Download or read book The Life And Legacy Of Frank Gotch written by Mike Chapman and published by Paladin Press. This book was released on 2008-04-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early 20th century, one man ruled the tough world of professional wrestling -- Frank Gotch. Learning the ferocious craft of catch-as-catch-can wrestling under the tutelage of catch wrestling master Martin "Farmer" Burns and in regular, brutal bouts in the ring, Gotch went on to dominate the sport and become one of the most famous sports figures in the world. The Life and Legacy of Frank Gotch chronicles Gotch's rise to the pinnacle of the wrestling world before his untimely death in 1917. It provides little-known details about his earliest matches, his trip to Alaska to hone his wrestling skills, his training under Farmer Burns, his harshly instructive contests with the fierce Tom Jenkins and his two epic bouts against the "Russian Lion," the great George Hackenschmidt. Author Mike Chapman offers intriguing speculation about how Gotch may have matched up against some of the other top wrestlers of all time, and he has unearthed fascinating accounts from wrestling legends, promoters and sports writers, during and after the Gotch era, who all weigh in on why Gotch was the greatest of them all. Close to 80 photos, many of which are being published for the first time in nearly a century, round out this portrait of one of the most influential figures in the history of professional wrestling.
Download or read book The Statues and Legacies of Combat Athletes in the Americas written by C. Nathan Hatton and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2024-05-15 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The violence of combat sports left a mark on how fans and communities remembered athletes. As individual endeavors, combat sports have often produced more detailed, emotionally poignant, and deeply personal stories of triumph than those associated with team sports. Commemorative statues to combat athletes are therefore unique as historical markers and sites of memory. These statues tell remarkable stories of the athletes themselves, but also the people and communities that planned and built them, the cities and towns that memorialized them, the fans who followed them, and the evolution of memory and place in the decades that followed their inauguration. Edited by C. Nathan Hatton and David M. K. Sheinin, The Statues and Legacies of Combat Athletes in the Americas brings together an interdisciplinary team of scholars from across North America to interrogate the intimate and layered meanings attached to these monuments to the lives and legacies of combat athletes.
Download or read book Ballyhoo written by Jon Langmead and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2024-01-29 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ballyhoo! The Roughhousers, Con Artists, and Wildmen Who Invented Professional Wrestling is a history of professional wrestling’s formative period in the U.S., from roughly 1874 to 1941, and the contested interplay of wrestlers and promoters who built the “sport” as we know it. During this period, the major conventions that would define wrestling to the present day were perfected and codified, as wrestling morphed from a rough sport practiced on farms and at town gatherings to melodramatic mass entertainment that reliably drew large crowds in cities across the nation. The narrative uses the life and career of Jack Curley—a boxing promoter whose fortune took a turn for the better when he began promoting wrestling matches—as a compass as it charts the development of wrestling. By the late 1910s, Curley’s shows were selling out Madison Square Garden monthly. Ballyhoo chronicles his competition with the other promoters, as well as the lives of colorful athletes like “Strangler” Ed Lewis, Frank Gotch, the “Masked Marvel,” Jim Londos, “Gorgeous George” Wagner, “Farmer” Martin Burns, and “Dynamite” Gus Sonnenberg.
Download or read book Thrashing Seasons written by C. Nathan Hatton and published by Univ. of Manitoba Press. This book was released on 2016-05-03 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Horseback wrestling, catch-as-catch-can, glima; long before the advent of today’s WWE, forms of wrestling were practised by virtually every cultural group. C. Nathan Hatton’s Thrashing Seasons tells the story of wrestling in Manitoba from its earliest documented origins in the eighteenth century to the Great Depression. Wrestling was never merely a sport: residents of Manitoba found meaning beyond the simple act of two people struggling for physical advantage on a mat, in a ring, or on a grassy field. Frequently controversial and often divisive, wrestling was nevertheless a popular and resilient cultural practice that proved adaptable to the rapidly changing social conditions in western Canada during its early boom period. In addition to chronicling the colourful exploits of the many athletes who shaped wrestling’s early years, Hatton explores wrestling as a social phenomenon intimately bound up with debates around respectability, ethnicity, race, class, and idealized conceptions of masculinity. In doing so, Thrashing Seasons illuminates wrestling as a complex and socially significant cultural activity, one that has been virtually unexamined by Canadian historians looking at the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Download or read book Shooters written by Jonathan Snowden and published by ECW Press. This book was released on 2012-08-09 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From William Muldoon to Brock Lesnar, this history covers those who have divided themselves as tough guys on the professional wrestling circuit and legitimate confrontations. From catch wrestling master Billy Robinson to the Japanese professional wrestler who gave birth to the global phenomenon that is modern mixed martial arts (MMA), this investigation travels from the shadowy carnival tent and the dingy training hall to the bright lights of the squared circle and the Las Vegas glitz of the octagon. Billy Riley's legendary Wigan Snake Pit and the rigorous UWF Dojo in Tokyo are explored, revealing the secret history of both professional wrestling and the rising sport of MMA. Squared circle icons Strangler Lewis and Lou Thesz and Olympic heroes Danny Hodge and Kurt Angle are also featured.
Download or read book American History through American Sports written by Bob Batchelor and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2012-12-18 with total page 1037 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Filled with insightful analysis and compelling arguments, this book considers the influence of sports on popular culture and spotlights the fascinating ways in which sports culture and American culture intersect. This collection blends historical and popular culture perspectives in its analysis of the development of sports and sports figures throughout American history. American History through American Sports: From Colonial Lacrosse to Extreme Sports is unique in that it focuses on how each sport has transformed and influenced society at large, demonstrating how sports and popular culture are intrinsically entwined and the ways they both reflect larger societal transformations. The essays in the book are wide-ranging, covering topics of interest for sports fans who enjoy the NFL and NASCAR as well as those who like tennis and watching the Olympics. Many topics feature information about specific sports icons and favorite heroes. Additionally, many of the topics' treatments prompt engagement by purposely challenging the reader to either agree or disagree with the author's analysis.
Download or read book Iowa Heritage Illustrated written by and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Wrestling written by John Grasso and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2014-03-06 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wrestling as a legitimate contest is one of the oldest, if not the oldest form of sport. There are cave drawings depicting memorable matches in France, which are over 15,000 years old. Egyptian and Babylonian reliefs depict wrestling bouts where wrestlers are using most of the holds known to the modern-day sport. Wrestling was also a big part of ancient Greek literature and legend and historical records of sport indicate that wrestling under various sets of rules was contested at the Ancient Olympic Games in Greece. Today’s modern wrestling is a form of "sports entertainment" in which highly skilled athletes enact wrestling matches in such a way so that their opponents do not get hurt and the matches' endings are scripted (although the audience is not aware of the script). This Historical Dictionary of Wrestling covers the history of Wrestling through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 600 cross-referenced entries on important amateur and professional wrestling, wrestling personalities, announcers, managers and promoters from all eras, and wrestling organizations. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the sport of Wrestling.
Download or read book Sport and Psychoanalysis written by Jack Black and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2024-07-30 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sport and Psychoanalysis: What Sport Reveals about Our Unconscious Desires, Fantasies, and Fears explores the intersection of sport and psychoanalysis, emphasizing the often-overlooked psycho-social dimensions underpinning the experience of sport. By challenging the idea that sport offers an “escape” from reality—a realm separate to the politics of everyday life—each chapter critically considers the unconscious desires, fantasies, and fears that underpin the sporting spectacle for both participants and spectators. Indeed, beyond simply applying psychoanalysis to sport, this book proposes how sport can be used to pose questions to psychoanalysis, thus using sport as a medium to elucidate key psychoanalytic ideas and concepts. This volume addresses a diverse range of theorists, including Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Lou Andreas-Salomé, Norman O. Brown, and Frantz Fanon, and applies them across a variety of topics and sports, including NFL coaching, Manny Pacquiao, play, football, basketball, baseball, poker, and the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, therefore providing a unique understanding of the cultural, social, and psychic significance of sports. A timely and relevant collection, this book will appeal to scholars and practitioners interested in understanding sport from both the cultural and clinical application of psychoanalytic theory as well as academics and practitioners in sport studies, psychology, sociology, education, and cultural studies.
Download or read book The Palgrave Handbook of Sport Politics and Harm written by Stephen Wagg and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-01-01 with total page 638 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book looks historically at the harm that has been inflicted in the practice of sport and at some of the issues, debates and controversies that have arisen as a result. Written by experts in history, sociology, sport journalism and public health, the book considers sport and injury in relation to matters of social class; gender; ethnicity and race; sexuality; political ideology and national identity; health and wellbeing; childhood; animal rights; and popular culture. These matters are, in turn, variously related to a range of sports, including ancient, pre- and early industrial sports; American football; boxing; wrestling and other combat sports; mountaineering; horseracing; cycling; motor racing; rugby football; cricket; association football; baseball; basketball; Crossfit; ice hockey; Olympic sports; Mixed Martial Arts; and sport in an imagined dystopian future.
Download or read book The Squared Circle written by David Shoemaker and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-11-04 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A breakthrough examination of the professional wrestling, its history, its fans, and its wider cultural impact The Squared Circle grows out of David Shoemaker’s writing for Deadspin, where he started the column “Dead Wrestler of the Week” (which boasts more than 1 million page views)—a feature on the many wrestling superstars who died too young because of the abuse they subject their bodies to—and his writing for Grantland, where he covers the pro wrestling world, and its place in the pop culture mainstream. Shoemaker’s sportswriting has since struck a nerve with generations of wrestling fans who—like him—grew up worshipping a sport often derided as “fake” in the wider culture. To them, these professional wrestling superstars are not just heroes but an emotional outlet and the lens through which they learned to see the world. Starting in the early 1900s and exploring the path of pro wrestling in America through the present day, The Squared Circle is the first book to acknowledge both the sport’s broader significance and wrestling fans’ keen intellect and sense of irony. Divided into eras, each section offers a snapshot of the wrestling world, profiles some of the period’s preeminent wrestlers, and the sport’s influence on our broader culture. Through the brawling, bombast, and bloodletting, Shoemaker argues that pro wrestling can teach us about the nature of performance, audience, and, yes, art. Full of unknown history, humor, and self-deprecating reminiscence—but also offering a compelling look at the sport’s rightful place in pop culture—The Squared Circle is the book that legions of wrestling fans have been waiting for. In it, Shoemaker teaches us to look past the spandex and body slams to see an art form that can explain the world.
Download or read book Annals of Iowa written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Say Uncle written by Jake Shannon and published by ECW Press. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Geschiedenis van de worstelsport, alsmede interviews met worstelaars.
Download or read book Ric Flair To Be the Man written by Ric Flair and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-05-11 with total page 527 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the years, there may have been equally charismatic performers, comparable athletes, and even better interviews, but none were blessed with the same combination of talents to manage to stay on top for over three decades. To wrestling fans, the Nature Boy is a platinum-blond deity, a sixteen-time world champion who accurately boasted that he could have a five-star match with a broom. No matter how limited the opponent, Flair had the skill and determination to bounce all over the mat, transforming his rival into a star. When the camera light went on, "Slick Ric" could convince viewers that, if they missed an upcoming match, a momentous life experience would pass them by. Flair's opponents were challenged with this simple taunt: "To be the man, you have to beat the man." Away from the arena, Richard Morgan Fliehr spent years struggling with his own concept of what it meant to be a man. He suffered periods of crushing self-doubt, marital strife and—in a profession where there was room for only one Ric Flair—broken friendships. Ric Flair: To Be the Man, cowritten with Keith Elliot Greenberg, chronicles the anguish and exhilaration of Flair's life and career—in painfully honest detail. In addition to his own words, Flair's story is enriched by anecdotes from ring greats like Superstar Billy Graham, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, Harley Race, Sgt. Slaughter, David Crockett, Arn Anderson, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, "Mean" Gene Okerlund, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Undertaker and Brock Lesnar. To Be the Man traces the rise of one of wrestling's most enduring superstars to the pinnacle of the sports entertainment universe, and is a must-read for every wrestling fan.
Download or read book The Way To Live written by George Hackenschmidt and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2011-10-24 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Some trainers recommend to their pupils for the training of all muscle groups one and the same (light) weight and believe they are able to obtain the same effect by frequent repetitions. My experience has taught me that this is wrong, for the muscles of men or animals who are distinguished for certain feats of endurance are by no means over-developed. A long-distance runner or long-distance cyclist always has comparatively thin legs, as have a racehorse, stag, or greyhound. Nature does not act without aim and purpose. Hence there is a great difference between feats of endurance and feats of strength. One must consider that, although it is quite possible to enlarge muscles by certain light, prolonged exercises, at the same time the development of the sinews may be neglected, and it is the sinews which transport the action of the muscles to the bone xframe. The sinews can only be exercised and strengthened by correspondingly heavy muscle work. Besides, to take a paradoxical example, it is quite impossible to improve strong muscle groups, as, for instance, the hip muscles, with light-weight exercises. A further illustration of the fallacy of attempting to develop the muscles by frequent repetitions with the same light exercises may be found in a comparison with any and every other form of athletics, in which a man would never think of merely repeating his training programme. In order to improve himself either in pace or distance, he must set himself a steady progression of arduous effort". - George Hackenschmidt This is an original version, restored and re-formatted edition of Hackenschmidt's 1908 classic. Visit our website and see our many books at PhysicalCultureBooks.com
Download or read book Say Uncle written by Jake Shannon and published by ECW Press. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring the ancient Western martial art of catch-as-catch-can grappling, this definitive book covers the history, players, and strategies of the sport. Rich in history and full of painfully brutal techniques, catch-as-catch-can, or catch wrestling for short, is the great-grandfather of today’s mixed martial arts, professional wrestling, freestyle wrestling, and many reality-based self-defense systems. Say Uncle! includes explanations of the methods of catch-as-catch and is accompanied by clear illustrations that show how to use them most effectively, and the background of this unique sport is traced through America, Japan, England, and Ireland. Full of exclusive interviews with legends such as Karl Gotch, Billy Robinson, and Josh Barnett, this guide brings together all aspects of this little-known sport that is the root of modern MMA and professional wrestling.
Download or read book A History of the Brain written by Andrew P. Wickens and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2014-12-08 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A History of the Brain tells the full story of neuroscience, from antiquity to the present day. It describes how we have come to understand the biological nature of the brain, beginning in prehistoric times, and progressing to the twentieth century with the development of Modern Neuroscience. This is the first time a history of the brain has been written in a narrative way, emphasizing how our understanding of the brain and nervous system has developed over time, with the development of the disciplines of anatomy, pharmacology, physiology, psychology and neurosurgery. The book covers: beliefs about the brain in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome the Medieval period, Renaissance and Enlightenment the nineteenth century the most important advances in the twentieth century and future directions in neuroscience. The discoveries leading to the development of modern neuroscience gave rise to one of the most exciting and fascinating stories in the whole of science. Written for readers with no prior knowledge of the brain or history, the book will delight students, and will also be of great interest to researchers and lecturers with an interest in understanding how we have arrived at our present knowledge of the brain.
