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The Baron and the Bear
- Rupp's Runts, Haskins's Miners, and the Season That Changed Basketball Forever
- Narrated by: Christopher Snell
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
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The Baron and the Bear
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Publisher's summary
In the 1966 NCAA basketball championship game, an all-white University of Kentucky team was beaten by a team from Texas Western College (now UTEP) that fielded only black players. The game, played in the middle of the racially turbulent 1960s - part David and Goliath in short pants, part emancipation proclamation of college basketball - helped destroy stereotypes about black athletes.
Filled with revealing anecdotes, The Baron and the Bear is the story of two intensely passionate coaches and the teams they led through the ups and downs of a college basketball season. In the twilight of his legendary career, Kentucky's Adolph Rupp ("The Baron of the Bluegrass") was seeking his fifth NCAA championship. Texas Western's Don Haskins ("The Bear" to his players) had been coaching at a small West Texas high school just five years before the championship.
After this history-making game, conventional wisdom that black players lacked the discipline to win without a white player to lead began to dissolve. Northern schools began to abandon unwritten quotas limiting the number of blacks on the court at one time. Southern schools, where athletics had always been a whites-only activity, began a gradual move toward integration.
David Kingsley Snell brings the season to life, offering fresh insights on the teams, the coaches, and the impact of the game on race relations in America.
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 507
From the moment these two players took the court on opposing sides, they engaged in a fierce physical and psychological battle. Their uncommonly competitive relationship came to symbolize the most compelling rivalry in the NBA. These were the basketball epics of the 1980s - Celtics vs Lakers, East vs West, physical vs finesse, Old School vs Showtime, even white vs black. Each pushed the other to greatness - together Bird and Johnson collected eight NBA Championships and six MVP awards.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great story; stilted delivery
- By Amazon Customer on 08-07-15
By: Earvin "Magic" Johnson, and others
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When the Game Stands Tall
- The Story of the De La Salle Spartans and Football's Longest Winning Streak
- By: Neil Hayes
- Narrated by: J. P. Linton
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 102
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 90
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 90
By 2002, The Streak - a historic 13-year run of consecutive wins by the Spartans, a high-school football team from Concord, California, that couldn't be beat - was still going strong. In this revised edition of When the Game Stands Tall, author Neil Hayes, who had unrestricted access to the De La Salle team, writes from the inside about the games, the players, and their visionary coach, Bob Ladouceur, who managed to amass the highest winning percentage in football history (.995) through standing for something greater than winning.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Great story and message but PAINFULLY detailed
- By AudioAddict on 03-21-15
By: Neil Hayes
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Sweetness
- The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton
- By: Jeff Pearlman
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 18 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 265
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 227
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 227
At five feet ten inches tall, running back Walter Payton was not the largest player in the NFL, but he developed a larger-than-life reputation for his strength, speed, and grit. Nicknamed “Sweetness” during his college football days, he became the NFL’s all-time leader in rushing and all-purpose yards, capturing the hearts of fans in his adopted Chicago.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Honest Accounting Of A Fascinating Life
- By RevInTampa on 08-19-15
By: Jeff Pearlman
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The Legends Club
- Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Valvano, and an Epic College Basketball Rivalry
- By: John Feinstein
- Narrated by: John Feinstein
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 412
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 380
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Story5 out of 5 stars 380
The riveting inside story of college basketball's fiercest rivalry among three coaching legends - University of North Carolina's Dean Smith, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, and North Carolina State's Jim Valvano - by the king of college basketball writers, number-one New York Times best seller John Feinstein.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An absolute must for college basketball fans
- By Hebern on 12-12-18
By: John Feinstein
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Play Their Hearts Out
- A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine
- By: George Dohrmann
- Narrated by: Emily Rose Speer
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 58
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
The NBA has returned to prominence on the backs of phenoms like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Garnett. The media promotes them, the shoe companies pay them, and America applauds. But how exactly do such players reach the pros? What do they give up to get there? And what happens to those who fall short?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing book, fantastic narration.
- By Randy on 11-03-10
By: George Dohrmann
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Pistol
- The Life of Pete Maravich
- By: Mark Kriegel
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 231
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 164
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 167
Pistol is more than the biography of a ballplayer. It's the stuff of classic novels: the story of a boy transformed by his father's dream and the cost of that dream. Even as Pete Maravich became Pistol Pete, a basketball icon for baby boomers, all the Maraviches paid a price. Now acclaimed author Mark Kriegel has brilliantly captured the saga of an American family: its rise, its apparent ruin, and, finally, its redemption.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Extremely Good!
- By steve on 12-12-12
By: Mark Kriegel
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That First Season
- How Vince Lombardi Took the Worst Team in the NFL and Set It on the Path to Glory
- By: John Eisenberg
- Narrated by: Pat Young
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 104
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 93
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 93
John Eisenberg's That First Season is the seldom-studied prequel to a phenomenal football career for Vince Lombardi and the Packers, drawing on exhaustive new research and interviews to tell an incredible ensemble tale of a team, a town, and their leader. The once-vaunted Green Bay Packers were a laughingstock by the late 1950s. They hadn't fielded a winning team in more than a decade and were close to losing their franchise to another city. They were in desperate need of a savior, and he arrived in a wood-paneled station wagon in the dead of winter from New York City.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Narrator should refund his fee
- By Brian W. Barton on 08-20-18
By: John Eisenberg
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Badasses
- The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden's Oakland Raiders
- By: Peter Richmond
- Narrated by: Barry Abrams
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 84
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 84
A book that explores the enduring legends of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden's Oakland Raiders, Badasses is the definitive biography of arguably the last team to play old-fashioned tough-guy football. Peter Richmond, co-author of the New York Times best seller The Glory Game, offers a fascinating look at the 1970s Oakland Raiders, led by colorful greats from another era.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Silver and Black
- By Kevin on 03-11-23
By: Peter Richmond
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Dream Team
- How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Changed the Game of Basketball Forever
- By: Jack McCallum
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 470
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 414
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 414
In Dream Team, acclaimed sports journalist Jack McCallum delivers the untold story of the greatest team ever assembled: the 1992 U.S. Olympic men's basketball team that captivated the world, kindled the hoop dreams of countless children around the planet, and remade the NBA into a global sensation. As a senior staff writer for Sports Illustrated, McCallum enjoyed a courtside seat for the most exciting basketball spectacle on earth, covering the Dream Team from its inception to the gold medal ceremony in Barcelona.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great insight into the great basketball team ever.
- By James O'Brien on 09-04-12
By: Jack McCallum
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Play by Play
- Calling the Wildest Games in Sports - From SEC Football to College Basketball, the Masters and More
- By: Verne Lundquist
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner, Verne Lundquist
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 63
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 63
Verne Lundquist's remarkable broadcasting career has placed him at the center of major sporting events in America for more than 50 years, from Jack Nicklaus' final victory at the 1986 Masters to Tonya Harding's attack on Nancy Kerrigan at the 1994 Olympics to the Auburn-Alabama shocker of 2013. In his first memoir, he replays highlights from his career, taking sports fans behind the scenes of some of the most dramatic moments in modern sports history.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Voice
- By Derek on 06-05-23
By: Verne Lundquist
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The Best Game Ever
- Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL
- By: Mark Bowden
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 136
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 56
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 56
On December 28, 1958, the New York Giants and Baltimore Colts met under the lights of Yankee Stadium for that season's NFL Championship game. Football was still greatly over-shadowed by the country's favored pastime - baseball - but the 1958 championship proved to be the turning point for pro football.
On the field and roaming the sidelines were 17 future Hall of Famers, including Colts stars Johnny Unitas, Raymond Berry, and Gino Marchetti, and Giants greats Frank Gifford, Sam Huff, and assistant coaches Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry.
The Best Game Ever is a brilliant portrait of how a single game changed the history of American sports.
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2 out of 5 stars
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What about the other team?
- By Smalls on 11-29-08
By: Mark Bowden
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Madden
- A Biography
- By: Bryan Burwell
- Narrated by: Mark Moseley
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 188
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 164
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Story5 out of 5 stars 165
Several years after his playing career was cut short by injury before it had a chance to really begin, John Madden was hired as an assistant coach by the Oakland Raiders, one of professional football's most iconoclastic franchises. Two years later he was named the team's head coach and proceeded to lead the Raiders to five championship games in his first seven seasons. Following years of heartbreaking losses in some of history's most memorable games.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Essential For Raider And Madden Fans
- By MovieGuy on 03-08-16
By: Bryan Burwell
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Dr. J Unabridged
- The Autobiography
- By: Julius Erving, Karl Taro Greenfeld
- Narrated by: Julius Erving
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 129
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 118
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 118
With his flights of improvisation around the basket and his towering afro, Julius Erving became one of the most charismatic (and revolutionary) players basketball has ever known. But while the public has long revered this cultural icon, few have ever known of the double life of Julius Erving. Dr. J traces the inner lives of the nearly perfect player and the imperfect man - and how he has come to terms with both.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I may overrate it, but I’m a hoops junkie!
- By @JWTheBlueprint on 01-29-14
By: Julius Erving, and others
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From the Outside
- My Journey Through Life and the Game I Love
- By: Ray Allen, Michael Arkush
- Narrated by: J.D. Jackson
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 271
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 242
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 243
The record-holding two-time National Basketball Association champion reflects on his work ethic, his on-the-court friendships and rivalries, the great teams he's played for, and what it takes to have a long and successful career in this thoughtful, in-depth memoir. Playing in the NBA for 18 years, Ray Allen won championships with the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat and entered the record books as the original king of the three-point shot. Known as one of the hardest-working and highest-achieving players in NBA history, he was legendary for his sharp shooting.
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3 out of 5 stars
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It wasn't bad, but I thought it would be better
- By Amazon Customer on 07-30-18
By: Ray Allen, and others
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Golden Days
- West's Lakers, Steph's Warriors, and the California Dreamers Who Reinvented Basketball
- By: Jack McCallum
- Narrated by: Jack McCallum
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 67
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 54
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
In Golden Days, acclaimed sports journalist Jack McCallum uses these two teams - the Jerry West/Wilt Chamberlain/Elgin Baylor Lakers and the Stephen Curry/Kevin Durant/Draymond Green Warriors - to trace the dynamic history of the National Basketball Association, which for much of the last half century has marched memorably through the state of California. Tying together the two strands of McCallum's story is Hall of Famer West, the ferociously competitive Laker guard who later became one of the key architects of the Warriors.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very interesting and fun to read
- By Joe on 06-12-18
By: Jack McCallum
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The Great Nowitzki
- Basketball and the Meaning of Life
- By: Thomas Pletzinger, Shane Anderson - translator
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 31
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 27
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
The seven-foot Dirk Nowitzki is one of the great players in basketball history. With a devastating fadeaway and unexpected agility, the Dallas Mavericks superstar helped to pioneer the modern three-shooting game and became a global ambassador for the sport. Award-winning novelist and sportswriter Thomas Pletzinger traveled with Nowitzki for more than seven years, seeking the secret of his success and longevity. In novelistic detail, Pletzinger tells the dramatic story of how a lanky kid from the German suburbs became a top-five all-time scorer and NBA champion.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Swish
- By Raquel on 04-20-23
By: Thomas Pletzinger, and others
What listeners say about The Baron and the Bear
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Hebern
- 03-24-17
The rest of the story
If you've seen Glory Road this is not only the rest of the story it also specifically corrects some of the things the movie changed. I really like how it traced both teams through the season and brought both coaches to life. Rupp was not the villain I had been lead to believe. Like a lot of great coaches in the South during this time period he was not in favor of his team being segregated if it put him at a competitive disadvantage. Whether or not he was racist is up for debate, but the book provides evidence that he wanted black players on his teams before the rest of the University wanted him to do it. Haskins was a great defensive coach, something that gets lost in the movie. Great sports book and a very good examination of race relations of the time. Two stories in one.
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