In 1893 Western Sicily, Gaetano DiGiovanni, twenty-five years old, foresees a day when he abandons his turbulent, hard-scrabble life in the Palermo Province hinterlands for the promise of America. His fourteen-and-a-half-year-old wife, Angelina Bucaro DiGiovanni, is at his side. Gaetano becomes an old-style Mafiosi "man of respect," called Don Tano Baiocco in Sicily and New Orleans. For the next half century, "Tano Baiocco" guides his burgeoning family through Atlantic Ocean crossings, mur...

College football fans need no introduction to Bud Wilkinson, but few of them know the great University of Oklahoma football coach as a devoted father. In Dear Jay, Love Bud, Jay Wilkinson, Bud’s younger son, shares forty-seven letters his father wrote to him while he was in college and graduate school. Spanning the early to mid-1960s, these letters reveal Bud’s deep love for his son, as well as the philosophy and values that led to his remarkable success in sports and in life....

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Path Lit by Lightning comes a groundbreaking biography that captures all of football great Vince Lombardi: the myth, the man, his game, and his God.More than any other sports figure, Vince Lombardi transformed football into a metaphor of the American experience. The son of an Italian immigrant butcher, Lombardi toiled for twenty frustrating years as a high school coach and then as an assistant at Fordham, West Poin...

The last lecture on leadership by the NFL's greatest coach will inspire, inform, and enlighten leaders in all professions.Bill Walsh was a towering figure in the history of the NFL. His advanced leadership transformed the San Francisco 49ers from the worst franchise in sports to a legendary dynasty. In the process, he changed the way football is played.Walsh taught that the requirements of successful leadership are the same whether you run an NFL franchise,...

ESPN basketball analyst and former Duke player Jay Bilas looks at the true meaning of toughness in this New York Times bestselling book that features stories from basketball legends.If anyone knows tough, it’s Jay Bilas. A four-year starter at Duke, he learned a strong work ethic under Coach Mike Krzyzewski. After playing professionally overseas, he returned to Duke, where he served as Krzyzewski’s assistant coach for three seasons, helping to guide the Bl...

Bill Parcells may be the most iconic football coach of our time. During his decades-long tenure as an NFL coach, he turned failing franchises into contenders. He led the ailing New York Giants to two Super Bowl victories, turned the New England Patriots into an NFL powerhouse, reinvigorated the New York Jets, brought the Dallas Cowboys back to life, and was most recently enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Taking readers behind the scenes with one of the most influential and fascin...

In his no-holds-barred, unapologetically controversial voice, New York Times bestselling author of You Herd Me! and sports personality Colin Cowherd gives an insider’s look into every aspect of sports, including behind-the-scenes scandals, inter-team rivalries, and players’ lives on and off the field.There’s a lot you don’t see or hear sitting high up in the stands. But Colin Cowherd knows what really goes on—and he’s not afraid to share the vivid...

Part vocational pep rally, part how-to book, in What Makes the Great Great, bestselling author Dennis Kimbro explores the strategies and thought processes of successful African-Americans.What Makes the Great Great elaborates on the inspiring message Dennis Kimbro put forth in his first book Think and Grow Rich--A Black Choice. Through dozens of interviews and the inspirational stories of people like John H. Johnson, Publisher of Ebony...

delivers rare insights on success straight from the hearts and minds of winning coaches Scotty Bowman, Marc Crawford, Jacques Demers, Clare Drake, Ken Hitchcock, Mike Keenan, Dave King, George Kingston, Andy Murray, Rodger Neilson, Pat Quinn and Brian Sutter. These world-renowned hockey visionaries, recognized as some of the greatest coaches in the game, talk about what it takes to be a champion and the strategies that have made them successful.Each one of us is a coach, w...

This is Your Brain on Sports is the book for sports fans searching for a deeper understanding of the games they watch and the people who play them. Sports Illustrated executive editor and bestselling author L. Jon Wertheim teams up with Tufts psychologist Sam Sommers to take readers on a wild ride into the inner world of sports. Through the prism of behavioral economics, neuroscience, and psychology, they reveal the hidden influences and surprising cues that insp...

In Coaching Your Kids to be Leaders, Pat Williams takes the seven principles of leadership and applies them to the challenge of building young leaders. The essence of a leader is embodied in these seven important qualities: Vision, Communication, People Skills, Character, Competence, Boldness, Servanthood. Young people can be inspired and motivated to build them into their lives. This is an invaluable tool for those committed to building leadership skills in the children they care...

As part of the acclaimed Sports Virtues series, John Wooden: Discipline discusses the struggles and triumphs of John Wooden's life. As with each story in the Sports Virtues series, this book assigns a virtue to a celebrated athlete or coach, and uses that person's story to help the reader achieve that virtue for him or herself.What emerges after reading these stories is not only a greater understanding and appreciation of the virtues that these icons needed to get through ...