New Items @ the WilmU Library

"Indispensable history." -Sally Jenkins, bestselling author of The Right Call A captivating chronicle of the pivotal decade in American sports, when the games invaded prime time, and sports moved from the margins to the mainstream of American culture. Every decade brings change, but as Michael MacCambridge chronicles in THE BIG TIME, no decade in American sports history featured such convulsive cultural shifts as the 1970s. So many things happened during the decade--the move of sports into prime-time television, the beginning of athletes' gaining a sense of autonomy for their own careers, integration becoming--at least within sports--more of the rule than the exception, and the social revolution that brought females more decisively into sports, as athletes, coaches, executives, and spectators. More than politicians, musicians or actors, the decade in America was defined by its most exemplary athletes. The sweeping changes in the decade could be seen in the collective experience of Billie Jean King and Muhammad Ali, Henry Aaron and Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Joe Greene, Jack Nicklaus and Chris Evert, among others, who redefined the role of athletes and athletics in American culture. The Seventies witnessed the emergence of spectator sports as an ever-expanding mainstream phenomenon, as well as dramatic changes in the way athletes were paid, portrayed, and packaged. In tracing the epic narrative of how American sports was transformed in the Seventies, a larger story emerges: of how America itself changed, and how spectator sports moved decisively on a trajectory toward what it has become today, the last truly "big tent" in American culture.

A riveting new biography of America's greatest all-around athlete by the bestselling author of the classic biography When Pride Still Mattered. Jim Thorpe rose to world fame as a mythic talent who excelled at every sport. He won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, was an All-American football player at the Carlisle Indian School, the star of the first class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and played major league baseball for John McGraw's New York Giants. Even in a golden age of sports celebrities, he was one of a kind. But despite his colossal skills, Thorpe's life was a struggle against the odds. As a member of the Sac and Fox Nation, he encountered duplicitous authorities who turned away from him when their reputations were at risk. At Carlisle, he dealt with the racist assimilationist philosophy "Kill the Indian, Save the Man." His gold medals were unfairly rescinded because he had played minor league baseball. His later life was troubled by alcohol, broken marriages, and financial distress. He roamed from state to state and took bit parts in Hollywood, but even the film of his own life failed to improve his fortunes. But for all his travails, Thorpe did not succumb. The man survived, complications and all, and so did the myth. Path Lit by Lightning is a great American story from a master biographer.

By the subject of the National Geographic documentary Endurance, streaming soon on Disney+ "As thrilling as any tale from the heroic age of exploration. . . Bound's account is a triumph. The storytelling is piano-wire taut, the writing saturated with polar moodiness." ― Sunday Times The inside story of how the Endurance, Ernest Shackleton's legendary lost ship, was found in the most hostile sea on Earth, told by the expedition's Director of Exploration. On November 21, 1914, the Endurance succumbed to the surrounding ice. Ernest Shackleton and his crew had navigated the three-masted wooden vessel ten thousand miles to Antarctica in hopes of becoming the first to cross the barren continent, but early season pack ice trapped them in place offshore. Marooned on the ice for six months, Shackleton's expedition to push the limits of human strength took a new form: one of survival against the odds.  A century after this legendary story entered the annals of polar exploration, renowned marine archeologist Mensun Bound and an elite team of explorers joined a new global race to find the wrecked Endurance. Bound experienced failure and despair in his attempts to locate the wreck, and very nearly found his own vessel frozen in ice. Finally, a century to the day after Shackleton's burial, the discovery: nearly ten thousand feet below the ice lay a remarkably preserved Endurance, its name still emblazoned on the ship's stern. Told "with passion and flair" (Washington Post), The Ship Beneath the Ice is a modern-day adventure narrative of the intrepid spirit that joins two mariners across the centuries--both of whom accomplished the impossible.

The Most Useful Techniques for Analyzing Sports Data One of the greatest changes in the sports world in the past 20 years has been the use of mathematical methods to analyze performances, recognize trends and patterns, and predict results. Analytic Methods in Sports: Using Mathematics and Statistics to Understand Data from Baseball, Football, Basketball, and Other Sports provides a concise yet thorough introduction to the analytic and statistical methods that are useful in studying sports. The book gives you all the tools necessary to answer key questions in sports analysis. It explains how to apply the methods to sports data and interpret the results, demonstrating that the analysis of sports data is often different from standard statistical analysis. Requiring familiarity with mathematics but no previous background in statistics, the book integrates a large number of motivating sports examples throughout and offers guidance on computation and suggestions for further reading in each chapter.

Go behind the scenes with your insider's access to the high-pressure, high-stakes business of professional sport. In Beyond the Scoreboard, Rick Horrow, sport business analyst for Fox Sports, Bloomberg TV, Bloomberg Businessweek, and the BBC and host of PBS Nightly Business Report's "Beyond the $coreboard," and Horrow Sports Ventures' vice president Karla Swatek take you to the boardrooms, negotiating tables, and executive suites of sport's most influential powerbrokers. Beyond the Scoreboard tackles sport's hot-button topics head on. You'll see * how sponsors measure return on investment with sport organizations; * how pro teams negotiate with governments to make a stadium deal; * the effect of the sport facility building boom on teams' bottom lines; * how sport agents try to maximize the value of their in-demand clients; and * the effect on teams and fans of revolutionary changes in modern ticket selling. Whether you are one of the millions of people who play fantasy sports or you just want to know more about how your favorite teams determine their strategies, you'll learn how the experts make deals happen. And with engaging sidebars and exclusive interviews from the most powerful figures in sport, including Roger Goodell, David Stern, Brian France, and Gary Bettman, you'll gain expert analysis from people who have played leadership roles in some of the most intense negotiations and lucrative business deals in sport history. There's nobody better equipped to explain what it takes to be a success in sport marketing, sponsorships, facility financing, or generating media coverage than Rick Horrow, the Sports Professor. In Beyond the Scoreboard, Horrow and Swatek provide you with an all-access pass to the multibillion-dollar world of professional sport.

The authoritative guide on the National Football League (NFL) salary cap and Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Crunching Numbers: An Inside Look at the Salary Cap and Negotiating Player Contracts is the perfect book for any NFL fan to broaden their understanding of the rules and decision making processes general managers face each day, as they construct their team. Crunching Numbers goes into great detail to explain how the money works. Key concepts from the NFL CBA such as signing bonuses, dead money, free agency, salary guarantees, franchise tags, termination pay, minimum salary benefit, bonus forfeitures, grievances, and many more will be looked at closely. By using practical case player examples to illustrate the concepts within the CBA, readers will learn how to calculate a player's salary cap number and the ways in which teams manipulate those numbers to work within the NFL rules. In addition, Crunching Numbers explores ways to benchmark contracts and the roles team contract negotiators play in today's NFL. Whether you are a student with aspirations of working in an NFL front office, a sports agent, a sports writer or just an avid fan, Crunching Numbers will help you better understand the intricacies of the NFL's player's contracts, the salary cap, and salary cap management. For more information, please visit www.CrunchingNumbersBook.com. Praise for Crunching Numbers "Crunching Numbers fills the void that has existed for years when it comes to understanding NFL contracts and the rules regarding the salary cap." - Paraag Marathe, Executive VP of Football Operations, San Francisco 49ers "A must read for all who want to learn about NFL contracts and the salary cap." - Jason LaCanfora, CBS Sports "I've been covering the NFL since the 90's and consider Jason and Vijay to be indispensable resources for all things relating to the salary cap. Their extensive knowledge of the CBA shines through in this collaboration." - Mike Sando, ESPN Senior Writer and Pro Football Hall of Fame Selector "Crunching Numbers is a welcome addition to the sports management education literature. Fitzgerald and Natarajan's work provides and inside view far more credible than anecdotal commentaries, uncovering the accounting and strategy behind the NFL salary cap." - Dr. Kristi Sweeney, Assistant Professor, University of North Florida About the Authors Jason Fitzgerald is the founder of the website OverTheCap.com, which focuses on contract analytics and bench marking contracts. Jason is considered a salary cap expert and has been hired as a consultant by NFL teams and sports agencies to conduct contract analytic projects. His work has been cited by numerous print and digital media including Sports Illustrated, NFL.com, the New York Times, Boston Globe, and the Seattle Times to name a few. Jason has been a contributing writer for the Sporting News. Vijay Natarajan works in the athlete representation field overseeing the day to day operations for the NFL clients of KLASS Sports, LLC. Vijay performs statistical analysis and focuses numerous studies on expected contract trends. He is an expert at sports collective bargaining agreements, salary cap analysis, and player contract negotiations. Vijay has also worked closely on NBA player contract negotiations and is well versed in NBA contract analytics.

Stuart Evey, the founding chairman of ESPN, details the difficult, thrilling, and contentious creation of ESPN in this insider’s account. From altercations with Ted Turner at the Playboy mansion to manufacturing a high-stakes, multi-million dollar bidding war between media giants based on nothing more than carefully placed insinuations, Evey was at the center of everything regarding ESPN's infancy and early years. Featured among the many riveting stories are a look inside the dysfunctional family empire that was worth billions, why the young network cut Dick Vitale's microphone off in mid-interview, how Evey duped ABC into investing millions into ESPN, and why Bristol, Connecticut was chosen as the home of a burgeoning media monolith.

ESPN's rise is one of the most remarkable stories about business and sports in our time, and nobody can tell it better than George Bodenheimer. It may be hard to believe, but not long ago, getting sports updates was difficult and frustrating. ESPN changed everything. George Bodenheimer knows. Initially hired to work in the mailroom, one of Bodenheimer's first jobs was to pick up sportscaster Dick Vitale at the Hartford airport and drive him to ESPN's main campus--a couple of trailers in a dirt parking lot. But as ESPN grew, so did George's status in the company. In fact, Bodenheimer played a major part in making ESPN a daily presence not just here, but all over the world. In this business leadership memoir--written with bestselling author Donald T. Phillips--Bodenheimer lays out ESPN's meteoric rise. This is a book for business readers and sports fans alike. A Best Business Book of 2015, Strategy Business

This new edition will further solidify its standing as the most authoritative text on sport finance. The authors have completely reorganised and revised this popular textbook. This edition provides detailed coverage of the current financial issues and challenges facing managers in professional, collegiate, and non-profit sport agencies. Expert practitioners also provide content in key areas such as ticket sales, licensing, and media sales.

"Beautifully conceived and skillfully executed . . . encourages the reader to linger and explore." -The Wall Street Journal "Peter Bellerby's tale of learning how to fashion worlds-a journey through history, science, craft, and passion-spun me on my axis." -Dava Sobel, New York Times bestselling author of Longitude The beautifully illustrated story of our globe and the globes it has inspired, told from inside the workshop of one of the world's last globemakers, with four-color photos throughout. Many of us encounter a globe as children. We find a grown-up and ask, "Where are we?" They spin the globe and point to a minuscule dot amidst a massive expanse of sea and land. Thousands of questions follow. A profound convergence of art and science, a globe is the ultimate visualization of our place in our galaxy and universe. To be a globemaker requires a knowledge of geography, skilled engineering, drawing, and painting, and only a few people in history have ever really mastered the craft. When Peter Bellerby set out to make a globe for his father's eightieth birthday, after failing to find a suitable one to purchase, he had no idea where the process would lead. He went on to establish Bellerby & Co, one of the only artisan globemakers in the world. The Globemakers brings us inside Bellerby's gorgeous studio to learn how he and his team of cartographers and artists bring these stunning celestial, terrestrial, and planetary objects to life. Along the way he tells stories of his adventure and the luck along the way that shaped the company. A full-color photographic portrait of a lost art, The Globemakers is an enlightening exploration of globes, or "earth apples," as they were first known, and their ability to show us ourselves and our place in an infinite universe.

How math can be used to improve performance and predict outcomes in professional sports Mathletics is a remarkably entertaining book that shows readers how to use simple mathematics to analyze a range of statistical and probability-related questions in professional baseball, basketball, and football, and in sports gambling. How does professional baseball evaluate hitters? Is a singles hitter like Wade Boggs more valuable than a power hitter like David Ortiz? Should NFL teams pass or run more often on first downs? Could professional basketball have used statistics to expose the crooked referee Tim Donaghy? Does money buy performance in professional sports? In Mathletics, Wayne Winston describes the mathematical methods that top coaches and managers use to evaluate players and improve team performance, and gives math enthusiasts the practical tools they need to enhance their understanding and enjoyment of their favorite sports--and maybe even gain the outside edge to winning bets. Mathletics blends fun math problems with sports stories of actual games, teams, and players, along with personal anecdotes from Winston's work as a sports consultant. Winston uses easy-to-read tables and illustrations to illuminate the techniques and ideas he presents, and all the necessary math concepts--such as arithmetic, basic statistics and probability, and Monte Carlo simulations--are fully explained in the examples. After reading Mathletics, you will understand why baseball teams should almost never bunt, why football overtime systems are unfair, why points, rebounds, and assists aren't enough to determine who's the NBA's best player--and much, much more. In a new epilogue, Winston discusses the stats and numerical analysis behind some recent sporting events, such as how the Dallas Mavericks used analytics to become the 2011 NBA champions.