Replays, Rivalries, and Rumbles : The Most Iconic Moments in American Sports

What were the iconic sports moments of the last century? In Replays, Rivalries, and Rumbles , a team of sports aficionados climb onto their bar stools to address that never-solved but essential question. Triumphs and turning points, rivalries and record-setters "each chapter tracks down the real story behind the epic moments and legendary careers sports fans love to debate. Topics include Abner Doubleday and the origins of baseball; the era-defining 1979 duel between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson; how Denver and Cleveland relive The Drive; the myths surrounding the Ali-Foreman Rumble in the Jungle; Billie Jean King's schooling of Bobby Riggs; the Miracle on Ice; and ESPN's conquest of the sports world. Filled with eye-opening lore and analysis, Replays, Rivalries, and Rumbles is an entertaining look at what we think we know about sports.| Cover Title Copyright Contents Foreword 1. Abner Doubleday and the "Invention" of Baseball / Thomas L. Altherr 2. The "Stars and Stripes" at the Olympic Games / Mark Dyreson 3. The Black Sox Scandal Redux / Daniel A. Nathan 4. The Creation of the Negro National League / Leslie Heaphy 5. George Gipp, Knute Rockne, and the Post-Mortem Faux Pas / Ronald A. Smith 6. Babe Didrikson at the 1932 Olympic Games / Lindsay Parks Pieper 7. Babe Ruth's "Called Shot" in the 1932 World Series / Larry R. Gerlach 8. March Madness or Madness in March? / Chad Carlson 9. Kenny Washington, Woody Strode, and the Reintegration of the National Football League / David K. Wiggins 10. Althea Gibson, America's First African American Grand Slam Champion / Maureen Smith 11. Blaming Walter O'Malley for Moving the Dodgers West / Robert Trumpbour 12. The Greatest Game Ever? / Richard C. Crepeau 13. The Marichal–Roseboro Brawl and Its Coverage "Underneath America" / Samuel O. Regalado 14. What Really Happened When Curt Flood Sued Baseball / Steven Gietschier 15. Dan Gable's Unbelievable Defeat / David Zang 16. The 1972 U.S.–U.S.S.R. Olympic Basketball Final / Kevin Witherspoon 17. Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs, 1973 / Jaime Schultz 18. Ali–Foreman and the Myth of the Rope-a-Dope / Michael Ezra 19. Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson, 1979 / Murry Nelson 20. The Birth of ESPN, a Sports Junkie's Nirvana / Travis Vogan 21. Remembering and Forgetting America's Hockey Miracles / Stephen Hardy 22. Remembering and Reliving "The Drive" in Cleveland and Denver / Andrew D. Linden 23. The Rise and Fall of The National Sports Daily / Dennis Gildea Afterword: The Future of Sports Memories Contributors Index | "A fascinating collection of 23 essays. . . Recommended."— Choice "Remarkably fun to read. A great book for a general sports fan."—Sarah K. Fields, author of Game Faces: Sport Celebrity and the Law of Reputation "Steven Gietscher has recruited an all-star roster of sport historians whose efforts have resulted in an anthology of events in America's sporting past that provides all fans an opportunity to both learn and re-imagine."—Stephen Wenn, coauthor of Tarnished Rings: The International Olympic Committee and the Salt Lake City Bid Scandal | Steven P. Gietschier is an associate professor of history at Lindenwood University. Previously, he was Senior Managing Editor for Research at The Sporting News . "Every year American sports presents new champions, exciting games and rivalries, record-setting performances, and extraordinary events. In the past century some of these have stood out as exceptionally memorable--moments that continue to be discussed and debated, and serve as high points, turning points, catastrophes, or triumphs of myth-making. In this collection, twenty-four esteemed sports historians return to twenty-four such events in baseball, football, hockey, tennis, wrestling, and boxing: some dealing with legendary careers, some with signal moments that have become iconic. The collection will give sports fans a platform to argue about key events in their favorite sports, and an opportunity to score on other peoples' fields. Events include the final basketball game in the 1972 Olympics, Babe Ruth's "Called Shot," and the Dan Gable-Larry Owing wrestling match of 1970. Chapters discuss the Larry Bird and Magic Johnson rivalry, the tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, the emergence of ESPN, the "Miracle on Ice" in the Winter Olympics of 1980, the creation of the Negro National League, the migration of major league teams, the Curt Flood case, flag etiquette at the Olympics, the resurrected reputation of Muhammad Ali, and John Elway's famous 98-yard drive in the last 37 seconds of an American Football Conference championship game"-- Provided by publisher