[PDF] They Said It Couldn eBook

Author : Mark Janssen
Publisher : Kci Sports Publishing
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 50,22 MB
Release : 2006-06
Category : Football
ISBN : 9780975876961

GET BOOK

When Bill Snyder arrived as head football coach at Kansas State University prior to the 1989 season, he inherited the worst NCAA Division I football program on planet Earth. In 93 previous seasons, the Wildcat football record was a miserable 299-510-40. The program had earned exactly one league title, that coming in 1934, well before Snyder was born. In the years just prior to Snyders arrival, the Wildcats had slumped to their worst, even by K-State standards. The program had lost 13 games in a row, and except for one tie, and had not rung the victory bell in 27 games. Seventeen years later, Snyders orchestration of the greatest turnaround in college football history defines the American dream of achieving the unimaginable. This is his story, from Bill Snyders unique viewpoint, of the process by which he helped transform a program considered the laughingstock of college football into one that won 136 games over seventeen years including eleven bowl appearances and seven seasons of at least ten wins and became a household name in college football circles. Its also the story of Snyders own triumphant journey, one that forced him at a young age to deal with his own lack of discipline and academic shortcomings in a single-parent family, one that saw him climb to the top of big-time college football, and one that ultimately brought him face-to-face with the toughest decision of his life. Snyders story is written by Mark Janssen, sports editor of the The Manhattan Mercury since 1981 and a fixture of Kansas State athletics for the better part of four decades. It captures, in Snyders candid, upfront style, the action behind the scenes in running a major college football program, the strategies employed by early K-State coaches to change the culture of losing that had permeated an entire university, and the magic with which Snyder pulled off the Miracle in Manhattan.

Author : Wayne R. Coffey
Publisher :
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 29,86 MB
Release : 2019
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1524760889

GET BOOK

In 1962, the New York Mets spent their first year in existence racking up the worst record in baseball history. Things scarcely got any better for the ensuing six years--they were baseball's laughingstock, but somehow lovable in their ineptitude, building a fiercely loyal fan base. And then came 1969, a year that brought the lunar landing, Woodstock, nonstop antiwar protests, and the most tumultuous and fractious New York City mayoral race in memory--along with the most improbable season in the annals of Major League Baseball. It concluded on an invigorating autumn afternoon in Queens, when a Minnesota farm boy named Jerry Koosman beat the Baltimore Orioles for the second time in five games, making the Mets champions of the baseball world. It wasn't merely an upset but an unprecedented, uplifting achievement for the ages. From the ashes of those early scorched-earth seasons, Gil Hodges, a beloved former Brooklyn Dodger, put together a 25-man whole that was vastly more formidable than the sum of its parts. Beyond the top-notch pitching staff headlined by Tom Seaver, Koosman, and Gary Gentry, and the hitting prowess of Cleon Jones, the Mets were mostly comprised of untested kids and lightly regarded veterans. Everywhere you looked on this team, there was a man with a compelling backstory, from Koosman, who never played high school baseball and grew up throwing in a hayloft in subzero temperatures with his brother Orville, to third baseman Ed Charles, an African-American poet with a deep racial conscience whose arrival in the big leagues was delayed almost a decade because of the color of his skin. In the tradition of The Boys of Winter, his classic bestseller about the 1980 U.S. men's Olympic hockey team, Wayne Coffey tells the story of the '69 Mets as it has never been told before--against the backdrop of the space race, Stonewall, and Vietnam, set in an ever-changing New York City. With dogged reporting and a storyteller's eye for detail, Coffey finds the beating heart of a baseball family. Published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Mets' remarkable transformation from worst to best, They Said It Couldn't Be Done is a spellbinding, feel-good narrative about an improbable triumph by the ultimate underdog.

Author : Wayne Coffey
Publisher : Crown
Page : 314 pages
File Size : 27,47 MB
Release : 2020-03-24
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1524760897

GET BOOK

“One of sports’ most storied championship teams gets its proper due” (Tom Verducci) in this definitive history of the 1969 Miracle Mets from the New York Times bestselling author of The Boys of Winter. “If you want to know what it was like to live and witness a baseball miracle in tumultuous times, this book is for you.”—Ron Darling, former New York Mets All-Star and bestselling author of Game 7, 1986 The story of the 1969 New York Mets’ season has long since entered sports lore as one of the most remarkable of all time. But beyond the “miracle” is a compelling narrative of an unlikely collection of players and the hallowed manager who inspired them to greatness. For the fiftieth anniversary, renowned sports journalist Wayne Coffey brings to life a moment when a championship could descend on a city like magic, and when a baseball legend was authored one inning at a time. Future Hall of Fame ace Tom Seaver snagged the biggest headlines, but the enduring richness of the story lies in the core of a team comprised of untested youngsters, lightly regarded veterans, and four Southern-born African-American stalwarts who came of age in the shadow of Jackie Robinson. Most of the Mets regulars were improbable candidates for baseball stardom. The number two starting pitcher, Jerry Koosman, grew up on a Minnesota farm, never played high-school ball, and was only discovered because of a tip from a Mets’ usher. Outfielder Ron Swoboda was known for long home runs and piles of strikeouts, until he turned into a glove wizard when it mattered most. All of these men were galvanized by their manager: the sainted former Brooklyn Dodger Gil Hodges, whose fundamental belief in the power of every man on the roster, no matter his stats, helped backup players like Al Weis and J.C. Martin become October heroes. As the Mets powered through the season to reach a World Series against the best-in-a-generation Baltimore Orioles, Hodges’s steady hand guided a team that had very recently been the league laughingstock to an improbable, electrifying shot at sports immortality. “A must-read for not just for Mets fans, but all baseball fans who will appreciate what indeed was the most astounding season in baseball history.”—Ken Rosenthal, two-time Sports Emmy winner for Outstanding Sports Reporter

Author : Tash Oakes-Monger
Publisher : Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Page : 146 pages
File Size : 30,82 MB
Release : 2023-01-19
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1839971509

GET BOOK

'Transition has not been something linear for me, my joy has come in seasons.' Now, more than ever, trans people deserve to hear stories of joy and hope, where being trans doesn't have to be defined by fear and dysphoria, but can be experienced through courage, freedom, and the love and acceptance of their chosen families. Through a series of uplifting, generous and beautifully crafted vignettes, T. C. Oakes-Monger gently leads you through the cycle of the seasons - beginning in Autumn and the shedding of leaves and identity, moving through the darkness of Winter, its cold days, and the reality of daily life, into Spring, newness, and change, and ending with the joy of long Summer days and being out and proud - and invites you to find similar moments of joy in your life. Celebratory and empowering, these stories are a reminder of the power joy can bring.

Author :
Publisher : AuthorHouse
Page : 61 pages
File Size : 49,37 MB
Release : 2018-12-17
Category : Poetry
ISBN : 1546244395

GET BOOK

African-American and other minority children are bombarded by negative messages about themselves in the media, in the classroom, in society at large, and sadly even in their own homes. “They Said I Couldn’t, But Yes I Can” is a book that was written to convey hope in the dreams that can become reality. The author and illustrator mother and daughter duo, took inspiration from minority men and women who excelled against all odds in fields of Science, Journalism, Politics, Art, Music, Dance, Sports, Law, Aeronautics and much more. These individuals not only excelled, but broke the barriers to become the “first” or “only” to have achieved that honor. The book is written using poetry, humor, and a touch of the reality that our children live and must fight to overcome. The illustrations depict these people as children already working in their various fields as a nod to what they have become when they grew up. Minority children should have a copy of this book as a historical chronology and as a source of positive role models and heroes they can emulate. We encourage further personal research of the individuals highlighted in this book.

Author : Victor Boesen
Publisher : Backinprint.com
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 13,77 MB
Release : 2005-11
Category :
ISBN : 9780595378203

GET BOOK

"A readable and enjoyable book, recommended for most libraries."--Steven Mayover, Philadelphia Naval Shipyard Library

Author : Bryant Lavender
Publisher : Bryant Lavender
Page : 123 pages
File Size : 38,38 MB
Release : 2018-04-12
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
ISBN : 198748021X

GET BOOK

Young man fighting to be the best player he can be, only able to overcome obstacles through the power of God and being obedient to God's instructions. He taps into his potential.

Author : Jay Coles
Publisher : Scholastic Inc.
Page : 219 pages
File Size : 27,10 MB
Release : 2021-09-21
Category : Young Adult Fiction
ISBN : 1338734202

GET BOOK

From one of the brightest and most acclaimed new lights in YA fiction, a fantastic new novel about a bi Black boy finding first love . . . and facing the return of the mother who abandoned his preacher family when he was nine. There's always been a hole in Gio's life. Not because he's into both guys and girls. Not because his father has some drinking issues. Not because his friends are always bringing him their drama. No, the hole in Gio's life takes the shape of his birth mom, who left Gio, his brother, and his father when Gio was nine years old. For eight years, he never heard a word from her . . . and now, just as he's started to get his life together, she's back. It's hard for Gio to know what to do. Can he forgive her like she wants to be forgiven? Or should he tell her she lost her chance to be in his life? Complicating things further, Gio's started to hang out with David, a new guy on the basketball team. Are they friends? More than friends? At first, Gio's not sure . . . especially because he's not sure what he wants from anyone right now. There are no easy answers to love -- whether it's family love or friend love or romantic love. In Things We Couldn't Say, Jay Coles, acclaimed author of Tyler Johnson Was Here, shows us a guy trying to navigate love in all its ambiguity -- hoping at the other end he'll be able to figure out who is and who he should be.

Author : Kendra Ford
Publisher :
Page : 414 pages
File Size : 16,1 MB
Release : 2020-01-21
Category :
ISBN :

GET BOOK

LARGE PRINT EDITION! Kendra Blevins Ford has assembled the previously untold story of the Navy's first poster girl, a veteran of both world wars, through the recent transcription of long-forgotten audio cassette tapes recorded back in the 1980s. This debut work showcases an interesting parallel of two lives lived nearly a century apart, now coming together to share a unique story of grit and resilience. Filled with familial historical data, this literary treasure takes the reader back to the beginning of the 20th century where a simple California ranch life formed the future courageous woman who yearned to join the Navy during World War I. The story of how she came to the Naval Recruitment Station to enlist- only to be told, "No," and asked to pose for a navy poster illustrator instead, is a highlight of this book. Readers will be charmed and inspired by the no-nonsense prose of the woman who was told "No," yet found ways to serve mankind both in the military and as a civilian. She experienced "all the feels" of pain, sadness, and disappointment yet found strength and joy from within and lived her life to the fullest.