Football History

These exciting and informative books will turn any young listener into a sports fanatic! Learn all about the history of the world’s most entertaining sports like football, basketball, and soccer.

Professional football today is an $8 billion sports entertainment industry - and the most popular spectator sport in America, with designs on expansion across the globe. In this astute field-level view of the National Football League since 1960, Michael Oriard looks closely at the development of the sport and at the image of the NFL and its unique place in American life.

Former collegiate star, sports agent, and NFL executive Michael Huyghue recounts his journey in professional sports and the challenges that remain for minorities to succeed as front office executives in the multibillion-dollar sports industry. The author's journey as an athlete and lawyer provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what goes on behind closed doors in the world of professional sports and collegiate athletic programs. It is also a chronicle not often told of growing up Black and male in white suburban America.

Manchester, 2018: Pep Guardiola and José Mourinho lead their teams out to face each other in the 175th Manchester derby. They are first and second in the Premier League, but today only one man can come out on top. It is merely the latest instalment in a rivalry that has contested titles, traded insults and crossed a continent but which can be traced back to a friendship that began almost 25 years ago.

When James Montague first began covering football in the Middle East two decades ago, people asked him what future there could possibly be for the beautiful game in one of the most volatile regions in the world. In the years that followed, it would become one of the biggest stories in global sport, from the from revolutionary ultras of the Arab Spring and the takeover of some of the world's biggest clubs by the Emirati super rich, to Qatar's controversial journey towards hosting the 2022 World Cup finals.

From Mike Pesca, host of the popular Slate podcast The Gist, comes the greatest sports minds imagining how the world would change if a play, trade, injury, or referee's call had just gone the other way. Upon Further Review takes classic arguments conducted over pints in a pub and places them in the hands of writers, athletes, and historians. From turning points that every sports fan rues or celebrates to the forgotten would-be inflection points that defined sports, it answers age-old questions, and settles the score, even if the score bounced off the crossbar.

From the Super Bowl to the Thanksgiving game, millions of families gather throughout the week to watch their favorite teams duke it out. Kids and grandparents alike share the thrill of watching their team get that perfect tackle or last-minute save. Now you have the opportunity to share the history of the sport with your kids with one engaging guide. 210.2 million people follow the NBA league across its various social media platforms, making it the most popular sports league in the world. So why is it that no one really understands its history?

Alfredo Di Stéfano, Diego Maradona, Gabriel Batistuta, Juan Román Riquelme, Lionel Messi...Argentina has produced some of the greatest footballers of all time. But the rich, volatile history of Argentinian football is made up of both the sublime and the ruthlessly pragmatic. Jonathan Wilson, having lived there on and off during the last decade, is ideally placed to chart the sport's development in a country that, perhaps more than any other, lives and breathes football, its theories and its myths.

On 13 July 2014, World Cup Final, the last ten minutes of extra time: Germany forward Mario Götze, receiving a floated pass from his international teammate André Schürrle, jumps slightly to meet the ball and cushion it with his chest. Landing on his left foot, he takes a step with his right, swivels, and in one fluid motion, without the ball touching the ground, volleys it past the onrushing Argentine goalkeeper....

The Forgotten First chronicles the lives of four incredible men, the racism they experienced as Black players entering a segregated sport, the burden of expectation they carried, and their many achievements, which would go on to affect football for generations to come.

Fresh off the success of his first book, Then One Day … 40 Years of Bookmaking in Nevada, in January 2020, Chris Andrews started keeping a daily journal to record the roller-coaster ride bookmakers undergo in a typical year from one Super Bowl to the next. Little did he know that 2020 would be anything but typical. Less than two months later, the worst pandemic in more than 100 years turned the world upside down and the wide world of sports and sports betting inside out. Then One Year … History’s Craziest Year as Seen by a Las Vegas Bookmaker follows Andrews as he navigates—day to ...

Foot-ball: Its History for Five Centuries by M. Shearman and J.E. Vincent, narrated by Gary Middleton, explores the fascinating evolution of football (soccer and rugby) from its medieval origins to the early modern era. This comprehensive historical account delves into the sport’s early rules, traditions, and development across centuries, shedding light on how it grew into the beloved global phenomenon it is today.

In November 1934, the Princeton football team - unbeaten in its last 15 games - faced the 3-3 Yale Bulldogs, who gave new meaning to the term underdogs. As much a thrilling play-by-play account of college football at its finest as it is a fascinating work of sports history, this book chronicles the season that brought Princeton and Yale together in a game like no other since.

The Victorians invented mass entertainment. As the 19th century's growing industrialized class acquired the funds and the free time to pursue leisure activities, their every whim was satisfied by entrepreneurs building new venues for popular amusement. Contrary to their reputation as dour, buttoned-up prudes, the Victorians reveled in these newly created "palaces of pleasure".

In 1967, a Cleveland businessman had a brilliant idea: Why not start a women's football team? It was conceived as a gimmick and a publicity stunt in the vein of the Harlem Globetrotters. He recruited women to compete as a traveling football troupe; much to his surprise, he learned that women really wanted to play — and play hard. Hail Mary is the story of the unlikely rise of the National Women's Football League and the players who loved a game that society told them they shouldn't be playing.

In Mad Ducks and Bears, George Plimpton's engaging companion to Paper Lion, Plimpton focuses on two of the most entertaining and roguish linemen and former teammates: Alex Karras ("Mad Ducks") and John Gordy ("Bears"), both of whom went on to achieve brilliant post-football success. A more reflective, less madcap audiobook than Plimpton's other work, Mad Ducks and Bears is no less truthful and searching.

The exciting story of one of the fastest growing sports in the world, played by over 30 million girls and women. Over 25 million people tuned in for the Americans' 2015 Women's World Cup final victory - the most-watched football match in United States history. The Making of the Women's World Cup details the most incredible tales from previous Women's World Cups.

That afternoon was the last time the high-school Patriots would see one another for weeks; some teammates they'd never see again. Hurricane Katrina was about to tear their lives apart. Hurricane Season is the story of a great football coach, his team, his family, and their school - and a remarkable fight back from shocking tragedy.

The people were tough, but the times were even tougher. It was Detroit’s Golden Era. The 1920s. The new automobile industry was booming, jobs were plentiful, and people were happy to work for five dollars a day. In this collection of all-new stories, J.A. Jernay paints a picture of a period long gone—an era of immigrants, scrub football teams, factory production, whiskey runners, and violence. There are stories of mothers and fathers, of organized crime and disorganized cops, of ambition and failure, of loud racism and quiet opportunities. Discover the sights, sounds, and challenges of ...

Goal! covers the history of the beautiful game from its origins in English public schools in the early 19th century to its current role as a crucial element of a globalized entertainment industry.