Sports History

The number one New York Times best-selling story about American Olympic triumph in Nazi Germany, the inspiration for the PBS documentary The Boys of '36, broadcast to coincide with the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 80th anniversary of the boys' gold medal race....

From the New York Times baseball columnist, an enchanting, enthralling history of the national pastime as told through the craft of pitching, based on years of archival research and interviews with more than 300 people from Hall of Famers to the stars of today....

From one of Outside magazine’s “Literary All-Stars” comes the thrilling true tale of the fastest boat ride ever through the Grand Canyon, atop the legendary Colorado River flood of 1983.

Ballyhoo! The Roughhousers, Con Artists, and Wildmen Who Invented Professional Wrestling is a history of professional wrestling’s formative period in the U.S., from roughly 1874 to 1941, and the contested interplay of wrestlers and promoters who built the “sport” as we know it.

On the Warrior’s Path connects the martial arts with this larger perspective, merging subtle philosophies with no-holds-barred competition, Nietzsche with Bruce Lee, radical Taoism and Buddhism with the Star Wars Trilogy, traditional martial arts with basketball and American Indian culture....

Harvey Penick's life in golf began when he was eight years old, caddying at the Austin, Texas, Country Club. Eight decades later...

Seabiscuit was one of the most electrifying and popular attractions in sports history and the single biggest newsmaker in the world in 1938, receiving more coverage than FDR, Hitler, or Mussolini....

Experience 50 years of wrestling history through the iconic voice of Jim Ross.

In the tradition of Blood in the Garden and Three-Ring Circus comes a bold history of the iconic UCLA Bruins championship teams led by legendary coach John Wooden, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Bill Walton—set against the turmoil of American culture in the 1960s and ’70s.

New York Times bestselling author Rich Cohen tells the gritty, no-holds-barred account of the 1987 NBA season, a thrilling year of fierce battles and off-the-court drama between Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas, and Michael Jordan.

After his bestselling home run books Why We Love Baseball and The Baseball 100, Joe Posnanski turns from the national pastime to the number one sport in America.

The incredible story of the first African-American military pilot, who went on to become a Paris nightclub impresario, a spy in the French Resistance and an American civil rights pioneer....

Best-selling sportswriter Jeff Pearlman draws from almost 300 interviews to take the first full measure of the Lakers’ epic Showtime era....

A Season on the Brink chronicles the basketball season that John Feinstein spent following the Indiana Hoosiers and their fiery coach, Bob Knight....

At five feet ten inches tall, running back Walter Payton was not the largest player in the NFL, but he developed a larger-than-life reputation for his strength, speed, and grit....

ESPN began as an outrageous gamble with a lineup that included Australian Rules Football, rodeo, and a rinky-dinky clip show called Sports Center....

In 1973, Secretariat, the greatest champion in horse-racing history, won the Triple Crown....

In 1967, seven young men, members of a twelve-man expedition led by twenty-four-year-old Joe Wilcox, were stranded at 20,000 feet on Alaska's Mount McKinley in a vicious Arctic storm. Ten days passed while the storm raged, yet no rescue was mounted....

Based on years of archival research that unearthed Ederle’s memory from obscurity, Young Woman and the Sea is the exhilarating true story of Trudy Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel....

The 1989 Ironman World Championship was the greatest race ever in endurance sports....

In 1965, 18-year old Lew Alcindor played basketball for Coach John Wooden at UCLA. It was the beginning of what was to become a 50-year long relationship....

Denali's Howl is the white-knuckle account of one of the most deadly climbing disasters of all time....

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, an entwined narrative of the most adventurous year of all time, when three expeditions simultaneously raced to the top, bottom, and heights of the world....

Edited by award-winning reporters David Aldridge and John Hollinger, The Basketball 100 is a celebration of basketball by way of the 100 greatest players to ever grace the court in the history of the NBA—from The Athletic’s foremost basketball writers and analysts the game has to offer.

The first in-depth look at Lance Armstrong's doping scandal, the phenomenal business success built on the back of fraud, and the greatest conspiracy in the history of sports....

Yoga in its authentic form is focused on inclusivity, inner work and peace. But the yoga that is practised in the Western world has got a little lost along the way… Join Nikita Desai on her mission to help us understand yoga beyond the physical poses and pricey outfits that we’re so familiar with today. Drawing on research and teachings from ancient sources, Desai helps us navigate this complex practice.

When Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew retired from racing in 1978 to stand at stud at Spendthrift Farm, no one could be certain he would be a successful sire. But just four years later, his dark bay daughter Landaluce won the Hollywood Lassie Stakes by twenty-one lengths—a margin of victory that remains the largest ever in any race by a two-year-old at Hollywood Park. California horse racing had a new superstar, and Slew was launched on a stud career that would make him one of the most influential sires in North America.

Millions follow the F1 racing season from March to November, but few realise the enormity and complexity of a sport that encompasses so much more than 20 or so Sunday afternoons in the year. With access to drivers, pit crews, backroom operations, strategists, journalists, PR executives and promoters, journalist Phillip Horton shares his extensive knowledge and experience, and provides an up-close-and-personal insight into the world and workings of Formula One.

This telling of the 2024 Tour de France is an addition to our two-volume The Story of the Tour de France: How a Newspaper Promotion Became the Greatest Sporting Event in the World, and five supplements.

Skateboarding, once the gritty, rebellious underdog of the sports world, has flipped and grinded its way into the heart of the Olympic Games. How Skateboarding Became an Olympic Sport takes you on a wild ride from the sun-soaked sidewalks of Southern California to the grand arenas of the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympics. This book dives deep into the roots of skateboarding, exploring its raw beginnings, the legendary figures who revolutionized the sport, and the relentless push for Olympic recognition.