When you reach a certain age, the last thing your kids want to hear is a story about "the good old days." While this may apply to old flames and college shenanigans, one place where reliving the past never gets old is in sports!
Last night my son and I caught a late season Milwaukee Brewer game. In a rebuilding year with a sparsely filled stadium and $60 tickets going for $10, it is sometimes hard to find the positives. Luckily, I had just finished If These Walls Could Talk by Bill Schroeder with Drew Olson. In the book, Schroeder tells fantastic stories about some of the colorful characters and amazing Brewer teams that have been part of the baseball tradition in Milwaukee. Sometimes, when the present isn't so exciting, it's good to remind people of what was. On a beautiful night for baseball, I related to my son some of the stories from Schroeder's book, told him a few of my own memories of those teams, and bought him some cheese fries and a hat at the gift shop so he'd listen. Overall, a great night at the ballpark and a little bonding over our favorite baseball team. Publisher Triumph Books does a nice series of books in the If These Walls Could Talk series. While it is not technically a series, they have a great selection of teams and schools that would probably fit your geographical area. The format is similar throughout. Get a former player, coach, announcer, etc that has a worked closely with the team and has a strong insider perspective, and have them write the book. The goal here seems to be to fill the book with personal anecdotes and behind-the-scenes views of the people and events that contributed to the legacy of the organization. Kids always love to see the personal side of things, so these books are a must for your library. They are also written at a level that is extremely accessible to the young adult crowd, and the writing is formatted with pictures and sidebars that always keep the pace interesting. Overall, a must add for all 6-12 libraries!
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This past month, I was lucky enough to share in VOYA Magazine some lists of high interest nonfiction sports books that would appeal to the young adult audience. VOYA Magazine serves librarians and professionals who serve young adult readers. They do a fantastic job of gathering programming and resource ideas for librarians to engage the teenage population in reading. The first part of my series published in August involves ball sports. Much like the high profile nature of these activities, they are probably the most popular sports books that teens check out. The second part to appear in the December issue will be on combat/fighting sports, and the final installment in early 2017 will be on the silent sports like running and swimming. Any opportunity to bring good sports titles into the literature playing field is golden, so I am excited about this! I have included the article below, so take a read and discover some new titles for your library or personal collection! When he was only 12 years old, someone stole Cassius Clay’s bike. Clay complained to a police officer. “If I find the guy who took my bike,” he said, “I’m gonna whup him.” As fate would have it, the officer also operated a boxing gym in his spare time. After admiring Clay’s tenacity, an offer was extended to the boy to learn to fight in his gym. And so the champion Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammed Ali was born. On a trip down south this summer, I was fortunate enough to make a stop at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville. What an amazing place! 4 floors of exhibits, artwork, and artifacts that represent the great Ali's life as both a boxer and a humanitarian. There were displays that highlighted Ali's core principles of life, like conviction, dedication, giving, and confidence. Beautiful quotes and artwork of Ali are at every twist and turn. You can watch 15 of Ali's favorite fights in a ringside seat. As for what I think about today, I will remember the torch that Ali carried at the Atlanta Olympics. As I wandered through the gift shop, there were three distinct Muhammad Ali books that caught my eye. These three titles should be in every school library, as they represent Ali in very unique ways.
Ali, Muhammad. The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life's Journey. Simon & Schuster. 2013. 269p.
Ali, Muhammad. The Greatest: My Own Story. Graymalkin Media. 2015. 398p. Myers, Walter Dean. The Greatest: Muhammad Ali. Scholastic Paperback. 2001. 172p. In The Soul of a Butterfly, Ali takes readers on a spiritual journey through the seasons of life, from childhood to the present, and shares the beliefs that have served him well. My Own Story is a more comprehensive, traditional autobiographical look at the fighter’s life and accomplishments, while Walter Dean Myer’s book is a fantastic biography with similar information, but aimed at the traditional young adult audience-written at the appropriate level. During the Olympics, remember this great man, and if you get down to Louisville, you MUST SEE the Muhammad Ali Center!
It's always a sad part of the year for any educator when summer rolls around. What to do with all the free time? Well, taxpayers should take comfort knowing the librarian never takes a break. After receiving the last of my books orders for the year, I have come up with a pile of sports books that I will be laboring over for "work" this summer. Perhaps it will be at a beach, or on a couch, on the deck, or under some shady maple, but the work must get done!!
Here is a list of books that are on my list to read this summer. I hope you might take a few ideas from here for your own summer reading!
Black Gods of the Asphalt: Religion, Hip-Hip, and Street Basketball by Onaje X.O. Woodbine
Through interviews with and observations of urban basketball players, the author discuss the athletes who play street basketball and why they choose to play it. Two Hours: The Quest to Run the Impossible Marathon by Ed Caesar "Ed Caesar takes us into the world of elite runners: the greatest marathoners on earth. Through the stories of these rich characters, like Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai, he traces the history of the marathon as well as the science, physiology, and psychology involved in running so fast, for so long. And he shows us why this most democratic of races retains its savage, enthralling appeal-and why we are drawn to test ourselves to the limit"--Amazon.com Boys Among Men: How the Prep-to-Pro Generation Redefined the NBA and Sparked the Basketball Revolution by Jonathon Abrams The definitive, never-before-told story of the prep-to-pro generation, those basketball prodigies who from 1995 to 2005 made the jump directly from high school to the NBA Life is Not an Accident: A memoir of Reinvention by Jay Williams Jay Williams tells his story of how he destroyed his career when he suffered a horrific motorcycle accident. In an instant, the man with as fast a first step as any point guard in history could no longer do anything for himself, including walk. Not a Game: The Incredible Rise and Unthinkable Fall of Allen Iverson by Kent Babb Former NBA superstar Allen Iverson was once one of America's most famous athletes: a trendsetter who transcended race, celebrity, and pop culture, and emerged from a troubled past to become one of the most successful and highly compensated athletes in the world. ... 'Not a Game' is a ... look at the factors that led to the rise and fall of a basketball superstar. In doing so, it illuminates the dark side of [the] modern day, multi-billion dollar sports and entertainment culture in which talented players are disposable and all too often success and tragedy wear the same number If These Walls Could Talk: Stories from the Milwaukee Brewers by Bill Schroeder The author recounts his time playing with and then reporting for the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team, discussing past and present players, locker room pranks, life on the road, and more. Now this is what I'm talking about!! Kudos to Andrew Luck for starting a book club! The idea that pro athletes are role models for reading is something I have been preaching here and in my profession forever. Leave it to Luck to be one of the first (and only) ones to figure this out! Check out his site at www.andrewluckbookclub.com and get involved! The selections are cleverly organized into a "rookie" and "veteran" titles to reach various levels of reader. The target group is about middle school on up, which is exactly the audience that needs this attention. I can't wait to see how the club is received and if it propels any other pro athletes to become involved in their own reading mission. If only these people realized the power they had.......well, I can only dream. Andrew, thanks for providing the spark. Perhaps we can meet and talk books the night before the Packers knock the Colts silly at Lambeau on November 6. In fact, we should just make a bet that if(when) you lose, I will pick the next two Packer books for the club read. I tell you what though, I love the book club idea. To all my library friends, link this site up to your homepage and hang a sign for the club in your library. It's up to us to pass the word! Andrew, remember-- Jockbrarian has your back!! In the world of some NFL teams, players who read are dangerous. Rashard Mendenhall: NFL team was worried about me reading books By Jordan Heck Sporting News April 7, 2016 Rashard Mendenhall is a player who retired early (26) mainly because of his interests outside of football. He likes to read, and especially likes to write considering he contributes to the HBO show "Ballers."Coming out of college, teams were concerned about his off-field interests. Speaking to MEL Radio, Mendenhall said teams were worried about him having thoughts that didn't always pertain to football."When I was going through the NFL Combine there was a team that asked me, 'If you have all these other interests — like reading, dancing or art — what makes you a football player?' There is this idea of what a football player is and what he looks like. Especially playing in a place like Pittsburgh, where the Steelers are such a part of the history of the town; the fans live, die and breathe it. "While I respected that culture totally and knew that I was a part of it, it was tough for me personally. I would tweet a picture of a book that I was reading and there would be people who would write, like, 'Why are you reading books? You should be reading a playbook.' I was like, 'Dang, this is the offseason.' It’s just crazy that like — it was a bit much for me. I felt hemmed in; I wasn’t able to fully be me and express myself, because if I did, people questioned my love of the game. That was always a tough thing for me." Maybe they were right, considering Mendenhall did retire early, but when he was playing he was all-in. In the three seasons from 2009-11, the running back put up 3,891 combined rushing and receiving yards and scored 30 total touchdowns. If he read a few books during the offseason, who cares? He was a solid contributor on the field when he was there. Host John McDermott pointed out how front offices often complain about players who are out all night at the clubs, but that's not always the reality. Instead, they're worried about someone who has other interests. "As much as they say, 'We don’t want a guy who’s in trouble, blah, blah, blah,' that guy is familiar to them," Mendenhall said. "He is comfortable to them because they understand him better than a football player who has different interests. A guy with an expanded worldview, now that’s fearful." What a modern-day Renaissance man. It's pretty unbelievable that attitudes towards athletes displaying some intellectual prowess are like this! Reminds me of what some (un)wise English teacher colleague said to me when I first became a librarian: "It's unfortunate that you are a jock."
Yes, clearly anyone who dabbles in sports must be an illiterate idiot--and obviously unfit to handle literature. Welcome to Jockbrarian, ma'am. Athletes can and do read!! The real issue with the Rashard Mendenhall story is the assumption that athletes SHOULDN'T read. Somehow, in a quasi Brave New World scenario, where people are kept stupid so they don't question authority, NFL teams clearly felt that an athlete who was educated and practiced the art of intellectual growth would be a threat to their order. Or maybe it was a time thing. An athlete should have his/her nose in a playbook, not a book book! Did we forget that reading is also a relaxing practice that clears the mind and increases productivity? Have NFL teams been questioning the Xbox gaming habits of their players? Perhaps one athlete's mental decompression comes from FIFA matches, and another's comes from cracking a book. Whatever way you slice it, I applaud athletes like Rashard Mendenhall who wear their identity as a reader like a badge of honor. This is the message we should be sending our young athletes. As a librarian and coach, I constantly suggest and give athletes books to read. Heck, it's what makes being a jockbrarian fun!!
If you haven't done so yet, it's time to dust off the Villanova basketball books and put them front and center on display! You don't have any, you say? Well, for all the references people heard about the 1985 team this weekend, and all the TV shots of Ed Pinckney and Rollie Massimino nail biting their way to the buzzer, there might be more than a little renewed interest in Nova hoops lore! I would pay particular attention to Frank Fitzpatrick's The Perfect Game that details the mighty 1985 championship game upset. If you don't have this book in your library, it should be purchased. Pull it out every March. Display it next to the future book that will grace shelves about the great run this 2016 squad had! They'll inspire any kid with a March Madness dream.
A big congrats go out to the Yale hoops team for busting brackets--but not Jockbrarian's! In celebration, I should recommend that people do some reading between now and Saturday's game to brush up on Yale and Ivy League basketball. The Divine Nature of Basketball by Ed Breslin tells how the author basically becomes a virtual head coach and follows the Yale team and coach around from the beginning of the season to the end. It's not a book about learning systems and how great players are developed. It's about the game at it's simplest form and how great people who happen to love the game are developed. Now granted I live in a place where the closest connection to Yale is a door lock. Still, the book relates to any fan and captures the true spirit of college basketball where there is little luxury and less glory. Reading this book will make you root for teams like Yale in the tourney all the more. And just maybe after reading this book, you will sound a little more "Ivy" at tournament gatherings this weekend instead of some chump who follows the 1 seeds or teams that have the coolest mascot! It was years ago in the early 2000's that I was handed My Losing Season by Pat Conroy. Prior to this, I had not explored much within the field of high interest sports literature, but I gave it a shot. As I tell all of my students, it only takes one person to flip the switch and make the light go on. I believe My Losing Season did that for me, which is why I was quite sad to hear of Conroy's passing last week. While his most talked about works may be The Prince of Tides and Beach Music, My Losing Season was one of his rarer books of nonfiction. In My Losing Season, Conroy re-creates his pivotal senior year as captain of the Citadel Bulldogs. He chronicles the highs and lows of that 1966–67 season, his tough disciplinarian coach, the joys of winning, and the hard-won lessons of losing. Most of all, he recounts playing a sport that would become a metaphor for his passage into manhood. There were so many things I loved about this book. I loved the idea of finding a silver lining in losing. As someone who was part of a great many losing seasons, most of my teams resembled hard-luck causes--and that's fine by me. Most post-prime athletes would be happy to recount names and stories rather than scores and records any day. Ultimately, it was what I personally gained from the experience that was immeasurable. As they say in sports, sometimes the greatest contributions are not found in a boxscore. Anyways, I felt a certain kinship with Conroy for this reason, and perhaps it's what made me love the book so much. I felt he wrote for me and the type of scrappy, dedicated, and quite average athlete I was. Another layer of the story dealt with his life growing up and details of his abusive father and how it related to his basketball career. About the time this book hit my lap, I was newly entrenched in the experience of raising my own children. The book made me think about parental roles in the athletic life of kids. Though I really had the opposite experience growing up, it made me consider the negative role of fear in both parenting and coaching. There is immeasurable power and trust involved in both fatherhood and coaching. Conroy pulled no punches in exploring the massive influence of these relationships on young men. Until My Losing Season, I had never quite read a sports story I would consider beautifully written. I'm sure they existed, just not in my world yet. My Losing Season read like this gnawingly complex fictional tale, but it was true. I remember constantly turning back to the Citadel team picture that graced the inside if the book cover just to do a pinch test to reaffirm that these characters in the story were indeed real. Conroy was just so damn honest! In an age where athletes trumpet their every success, Conroy leaned on failure to tell his story, showing how tremendous personal growth can spawn from the things that hurt us the most. I consider Conroy to be the father of my love for nonfiction sports lit. In writing about sports, he showed you have to be human first. Thanks, Mr. Conroy, for the inspiration--your books will always be on my shelves and in my heart.
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