding journey and career of Walter Payton. Along with rare interviews and college footage, Pure Payton also includes the most comprehensive collection of Payton's pro football highlights. Payon retired from Pro Football in 1987, yet even today the NFL's rushing record book still reads like his own personal diary. Pure Payton takes a look back at this rare story of longevity, inspiration and achievement.The Tough Work of Turning Around a Team
by Bill Parcells (Other)
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