Cheated : The UNC Scandal, the Education of Athletes, and the Future of Big-Time College Sports
Written by UNC professor of history Jay Smith and UNC athletics department whistleblower Mary Willingham, Cheated exposes the fraudulent inner workings of this famous university. For decades these internal systems have allowed woefully underprepared basketball and football players to take fake courses and earn devalued degrees from one of the nation’s top universities while faculty and administrators looked the other way. In unbiased and carefully sourced detail,Cheated recounts the academic fraud in UNC’s athletics department, even as university leaders focused on minimizing the damage in order to keep the billion-dollar college sports revenue machine functioning. Smith and Willingham make an impassioned argument that the “student-athletes” in these programs are being cheated out of what, after all, is promised them in the first place: a college education.
Martha’s Vineyard Basketball: How a Resort League Defied Notions of Race and Class
Year round on Martha’s Vineyard Island off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, residents and vacationers have played basketball – almost since the game was invented. Martha’s Vineyard Basketball follows the rich history of basketball on the Island, sharing the realities and triumphs of residents and vacationers alike, and demonstrates the unifying power of basketball. New Englanders, basketball fans, and those interested in race and class relations will all find this book a noteworthy account of a singular place.
The World through Soccer: The Cultural Impact of a Global Sport
In The World through Soccer, Tamir Bar-On utilizes soccer to provide insights into worldwide politics, religion, ethics, marketing, business, leadership, philosophy, and the arts. Bar-On examines the ways in which soccer influences and reflects these aspects of society, and vice versa. Each chapter features representative players, providing specific examples of how soccer comments on and informs our lives.
Sisterhood in Sports : How Female Athletes Collaborate and Compete
Sisterhood in Sports reveals what drives the female athlete: communication, camaraderie, competition, collaboration, and community. Steidinger illustrates through the stories and words of some of the most successful female athletes that the relationships they create, and the sense of sisterhood that can be cultivated even among rivals, helps to keep them driven, engaged, and connected to their game and their lives beyond the sport.
Baseball’s Most Notorious Personalities: A Gallery of Rogues
Liars, cheats, hotheads, even axe murderers – you’ll find them all here in the Gallery. From scapegoats to maniacs, meddling managers to fanatical fans, this book profiles them all. Included are players such as Brooklyn outfielder Len Koenecke, who tried to crash a chartered plane in a maniacal suicide attempt; Ty Cobb, who was known to slide into bases with spikes flying and brawl with anyone who dared oppose him; and Marty Bergen, a talented catcher for the Boston Beaneaters who murdered his family with an axe. Spanning three centuries of baseball – from the 1800s into the current decade – Baseball’s Most Notorious Personalities covers various themes of notoriety. Even the most die-hard fan will be shocked and surprised by some of the actions of well-known and lesser-known players, managers, fans, and team owners contained in this book.
Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against the NCAA
Indentured tells the dramatic story of a loose-knit group of rebels who decided to fight the hypocrisy of the NCAA, which blathers endlessly about the purity of its “student-athletes” while exploiting many of them: The ones who get injured and drop out because their scholarships have been revoked. The ones who will neither graduate nor go pro. The ones who live in terror of accidentally violating some obscure rule in the four-hundred-page NCAA rulebook. Joe Nocera and Ben Strauss take us into the inner circle of the NCAA’s fiercest enemies.
The Mindful Golfer: How to Lower Your Handicap While Raising Your Consciousness
In The Mindful Golfer: How to Lower Your Handicap While Raising Your Consciousness, Stephen Altschuler helps you nail it all right–hard and true and into another level of surrender, satisfaction, and, self-awareness. He uses the tools of Zen to raise the game several notches on the ladder of consciousness. The book discusses the state of the game, some of its more illustrious players, its glories, and its challenges. The author covers some of his own struggles with golf, and some moments of achievement, if only fleeting. His book is a reflective look at golf today, emphasizing the mental and spiritual elements of the game.
How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Author Ken Reed introduces readers to ten of the most pressing problems in sports today and shows how they largely derive from the mentalities of profit-at-all-costs and win-at-all-costs. Chapters dig into issues such as concussions, overzealous adults in youth sports, the disappearance of PE from many school curriculums, the focus on profit objectives in college sports, discrimination in sports, and more. Each chapter outlines key challenges and provides concrete steps that readers can take to work for change.