Home to both the University of Connecticuts mens and womens NCAA championship teams as well as the Connecticut Sun WNBA team, this small state has made a name for itself in basketball. Infatuation with the sport started here in 1896 with the first intercollegiate game between Yale and Wesleyan Universities. The roster of Connecticuts round ball greats includes Naismith Hall-of-Famer Calvin Murphy; NBA stars Vin Baker, Marcus Camby, Charles Smith, the late John Williamson, Johnny Egan and John Bagley; and Harlem Globetrotter Alvin Clinkscales. Award-winning sportswriter Don Harrison wows fans with stories of the Nutmeg States most notable players and coaches through personal interviews and firsthand accounts.
Sports Illustrated, the most respected voice in sports journalism, has covered the NBA for the much of its existence, documenting its expansion from fledgeling league to global force. Curated by editor and bestselling author Chris Ballard, this anthology features the best hoops writing from the SI archives along with new postscripts from nationally renowned basketball journalists including Jackie McMullan, Jack McCallum, Jeff Pearlman, S.L. Price, Lee Jenkins, Frank Deford, and more.
It took nearly a century for a tiny agricultural school in the hills to transform itself into the powerful state university that is UConn, and the game of basketball has been integral to the rise of Huskymania. In the University of Connecticut Basketball Vault: The History of the Huskies you will find the stories of all the heroes of the Husky hardwood, from Louis Alexander to Walt Dropo to Ray Allen and Khalid El-Amin. Author Ken Davis has spent more than 30 years covering college basketball, including 20 for The Hartford Courant, and here he combines great game coverage with behind-the-scenes anecdotes to present a view of Connecticut basketball you won't find anywhere else. UConn fans will also find never-before-published vintage photographs, artwork and memorabilia drawn from Connecticut's extensive campus archives, including reproductions of old game programs, historic tickets, stickers and other amazing replicas tucked into dozens of pockets.
Renowned college basketball coach Tom Penders revisits his successful, if tumultuous, career in a new autobiography Dead Coach Walking: Tom Penders Surviving and Thriving in College Hoops. One of the winningest head coaches in NCAA Division I basketball history, Penders reflects on four decades steering programs at 7 universities-Tufts, Columbia, Fordham, Rhode Island, Texas, George Washington and Houston. As he lifted them from depths of "death row" to winning glory, he enhanced his reputation as "Turnaround Tom." Penders achieved success with distinction: he has coached more NCAA Division I basketball programs than any coach in history and has taken four different schools to the Division I Men's Basketball Tournament. He also retired in 2010 ranked 4th total among active coaches in games-coached, trailing only Connecticut's Jim Calhoun, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and Syracuse's Jim Boeheim. In Dead Coach Walking, Penders talks about the teams he led and how he dealt with athletic directors, conference commissioners, assistants, AAU coaches, the NABC and the NCAA. The book also goes behind the scenes, revealing game strategies, coaching personalities, locker room stories, and experiences on the recruiting trail. Penders' perspective, while sometimes controversial, is riveting not to mention entertaining. Dead Coach Walking is truly as unique, quirky, and remarkable as its subject.
In this new edition, Vault publishes the entire surveys of current students and alumnni at more than 300 top undergraduate institutions, as well as the schools' responses to the comments. Each 4-to 5-page entry is composed of insider comments from students and alumni, as well as the schools' responses to the comments.
In this new edition, Vault publishes the entire surveys of current students and alumni at more than 100 top business schools. Each 4-to 5-page entry is composed of insider comments from students and alumni, as well as the school's responses to the comments.
America loves sports. This book examines and details the proof of this fascination seen throughout American society—in our literature, film, and music; our clothing and food; and the iconography of the nation. This momentous four-volume work examines and details the cultural aspects of sport and how sport pervasively reflects—and affects—myriad aspects of American society from the early 1900s to the present day. Written in a straightforward, readable manner, the entries cover both historical and contemporary aspects of sport and American culture. Unlike purely historical encyclopedias on sports, the contributions within these volumes cover related subject matter such as poetry, novels, music, films, plays, television shows, art and artists, mythologies, artifacts, and people. While this encyclopedia set is ideal for general readers who need information on the diverse aspects of sport in American culture for research purposes or are merely reading for enjoyment, the detailed nature of the entries will also prove useful as an initial source for scholars of sport and American culture. Each entry provides a number of both print and online resources for further investigation of the topic.
Whether espoused by sports leagues, teams, or individual athletes, social issues are part of the sporting world fabric. The sports media often plays the gatekeeper, deciding how messages are presented and to what extent they’re covered—if at all. Sports, Media, and Society investigates the impact of societal issues in sports and how the media reports those stories. Why does the sports media operate in the manner that it does, and what’s the impact of its decisions on the audience? With Sports, Media, and Society, there is now a resource that combines mainstay class discussion points, current case studies, and theoretical and historical foundations in one comprehensive text. The book’s 34 chapters are each short and concise—a format preferred by instructors—covering a wide range of topics and easily digestible for students. Part I covers sports media history and the media’s role as gatekeeper. Chapters explore the history and evolution of various media—newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and social media—and the business of and competition between sports media entities. Case studies examine NBC’s Olympics coverage and the nimbleness of Sports Illustrated in the digital space. Part II showcases television’s impact on how fans follow sports. Discussions include ABC’s Wide World of Sports, which exposed viewers to events around the globe; ESPN’s foray into 24/7 sports coverage; and Fox Sports’ shocking NFL deal, which marked a new era in media rights negotiations and sports broadcasting technologies. The intersection of sports and social issues is the focus of part III. Numerous issues are addressed, punctuated by case studies involving key players and events related to each topic. Cases concerning Colin Kaepernick, USWNT (and coverage of women’s sports generally), LGBTQ+ issues, and obstacles faced by women working in sports media are highlights, while examinations of social identity theory and framing provide context on how people identify with specific groups and how the media influences opinions. Athletes and sport entities are constantly in the news—not always in a positive light. Part IV addresses crisis management and communication, featuring case studies about Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, LeBron James (The Decision), Kobe Bryant (his death and the misreporting of facts surrounding it), and the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal. The text concludes with part V, which explores emerging trends in sports media and society. Through social media, virtually anyone can become a thought leader (wresting control from traditional outlets), and teams and athletes can dialogue directly with fans, effectively sidelining sports journalists. Chapters on the formerly taboo subjects of athlete mental health and sports wagering, as well as the exploding popularity of esports, round out the text. Sports shape our culture in numerous ways, and the sports media plays a transformative role in how it occurs. Sports, Media, and Society prepares tomorrow’s sports journalists and communicators to venture beyond the how-tos of developing content to understanding the whys behind it.
