The sports book has always had an uneasy place within the pantheon of literature. Often maligned by snobbish types as a form of low-brow reading, the industry itself isn't helped by the sheer volume of titles pumped out each year. It seems if you have laced up a pair of boots correctly or thrown a javelin more than 50m, you will be rewarded with a book deal at the end of your career – or sometimes before it has even really got started.
This is a world where we are 'treated' to a passage on a young Wayne Rooney cooking steak, chips and peppercorn sauce, or chapter upon tedious chapter telling us how clever Greg Norman is with business interests away from the golf course. Indeed, it is the rush to get something out in print when there isn't truly a story to tell that leads to these books heading straight for the bargain bin.
A new list of the 100 top sports books of all time has been compiled by Ross O'Connor, sports writer and contributor to MansionBet's Sports Blog. Below we have picked out five hidden gems from his ton of great reads covering the world of sport.
But there are some brilliant sports books out there, covering the spectrum of biography, autobiography, journalistic reporting and old-fashioned storytelling; from the dizzying heights of elite sport to the gritty slog at the bottom. Ross O'Connor, a sports writer and contributor to MansionBet's Blog, has painstakingly compiled a list of 100 great books from the world of sport. A fascinating and comprehensive read, his list contains many books you will have heard of and many more which you will have not. You can read the full list of the top 100 sports books here. But we have picked out five hidden gems from O'Connor's list:Dust Bowl Girls – Lydia Reader
© @allentownbuzz (twitter)
The very definition of a hidden gem, Dust Bowl Girls tells the story of a female basketball team in Depression-era America. The tale centres around coach Sam Babb, who went from farm to farm across 1930s Oklahoma recruiting young women to join his basketball team, the Cardinals. The book deals with many themes that remain recognisable in 2021: the fight for recognition of women's sport; finding hope in times of bleak economic hardship. But above all, it presents the kind of stranger-than-fiction narrative that only sports can provide.
Broken Dreams – Tom Bower
Published in 2003, Broken Dreams might seem somewhat out of date 18 years later. That's fair criticism, as some of the figures discussed in the book – Terry Venables, Ken Bates – seem like relics of football's past. Broken Dreams deals with shady finance in football, and the mismanagement of vast sums of money by those involved with the beautiful game. The book was supposed to act as a warning for football, but it seems the message went unheeded. For example, Bower highlights the growing influence of the sports agent in football, but even he might be surprised to see the power they wield today. Broken Dreams was a big deal when it was released, but it has an extra layer to it when read within the context of today's world of football finance. We should also point out that a revised edition of Broken Dreams was released in 2007.
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life – William Finnegan
© @BooklerORG (twitter)
We poured scorn over Wayne Rooney's steak and chips paragraph earlier, but one of the criticisms thrown at sports books is that the writing – or ghost-writing – often isn't very good. That's not the case here, as William Finnegan is one of the finest writers in the world today. The New Yorker journalist describes his love of surfing and how it has captivated him since childhood. It's been described as "a memoir of an obsession, a complex enchantment". For Finnegan, it's more than a sport. Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 2016. You can see why – it's a masterpiece.
Full Time: The Secret Life of Tony Cascarino – Paul Kimmage
© @myfootballbooks (twitter)
Perhaps hidden gem isn't the right term for Paul Kimmage's warts-and-all portrayal of Tony Cascarino as the book remains venerated more than two decades after its release. But if you are a football fan and haven't read it, you should. Kimmage's book was one of the first football biographies to really pull back the veil on the life of the person behind the persona of the modern footballer. Praised for its "searing honesty", it is not a study of a footballer, but a flawed man who happens to play football for a living. Like Tony Adam's Addicted (with Ian Ridley), other books written beforehand laid bare the notion that footballers could be vulnerable. But few before, or since, have matched the sense of a character study carried out by Paul Kimmage in The Secret Life of Tony Cascarino.
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson – Geoffrey C. Ward
© @Bdwal359 (twitter)
A biography on the life and career of Jack Johnson, the world's first African-American heavyweight boxing champion, Unforgiveable Blackness is the story of one man's fight – literally at times – against the racism of Jim Crow-era America. Johnson's tale is incredible, but Geoffrey C. Ward does well not to put the boxer on a pedestal. That Johnson survived hardship and heinous oppression is clear, and his opposition admirable. But he too was flawed, and that makes the book compelling. If you aren't a keen reader, you can watch the documentary on Unforgivable Blackness released in 2005. Directed by the legendary documentary-maker, Ken Burns, the two-part series won several Emmys and features Samuel L. Jackson and Alan Rickman in voiceover roles.
