The History of Sports category has 186 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 543 ratings. The most-rated is The Boys in the Boat.
Out of the Clouds
Summary
In the best-selling tradition of the The Eighty-Dollar Champion, the propulsive, inspiring Cinderella story of Stymie, an unwanted Thoroughbred, and Hirsch Jacobs, the once dirt-poor trainer who bought the colt on the cheap and molded him into the most popular horse of his time and the richest racehorse the world had ever seen. In the wake of World War II, as turmoil and chaos were giving way to a spirit of optimism, Americans were looking for inspiration and role models showing that it was possible to start from the bottom and work your way up to the top - and they found it in Stymie, the failed racehorse plucked from the discard heap by trainer Hirsch Jacobs. Like Stymie, Jacobs was a commoner in "The Sport of Kings", a dirt-poor Brooklyn city slicker who forged an unlikely career as racing's winningest trainer by buying cheap, unsound nags and magically transforming them into winners. The $1,500 pittance Jacobs paid to claim Stymie became history's biggest bargain as the ultimate iron horse went on to run a whopping 131 races and win 25 stakes, becoming the first Thoroughbred ever to earn more than $900,000. The Cinderella champion nicknamed "The People's Horse" captivated the masses with his rousing charge - from-behind stretch runs, his gritty blue-collar work ethic, and his rags-to-riches success story. In a golden age when horse racing rivaled baseball and boxing as America's most popular pastime, he was every bit as inspiring a sports hero as Joe DiMaggio and Joe Louis. Taking readers on a crowd-pleasing ride with Stymie and Jacobs, Out of the Clouds unwinds a real-life Horatio Alger tale of a dauntless team and its working-class fans who lived vicariously through the stouthearted little colt they embraced as their own.
©2018 Linda Carroll and David Rosner (P)2018 Hachette Audio
1:59
Summary
What will it take to run a marathon in less than two hours? The world's fastest times for the marathon have been dropping since the distance of 26.2 miles was made official nearly 100 years ago. But after a noticeable decline that occurred for a half century, the times, while still edging lower, have stalled several minutes north of two hours for the past decade. For the first time, 1:59 examines what it will take for an elite distance runner to go subtwo hours. It will require more than raw talent, optimal body size, and great athletic genes. In order to become marathon's Roger Bannister and smash this elusive record, this runner must follow a healthy diet and an individualized training regimen that takes advantage of specific environmental factors ("live high, train low"). Because precious seconds count over each mile run, other critical considerations include improved running form and economy, sharpened mental focus, and wearing the right type of racing flats (or even going barefoot). The athlete who finally breaks distance running's most tantalizing barrier will become a worldwide celebrity overnight. Will the runner be a Kenyan, an Ethiopian, an American, or a marathoner from another country? And how soon will it happen? By providing a unique window into the highly competitive world of elite marathon running, this book also allows running enthusiasts to have a thorough understanding of the true potential of endurance athletes. And in turn, they can apply the same training and racing principles discussed in 1:59 to their own running, whether it's a 10K, half marathon, marathon, or ultramarathon.
©2014 Philip Maffetone (P)2014 Audible Inc.
America's Game
Summary
It's difficult to imagine today - when the Super Bowl has virtually become a national holiday and the National Football League is the country's dominant sports entity - but pro football was once a ramshackle afterthought on the margins of the American sports landscape. In the span of a single generation in postwar America, the game charted an extraordinary rise in popularity, becoming a smartly managed, keenly marketed sports entertainment colossus whose action is ideally suited to television and whose sensibilities perfectly fit the modern age. America's Game traces pro football's grand transformation, from the World War II years, when the NFL was fighting for its very existence, to the turbulent 1980s and 1990s, when labor disputes and off-field scandals shook the game to its core, and up to the sport's present-day preeminence. A thoroughly entertaining account of the entire universe of professional football, from locker room to boardroom, from playing field to press box, this is an essential book for any fan of America's favorite sport.
©2004 Michael MacCambridge (P)2020 Tantor
The Majors
Summary
What does it take to win a major championship and reach the absolute pinnacle of golf? Through a season of the four tournaments - the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship - known collectively as the majors, John Feinstein takes us where the television cameras never go, both off the links and "inside the ropes", as he reveals the special challenges and rituals, the frustrations and exhilaration, that mark the lives and careers of the world's greatest golfers.
©2000 John Feinstein (P)2013 Hachette Audio
Weird Facts About Canadian Hockey
Summary
Canadian hockey is rife with tales of the odd, the strange, the funny and, occasionally, the disturbing side of the game: In 1976, Maple Leafs coach Red Kelly installed pyramids in the players’ dressing room and under the bench in an attempt to harness “pyramid power” The Cusimano brothers started the tradition of “octopus hurling” during the 1952 playoff games In 1930, Toronto Maple Leafs’ general manager Conn Smythe placed a winning bet on a longshot horse to pay the cash-strapped Ottawa Senators for star player Frank “King” Clancy After a hard-fought win in the 1972 NHL playoffs, goaltender Bruce Gamble discovered after the fact that he had suffered a heart attack while minding the net After winning the Stanley Cup in 1924, the Montreal Canadiens left the precious trophy sitting in the snow by the side of the road! And many more....
©2005 Peter Boer (P)2021 EMV
Father Bauer and the Great Experiment
Summary
A pioneering and beloved Canadian legend comes to life. Father David Bauer changed lives - at the rink, in the classroom, and at the pulpit. Bauer's dream created the first truly national Canadian hockey team. In 1963 that unique group represented Canada abroad and were committed to both country and to Father Bauer. Whether shepherding the hockey program at St. Michael's College in Toronto or the men's national team out of the University of British Columbia, Bauer was both spiritual leader and trailblazer. Through exhaustive research and countless interviews, author Greg Oliver explores a Canadian icon, the teams that he put on the ice, and the rocky, almost unfathomable years of the 1970s when Canada didn't play international hockey. Finally, for the first time ever, the whole story of Father Bauer's critical importance to Canada's game is told in the rich detail it deserves, and a beloved icon is celebrated for his contributions to our nation's sporting history.
©2017 Greg Oliver (P)2017 Audible, Inc.