Table of Contents
Foreword by William Nack
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1. Hundred-Yard Warriors
Chuck Bednarik: Concrete Charlie
Walter Payton: The Poetry of Silence
Terry Bradshaw: A Country Boy Can Survive
Bear Bryant: A Win, and a Coach, for All Time
Dan Hampton: A World of Hurt
John Matuszak: Me and the Tooz
John Matuszak: The Other Side of the Story
John Riggins: Runaway
Dan Marino: A Kid Among Legends
Joe Montana: Easy to Underestimate, Hard to Beat
Gary Fencik: Boola! Boola!
Part 2. Legends of the Box Score
Willie Mays: Out of the Past
Stan Musial: The Man, Forever
Reggie Jackson: The Ego Is a Lonely Hunter
Pete Rose: Pete Belongs in Cooperstown
Nolan Ryan: On Second Thought
Johnny Bench: Old Too Young
Earl Weaver: The Earl of Baltimore
Gene Mauch: The Toughest Loss of All
Dick Allen: More a Ghost Than a Legend
Frank Robinson: Hard Game, Hard Man
Brooks Robinson: Honored To Be a Hero
Ernie Banks: Mr. Cub Remembers
Bill Veeck: "Bionic Man I'm Not"
Carl Yastrzemski: Family Tradition
Bill Lee: Spaceman
Mark Fidrych: Bird with a Broken Wing
Steve Bilko: The Slugging Seraph
George Brett: Lipstick on a .407 Batting Average
Willie Stargell: The Pirates' Patriarch
Fernando Valenzuela: And a Rookie Shall Lead Them
Jim Palmer: Good-bye Doesn't Come Easy
Oscar Charleston: A One-Way Ticket to Obscurity
Part 3. Hoops and Horses and Everything in Between
Pete Maravich: The Pistol's Parting Shot
Julius Erving: Sky King
Larry Bird: The Ultimate Celtic
Big House Gaines: No Way to Treat a Legend
Al McGuire: Sunday's Jester
Ben Wilson: Only the Good Die Young
Wayne Gretzky: Borderline Case
Jimmy Connors: Blue Collar at a Tea Dance
John Carlos: The Olympic Ideal
Johnny Kelley: The Elder
Ron Turcotte: Rider Down
Buddy Delp: The Happy Anarchist
Bill Shoemaker: A Million for the Shoe
Part 4. Arts and Letters
Red Smith: The Write Stuff
W. C. Heinz: The Professional
A. J. Liebling: Joe
Mark Kram: Poet and Provocateur
F. X. Toole: One Tough Baby
Part 5. Sweet Scientists
Marvelous Marvin Hagler: The Proud Warrior
Sugar Ray Robinson: He Gave Style a Name
Joe Louis: Larger Than Life or Death
Tony Zale: Raise Your Glass to a Teetotaler
Paddy Flood: One of a Kind
Sugar Ray Leonard: The One-Eyed Man
Ray Arcel: A Touch of Class
Roberto Duran: A Man of Stone
Roberto Duran: He Cramped His Own Style
Larry Holmes: His Time and No One Else's
Muhammad Ali: No Garden Party
Muhammad Ali: Marching Off to Slaughter
Muhammad Ali: Ali! Ali! Ali!
Source Acknowledgments
