Walter Camp: Football and the Modern Man

Americans are obsessed with football, yet they know little about the man who shaped the game to make it uniquely technical, physical, and 'man-making' at once. Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football," was the foremost authority on American athletics and arguably the greatest amateur American athlete of his time.

In Walter Camp: Football and the Modern Man, Julie Des Jardins chronicles the life of the clock company executive and self-made athlete who remade football and redefined the ideal man. As a student at Yale University, Camp was a varsity letterman who led the earliest efforts to codify the rules and organization of football-including the line of scrimmage and "downs"-to make it distinct from English rugby. He also invented the All-America Football Team and wrote some of the first football fiction, guides, and sports page coverage, making him the foremost popularizer of the game. Within a decade American football was an obsession on college campuses of the Northeast. By the turn of the century, it was a bona fide national pastime.

Since the Civil War, college men of good breeding had not a physical skirmish to harden them. They had grown soft, Americans feared, both in body and attitude. Camp saw football as the antidote to the degeneration of these young men. When massive numbers of college football players enlisted to fight in World War I, Camp held them up as proof that football turned men effective and courageous. His influence over the game, however, was not always viewed as beneficial. Under his watch, dozens of college and high school players were killed or maimed on the gridiron. President Theodore Roosevelt urged him to reform football to prevent administrators from banning it, but Camp was ambivalent about removing the very physicality that made the game man-making in his eyes. The criticism targeted at him over the aggressiveness of football still haunts the game today.

In this fast-paced biography, Julie Des Jardins shows how the "gentleman athlete" was as much the arbiter of football as he was the arbiter of modern manhood. Though eventually football took on meanings that Camp never intended, his impact on the professional and college game is simply unsurpassed.

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This riveting true story of courage, strength, and football at the height of racial tension in Birmingham, Alabama, inspired the motion picture Woodlawn, and tells the story of Coach Tandy Gerelds, his running back Tony Nathan, and a high school football game that healed a city.

Woodlawn is soon to be a major motion picture starring Jon Voight, Nic Bishop, and C. Thomas Howell.

In the midst of violent, impassioned racial tensions in Birmingham, Alabama, new football coach, Tandy Gerelds, was struggling to create a winning football team at Woodlawn High School—one of the last schools in Birmingham to integrate. The team he was handed did not have the caliber of players he needed to win—until he saw Tony Nathan run.

But Tony was African American and Coach Gerelds knew that putting him in as running back would be like drawing a target on his own back and the back of his soon-to-be star player. But Coach Gerelds saw something in Tony, and he knew that his decision to let him play was about more than football. It was about doing what was right for the school…and the city.

And soon, the only place in the city where blacks and whites got along was on Coach Gerelds’s football team. With the help of a new school chaplain, Tony learned to look beyond himself and realized that there was more at stake than winning a game.

In 1974, Coach Gerelds’s interracial team made Alabama history drawing 42,000 fans into the stadium to watch them play. It was this game that triggered the unity and support of the Woodlawn High School Colonels and that finally allowed a city to heal and taught its citizens how to love.

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Woodlawn: One Hope, One Dream, One Way

This riveting true story of courage, strength, and football at the height of racial tension in Birmingham, Alabama, inspired the motion pictureWoodlawn, and tells the story of Coach Tandy Gerelds, his running back Tony Nathan, and a high school football game that healed a city.

Woodlawn is soon to be a major motion picture starring Jon Voight, Nic Bishop, and C. Thomas Howell.

In the midst of violent, impassioned racial tensions in Birmingham, Alabama, new football coach, Tandy Gerelds, was struggling to create a winning football team at Woodlawn High School—one of the last schools in Birmingham to integrate. The team he was handed did not have the caliber of players he needed to win—until he saw Tony Nathan run.

But Tony was African American and Coach Gerelds knew that putting him in as running back would be like drawing a target on his own back and the back of his soon-to-be star player. But Coach Gerelds saw something in Tony, and he knew that his decision to let him play was about more than football. It was about doing what was right for the school…and the city.

And soon, the only place in the city where blacks and whites got along was on Coach Gerelds’s football team. With the help of a new school chaplain, Tony learned to look beyond himself and realized that there was more at stake than winning a game.

In 1974, Coach Gerelds’s interracial team made Alabama history drawing 42,000 fans into the stadium to watch them play. It was this game that triggered the unity and support of the Woodlawn High School Colonels and that finally allowed a city to heal and taught its citizens how to love.

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Woodlawn: One Hope, One Dream, One Way

This riveting true story of courage, strength, and football at the height of racial tension in Birmingham, Alabama, inspired the motion pictureWoodlawn, and tells the story of Coach Tandy Gerelds, his running back Tony Nathan, and a high school football game that healed a city.

Woodlawn is soon to be a major motion picture starring Jon Voight, Nic Bishop, and C. Thomas Howell.

In the midst of violent, impassioned racial tensions in Birmingham, Alabama, new football coach, Tandy Gerelds, was struggling to create a winning football team at Woodlawn High School—one of the last schools in Birmingham to integrate. The team he was handed did not have the caliber of players he needed to win—until he saw Tony Nathan run.

But Tony was African American and Coach Gerelds knew that putting him in as running back would be like drawing a target on his own back and the back of his soon-to-be star player. But Coach Gerelds saw something in Tony, and he knew that his decision to let him play was about more than football. It was about doing what was right for the school…and the city.

And soon, the only place in the city where blacks and whites got along was on Coach Gerelds’s football team. With the help of a new school chaplain, Tony learned to look beyond himself and realized that there was more at stake than winning a game.

In 1974, Coach Gerelds’s interracial team made Alabama history drawing 42,000 fans into the stadium to watch them play. It was this game that triggered the unity and support of the Woodlawn High School Colonels and that finally allowed a city to heal and taught its citizens how to love.

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GoPro Cameras for Dummies

You only get one chance to take the perfect action shot
The GoPro camera has taken the market by storm. Durable and weatherproof, these cameras are tailor-made for athletes, filmmakers, journalists, and hobbyists who want a hands-free device. Whether you're BASE-jumping, mountain biking, surfing, or just shooting the next big indie masterpiece, GoPro Cameras For Dummies has you covered with information on how to get the best photos and videos from your camera.
Jumpstart your GoPro experience, with helpful advice on how to create and share action-packed photos and videos. Plus you'll get professional insight on how to mount, set, and control your camera for best results no matter the shooting conditions, and how to edit, add music, and share your finished piece. Step-by-step instructions walk you through each process, helping you get acquainted with the GoPro's controls and settings until you're consistently getting great footage. This helpful guide is packed with full-color, full-page examples of GoPro photos from top users, to inspire you to get the most from your new camera.

• Choose the right camera and add the right accessories
• Master the settings for any environment
• Establish framing, work with lighting, and capture sound
• Edit your images, and put them together as a project

Rather than risk bad results with the school of trial by error, master your camera with the help of a professional photographer and videographer. The best action shots can't be re-created, so know what you're doing going in so you can nail that shot the first time. If you're ready to get out there and start shooting, grab your gear and grab GoPro Cameras For Dummies, your personal GoPro coach.

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The Crippler: Cage Fighting and My Life on the Edge

It takes a certain kind of person to do whatever is necessary to make a living as a mixed martial arts fighter. And it takes another kind of person to stand out from all the rest as both a wild man and a rock star. Chris Leben, otherwise known as The Crippler,” is that kind of person.

Leben’s reputation started when he appeared on the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter, a reality show and competition where hopeful fighters live together and vie for a UFC contract and a path to greatness. He quickly made a name for himself with his controversial and abrasive behavior. During his subsequent ten-year career in ultimate fighting, Leben became one of the most recognized figures in the sport, enthralling audiences around the world with his wild, head-first style of fighting as he took on some of the world’s best fighters, including Anderson Silva, Yoshihiro Akiyama, and Wanderlei Silva.

But Leben’s success in the ring and international fame hid a troubled background. Abandoned by his father at a young age, Leben’s mother worked long hours to raise him and his two siblings, and Leben learned early he had to be tough to fend for himself. For most of his life, Leben struggled with alcohol and narcotics, and he was suspended by the UFC for nine months for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs.The Crippler is not just an exciting account of his rise to prominence within the UFC; it’s the incredible story of a renowned wild man dealing with his personal demons and learning that the toughest opponent is always yourself.

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Ride the Revolution: The Inside Stories from Women in Cycling

Featuring contributions from: Emma O'Reilly, the soigneur for the U.S. Postal Service Team and one of the people responsible for bringing Lance Armstrong down as part of David Walsh's investigation;Betsy Andreu, wife of ex-professional cyclist Frankie Andreu and another Lance Armstrong nemesis;Michelle Cound, manager and partner of Tour de France winner Chris Froome;Juliet Macur, author of Cycle of Lies: the Fall of Lance Armstrong; andJen See, who interviews Marianne Vos, arguably the greatest cyclist in the world right now.
When Marie Marvingt decided to ride the 1908 Tour de France she was told "absolument, non!" Instead, she rode each stage fifteen minutes after the official racers had departed and finished all 4,488 kms of the parcours--a feat that only 36 of the 110 men who entered the race could equal. Her motto? "I decided to do everything better, always and forever." It's in the spirit of Breakneck Marie that this book has been written.
These fresh and vibrant voices examine the sport from a new perspective to provide insights that rarely make it into the mainstream: what is it like to be a top women rider or to work in their support team? Where is the women's sport heading and when will more women be represented at the highest level of sport's governance?

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Portage: A Family, a Canoe, and the Search for the Good Life

When as a child she first saw a canoe gliding on Lake Alexander in central Minnesota, Sue Leaf was mesmerized. The enchantment stayed with her and shimmers throughout this book as we join Leaf and her family in canoeing the waterways of North America, always on the lookout for the good life amid the splendors and surprises of the natural world.
The journey begins with a trip to the border lakes of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, then wanders into the many beautiful little rivers of Minnesota and Wisconsin, the provincial parks of Canada, the Louisiana bayou, and the arid West. A biologist and birder, Leaf considers natural history and geology, noticing which plants are growing along the water and which birds are flitting among the branches. Traveling the routes of the Ojibwe, voyageurs, and map-making explorers, she reflects on the region’s history, peopling her pages with Lewis and Clark, Jean Lafitte, Henry Schoolcraft, and Canada’s Group of Seven artists. Part travelogue, part natural and cultural history,Portage is the memoir of one family’s thirty-five-year venture into the watery expanse of the world. Through sunny days and stormy hours and a few hair-raising moments, Sue and her husband, Tom, celebrate anniversaries on the water; haul their four kids along on family adventures; and occasionally make the paddle a social outing with friends. Along the way they contend with their own human nature: they run rapids when it would have been wiser to portage, take portages and learn truths about aging, avoid portages and ponder risk-taking. Through it all, out in the open, in the wild, in the blue, exploring the river means encountering life—good decisions and missed chances, risks and surprises, and the inevitable changes that occur as a family canoes through time and learns what it means to be human in this natural world.

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Backyard Ice Rink: A Step-by-Step Guide for Building Your Own Hockey Rink at Home

Driven in large part by the popularity of the NHL’s Winter Classic, outdoor hockey is enjoying an unprecedented revival. For a sport that began under the open sky, a backyard rink allows for a return to the origins of the game and can provide a memorable neighborhood gathering place and a place for players to train without the expense of indoor ice rental.In Backyard Ice Rink, blogger and professional rink builder Joe Proulx guides you through every step of building your own backyard ice skating rink. From the simplest wooden frame to elaborate tall-board rinks, from measuring the slope in your yard to constructing your frame using parts found at your local hardware store, Proulx makes the project easy to tackle. In addition to the four easy-to-follow photo-intensive rink plans, Proulx also covers ice maintenance, building your own bench and goals, teardown, and storage through the summer months.

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Split Season: 1981: Fernandomania, the Bronx Zoo, and the Strike That Saved Baseball

The never-before-told story of the momentous season torn in half by the bitter players strike.

1981 was a watershed moment in American sports, when players turned an oligarchy of owners into a game where they had a real voice. Midway through the season, a game-changing strike ripped baseball apart, the first time a season had ever been stopped in the middle because of a strike. Marvin Miller and the MLB Players Association squared off against Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and the owners in a fight to protect players rights to free agency and defend America's pastime.
Though a time bomb was ticking as the 1981 season began, the game rose to impressive---and now legendary---heights. Pete Rose chased Stan Musial's National League hit record and rookie Fernando Valenzuela was creating a sensation as the best pitcher in the majors when the stadiums went dark and the players went on strike.
For the first time in modern history, there were first- and second-half champions; the two teams with the overall best records in the National League were not awarded play-off berths. When the season resumed after an absence of 712 games, Rose's resumption of his pursuit, the resurgence of Reggie Jackson, the rise of the Montreal Expos, and a Nolan Ryan no-hitter became notable events. The Dodgers bested their longtime rivals in a Yankees-Dodgers World Series, the last classic matchup of those storied opponents.
Sourcing incredible and extensive interviews with almost all of the major participants in the strike,Split Season: 1981 returns us to the on- and off-field drama of an unforgettable baseball year.

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How to Win Games and Beat People

Destroy the competition on game night with this seriously funny guide packed with handy strategy, tricks, and tips from the experts
Games are way more fun to play when you win—especially when you crush your friends and family! In How to Win Games and Beat People, Times science editor Tom Whipple explores inside tips, strategy, and advice from a ridiculously overqualified array of experts that will help you dominate the competition when playing a wide range of classic games—from Hangman to Risk to Trivial Pursuit and more.
A mathematician explains how to approach Connect 4; a racecar driver guides you through the corners in slot car racing; a mime shares trade secrets for performing the best Charades; a Scrabble champion reveals his secret strategies; and a game theorist teaches you to become a real estate magnate, recommending the Monopoly properties to acquire that will bankrupt and embarrass your opponents (sorry, Mom and Dad).
Funny, smart, and endlessly useful, this is a must-read for anyone who takes games too seriously, and the bible for sore losers everywhere.

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The Game's Not Over: In Defense of Football

On November 17, 1968, the Oakland Raiders staged a last-minute comeback against the New York Jets, scoring two touchdowns in the final minute for a dramatic finale. But there was a problem: no one saw it. NBC, broadcasting the game nationally, cut away with 1:01 remaining and the Jets still leading to air a previously scheduled movie,Heidi. The ensuing public outcry was so significant that the rules for football broadcasting were quickly and forever changed.

In this perceptive, finely argued book, Gregg Easterbrook shows that the so-called "Heidi Bowl" was not just an isolated bizarre moment. It was the beginning of the football era in America. The sport boomed alongside television, soon becoming our national campfire--one of the few points of agreement across the political spectrum and a genuine source of community even as religion's influence waned. It is no coincidence, Easterbrook argues, that we now see in football the same issues that we perceive elsewhere in America--including recent problems with bullying, violence against women, racial injustice, and financial skulduggery.

These problems are significant, and many have been moved to limit their engagement with the NFL's venal culture--or boycott it entirely. Yet as Easterbrook shows, there's something here worth saving. He expounds on the benefits of football, and throws its many problems into relief, finally arguing that the work of reforming and changing one of our great pastimes is American as the game itself.

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Twelve Yards: The Art and Psychology of the Perfect Penalty Kick

An all-encompassing look at the penalty kick, soccer’s all-or-nothing play—its legendary moments and the secrets to its success

No stretch of grass has been the site of more glory or heartbreak in the world of sports than the few dozen paces between goalkeeper and penalty kicker in soccer. In theory, it’s simple: place the ball beyond a single defender and secure a place in history. But once the chosen players make the lonely march from their respective sides of the pitch, everything changes, all bets are off, and anything can happen. Drawing from the hardwon lessons of legendary games, in-depth statistical analysis, expert opinion, and the firsthand experience of coaches and players from around the world, journalist Ben Lyttleton offers insight into the diverse attitudes, tactics, and techniques that separate success from failure in one of the highest-pressure situations sports has to offer.

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Afoot & Afield Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, and Rocky Mountain National Park: 184 Spectacular Outings in the Colorado Rockies

Afoot and Afield: Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, and Rocky Mountain National Park is one of the most comprehensive hiking and biking books available.Alan Apt, author of the best-selling guidebook, Snowshoe Routes Colorado’s Front Range, andKay Turnbaugh, author of Around Nederland, carefully describe 184 adventures for people of all abilities and interests. The book includes everything from easy access Front Range lakeside strolls to high challenging treks among the high peaks. Many trails are great for kids (of all ages)less ambitious but highly satisfying, easy gambols in the natural world. The geographical scope of the book stretches from the Fort Collins area to Colorado Springs, and west to Rocky Mountain National Park, Fairplay, and Independence Pass; with superb coverage of mountains, plains, canyons and riverside adventures.

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Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud

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At age seventeen Joe Pepitone signed with the New York Yankees, and soon experts were predicting that he would be the team’s next superstar. He could run, throw, and field, and he had a sweet home run swing. But during his twelve years in the major leagues Pepitone devoted most of his energy to swinging off the field. He blew his career, destroyed two marriages, lost custody of three children, and came very close to a nervous breakdown. At the age of thirty-three he quit baseball for good and finally admitted that for most of his life, he’d been living a lie. He’d been acting the carefree clown in order to cover up immense inner pain. In Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud, first published in 1975, Pepitone reveals what was behind his wild behavior. He does so in the most devastatingly honest terms, holding back none of the embarrassment, anguish, and guilt that perpetually haunted him. He tells of the father he loved so much, Willie Pep” Pepitone, the toughest man in a tough Brooklyn neighborhood. Obsessed with making Joe a baseball star, Willie beat his son when he failed to meet expectations. One night, enraged at his father, Joe said, MomI wish he’d die!” Willie died the next day. Along with pain, the book has plenty of humor. Pepitone tells of partying with Frank Sinatra and Mickey Mantle, carousing with groupies and hookers, and living the life” of a famous ballplayer in the sixties and seventies. One of the most moving, honest, and hilarious books ever written by an athlete, Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud was selected by Esquire magazine as one of the 20 best baseball books ever.”

Yes!: My Improbable Journey to the Main Event of Wrestlemania

One of WWE's most unlikely champions of all time and also one of its most popular, Bryan has proved to the world and to all of WWE that looks can be deceiving. Just ask anyyone who's ever underestimated him . . . right before he went out and whipped the WWE universe into a frenzy.
This is Bryan's behind-the-scenes story told for the first time ever by the "YES!" Man himself---from his beginnings as a child wanting to wrestle to his ten years circling the globe on the independent circuit and his remarkable climb to the upper ranks of WWE.
As the biggest week of his life unfolds, Aberdeen, Washington's bearded son reflects in full detail on his incredible path to the top and gives his take on the events that have shaped him. With his Bryan-ized blend of modesty and surprising candor, Daniel pulls no punches (or martial arts kicks) as he reveals his true thoughts on his evolution as a performer, his various roles in WWE versus the independent years, life on the road, at home, and much more.
And of course, get the untold story surrounding the "YES!" chant that evolved to full-fledged movement, skyrocketing his career. This book chronicles all the hard work, values, influences, unique life choices, and more, leading to his watershed week at WrestleMania 30. You won't want to miss it. Yes! We're sure about this.

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