Books like Triumph by Jeremy Schaap

A true‑story chronicle of the University of Washington’s 1936 eight‑oar crew, whose perseverance and teamwork led them to Olympic gold amid the Great Depression and the rise of Nazi Germany.

An inside look at a single season of the Portland Trail Blazers, revealing the dynamics of stars, salaries, media, fans, ethics, drugs, and racial tension in professional basketball.

Seabiscuit, a 1938 racehorse with crooked legs and a simple tail, rose from obscurity to legend thanks to a determined trainer, owner, and jockey who transformed him into a champion.

As one family's appreciation for athletic competition is passed through generations, the Olympics become a good place to find a teammate for life. In 1896, at the first modern games in Athens, Henri and Sophia face a battle of prejudices. Will they cross the finish line together? Dameon hopes the 1932 winter games in Lake Placid, New York, will earn him financial gold, but could his real prize be in new friendships? Bonnie is running in the 1960 summer games of Rome, while Preston's dreams of racing have been dashed. Can they still be winners in love? Calgary, site of the 1988 Winter Olympics, is a place for realizing dreams. Can Brian and Sophie unite their aspirations to reach for an even greater prize? When shared interests are not enough to sustain love, will faith step in to raise the flag of victory?

This book "is the quintessential story of the American family: how Vince Lombardi, the son of an immigrant Italian butcher, rose to the top, and how his character and will to prevail transformed him, his wife, his children, his players, his sport, and ultimately the entire country. It is also a vibrant football story as well as a study of national myths and an absorbing account of mythmakers"--Dust jacket.

Recounts the story of the Olympics held in Berlin in 1936, and how the Nazis attempted to turn the games into a propaganda tool for their cause.

In 1936, Adolf Hitler welcomed the world to Berlin to attend the Olympic Games. Visitors from all over the globe came to see not only a magnificent sporting event, but also a showcase for the newly rebuilt Germany. No effort was spared to present the Third Reich as the world's newest power. Swastikas fluttered next to the Olympic rings from the balconies of freshly painted buildings. Butter was hoarded weeks in advance in order to convince visitors that there were no shortages. There was even a pause in the implementation of anti-Semitic measures. But beneath the surface, the Games of the Eleventh Olympiad of the Modern Era came to act as a crucible for the dark political forces that were gathering to threaten the world.The 1936 Olympics were nothing less than the most political sporting event of the last century. Far from being a mere meeting of sportsmen and-women, it was an epic clash between proponents of barbarism and those of civilization, both of whom tried to use the Games to promote their own values. Berlin Games is the complete history of those fateful two weeks in August that would foreshadow the bloody conflict soon to come. It is the story of the athletes, from their often humble beginnings to the glory of the Olympic Stadium. It is also an eye-opening tale of the Nazi machine that attempted to use the Games as a model of Aryan superiority and fascist efficiency. Furthermore, it is a devastating indictment of the manipulative figures—including politicians, diplomats, and Olympic officials—who vied for power and glory in different sorts of games whose results would have profound consequences for the world.Drawing on original research and interviews with surviving participants from all over the world, Walters has produced a history filled with intrigue, sport, sex, and infamy. Berlin Games is a definitive and remarkable record of a time that still fascinates and haunts us to this day.

THE MASTER PLAN is a groundbreaking history of a little known Nazi SS archeological research institute, the Ahnenerbe, and the key role it played in the Holocaust. The Ahnenerbe was the brainchild of Himmler, the Reichsfuhrer SS and architect of the Final Solution, who was intensely interested in Germany’s ancient past. His intent was not only to rewrite the history of what he and others termed the “Aryan Race,” but also to use that mythic past to shape a more glorious future for Germany. While attempting to prove that Aryans were responsible for all of civilization’s greatest achievements, he also hoped to use tall, blond-haired SS men as stock to breed future generations of Germans in a racially purer mold. In the tradition of Hitler’s Willing Executioners, THE MASTER PLAN is also an expose of the work of German scientists and scholars who allowed their research to be used to justify extermination, and who, in some cases, directly participated in the slaughter—many of whom resumed their academic positions at war’s end. Intensely compelling and exhaustively researched, THE MASTER PLAN is based on extensive personal interviews and previously ignored archival material.

A comprehensive biography that charts Michael Jordan’s rise to basketball legend and examines the people, teams, and commercial forces that shaped him.