Sports Science

The college basketball scandals of 1951 were to basketball what the 1919 Black Sox scandals were to baseball - a loss of innocence, after which the game would be permanently tarnished, its relationship to power and big money firmly established. In Scandals of '51, Charley Rosen identifies all the major figures - including players, coaches, gangsters, clergymen, politicians - that made up the elaborate network that controlled the outcomes to many games or protected those who did so.

This hour-long ambient recording captures the magical awakening of bird-life at daybreak in the British countryside. No announcements interrupt the sequence, selected and compiled from the collections of the Sound Archive at the British Library. This is the perfect chance to immerse yourself in the uplifting sounds of a perfect country morning from the comfort of your own home.

Barcelona and Real Madrid: two of the most powerful and popular clubs in world football, and one of the world's most bitter sporting rivalries. Going far beyond the boundaries of just sport alone, this is a rivalry at the heart of Spanish life, taking in politics and culture and splitting a country in two. El Clasico gets to the heart of that rivalry, investigating the intrigue, the larger-than-life characters, the key flashpoints and their consequences.

Discover the definitive inside account of how the Warriors, under the leadership of venture capitalist Joe Lacob and Hollywood producer Peter Guber, quickly became one of the most remarkable success stories ever, both in sports and business. In just five years, they turned a declining franchise with no immediate hope into one of the greatest teams in basketball, a period that included the rise of All-Star point guard Stephen Curry and two NBA championships in the past three years.

Radical gender activists are using a pseudoscientific theory of human biology to hijack sports and subvert the long-established concept of fair play - forcing women and girls to risk their safety, pushing them aside for male athletes using the excuse of “inclusivity”.

From minor league baseball exploitation to spectator hooliganism, Sailofsky shows the connections between the business of sports and violence, but also, more importantly, he imagines new forms of sport that are not places of harm.

In the mid-1990s, facing severe cuts to its public funding, the University of Oregon - like so many colleges across the country - was desperate for cash. Luckily, the Oregon Ducks' 1995 Rose Bowl berth caught the attention of the school's wealthiest alumnus: Nike founder Phil Knight, who was seeking new marketing angles at the collegiate level. And so the University of Nike was born. But as journalist Joshua Hunt reveals in University of Nike, Oregon has paid dearly for the veneer of financial prosperity and athletic success that has come with this brand partnering.

For the past 10 years, leading Canadian journalist and cultural critic John Doyle has been traveling the globe to observe World Cup and other soccer matches played at the highest level. The result is a Bill Bryson-esque narrative full of wit and insight, concluding with the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. In between his encounters with the delirious fans, the crazed taxi drivers, the leprechauns and the lederhosen, Doyle examines the evolution of soccer as a global phenomenon.

The Hunter’s Way is Craig Raleigh's meditative and philosophical journey into the soul of a hunter. Divided into four parts that mirror the hunting experience - the background, the preparation, the hunt, and the harvest - it addresses the paradox of hunting as conservationism, ruminates on the failures and successes of hunting as sport and as a way of life, and reveals how hunting influences our society.

Discover the Life-Changing Power of Walking. Struggling with anxiety, chronic pain, or addiction? This isn’t just another fitness book—it’s a practical, science-backed toolkit for rebuilding your life, one five-minute walk at a time. Written by a former skeptic who walked away from alcoholism and debilitating neuropathy, this guide offers immediate, actionable strategies anyone can use.

An inside look at the 2017 Houston Astros championship season, focusing on the epic seven-game World Series, the front office decisions that built a winning team, and the resilience of the city in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. On November 1, 2017, the Houston Astros defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers in an epic seven game battle to become 2017 World Series champs. For the Astros, the combination of a magnificently played series, a 101-victory season, and the devastation Hurricane Harvey brought to their city was so incredible it might give Hollywood screenwriters pause.

Desde su primera publicación en 1995, El oráculo del guerrero se ha convertido, gracias a la prescripción de los lectores, en un gran best seller en Chile y Venezuela. Traducido a varias lenguas, es ya un auténtico clásico de la espiritualidad oriental en todo Latinoamérica. A través de treinta y seis capítulos, Lucas Estrella nos entrega las enseñanzas que ha recibido por largos años de sus maestros en las artes marciales.

As star players for the 1955 World Champion Brooklyn Dodgers, and prior to that as the first black players to be candidates to break professional baseball's color barrier, Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella would seem to be natural allies. But the two men were divided by a rivalry going far beyond the personality differences and petty jealousies of competitive teammates. Behind the bitterness were deep and differing beliefs about the fight for civil rights.

Never Ran, Never Will tells the story of the working-class, mostly black neighborhood of Brownsville, Brooklyn; its proud youth football team, the Mo Better Jaguars; and the young boys who are often at the center of both. Oomz, Gio, Hart, and their charismatic, vulnerable friends come together on a dusty football field. All around them, their community is threatened by violence, poverty, and the specter of losing their homes to gentrification. Their passionate, unpaid coaches teach hard lessons about surviving American life with little help from the outside world.

The blackbird is one of the most familiar of all British birds and its song is a great favourite. Enjoy the beautiful melodies created by this much-loved songbird in the British Library's new collection of recordings, which reveal the extraordinary virtuosity, splendour, and magic of its song. From the poet Edward Thomas to the Beatles, the blackbird has been an inspiration to writers, composers, and the wider public for many centuries.

Women’s sports receive a fraction of the airtime allotted for men’s sports, as well as a fraction of the marketing dollars, media coverage, and training resources. For every dollar that the NBA’s highest-paid player brings home, the WNBA’s highest-paid player earns just half a cent. But while misogyny in sports is particularly visible, it’s not unique. Women athletes face the same sexist barriers found in all career fields: the motherhood penalty, transphobia and misogynoir, underpromotion, and more. But women in sports are fighting back.

Lady Cecelia is to mysteries what a pack of foxhounds is to a fox...and her interference brings her to disaster. But Captain Serrano isn't about to let her employer - and now her friend - be destroyed. With the help of Lady Cecelia's nephew and his friends, including Lord Thornbuckle's adventurous daughter, Heris plots a rescue, while trying to re-balance her own life and recover relationships with some of her former crew. In the process, she and Lady Cecelia bring down a government.

Having a pet dragon is very fun. You can teach your dragon to do tricks such as sit, stand, roll over, and you can even potty train him. But what if your dragon is feeling stressed and tired? What do you do? You teach him to do Yoga!

Fishing guide and award-winning author Randy Spencer weaves a spell with quirky, colorful residents, fish-out-of-water tourists, native traditions, and a large helping of absolute wonder. Written on Water is an extraordinary collection of tales about the part of Maine that truly is, as those who reside there call it, "back of the beyond".

In The Title, Scott Murray delivers a lively, cherry-picked history of the country's football narrative through the prism of the old First Division. Rich with humour yet underpinned with solid research, this is a glorious ramble across English football's varied terrain. With as much about Preston, Burnley, Wolves, Portsmouth and West Brom as the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United, we learn the less well-known stories the sport has to tell, such as the plight of Glossop - the smallest club to ever play top-flight football.