Hockey S Wildest Season

The 1969-70 season marked a turning point in the history of the National Hockey League. The season began with a near fatality and it culminated on a steamy Sunday afternoon in Boston with one of the NHL's most iconic moments. In the interim, the 12 NHL clubs staged thrilling and memorable playoff races that were not decided until the final regular-season games were played. The three traditional powerhouse teams from the Original Six era faltered while former underdog clubs began to vie for top honors. Along the way, Boston's Bobby Orr made history by becoming the first defenseman to win the NHL scoring title, three aging veterans in Detroit combined to form the most effective forward line in hockey, and a rookie goalie, Tony Esposito, lifted the Chicago Black Hawks from the basement to a divisional championship. Told here are the numerous other wonderful, strange, and captivating incidents that made the fun, fascinating, and free-wheeling 53rd NHL season one for the ages.

A fascinating and immersive chronicle of hockey's original maskless warriors More than 400 stitches decorated Terry Sawchuk's face during his 16 years as a goaltender in the National Hockey League, the result of high-speed collisions and slapshots that whizzed directly at his skull. All in a day's work for an elite goalie of his era. Before facemasks became standard equipment in the 1960s and '70s, men like Sawchuk, Glenn Hall, and Jacques Plante— the first goalie to ever wear a mask in the NHL— put their bodies on the line in the name of hockey, enduring broken bones, damaged organs, and even psychological turmoil. In this thoroughly researched book, Rob Vanstone illuminates the stories of these intrepid warriors while examining how the goaltender position has changed throughout the decades. As masks evolved from ghoulish-looking creations not out of place in horror films to today's caged helmets with custom artwork, goalies' body positioning and tactics were similarly transformed along with NHL regulations.Told with charm and verve, this is an essential portrait of a uniquely brutal and harrowing chapter in hockey history.

From the beginning, hockey has captured our imagination and fueled our dreams. It has given us heroes whose names are Gordie, Bobby, and Wayne, and it has left us with memories that will last forever. Now, this lavishly illustrated book, based on "The Hockey News' collector's edition magazine of the same name, gives readers the ultimate tribute to hockey in the twentieth century. "Century of Hockey features: - An illustrated, year-by-year overview of the NHL's 83 seasons, and a look back at hockey's early era - The 40 greatest individual single-season performances in NHL history, beginning with Bobby Orr's legendary 1969-1970 season, as chosen by a panel of 20 hockey experts - A foreword by Bobby Orr, and a tribute to Orr by "Hockey News associate editor Bob McKenzie - "The Hockey News' All-Modern Era Team, made up of the greatest players and role players since the centre-ice red line was introduced for the 1942-1943 season - "The Hockey News' All-World Team, composed of the greatest players of all time who played their best hockey (or their entire careers) outside the NHL - A celebration of hockey's 13 torch bearers - from Cyclone Taylor to Jaromir Jagr, hockey's most decorated and influential players at each stage in hockey's history Filled with fascinating photographs and stats, treatments and tributes, "Century of Hockey is a complete, fabulous celebration of hockey in the twentieth century.

Annotation Famed for trying out a dazzling array of extreme sports as part of his weekend sport bulletin, few people are better placed than Mike Bushell to explain how, when, where and why you might consider joining the ranks of some of the world's most dedicated practitioners of activities with a high level of inherent danger. In this book, Mike describes everything you never knew you needed to know about shin kicking, elephant polo, worm charming, real tennis, swamp soccer, roller hockey and a whole raft of other wacky and bizarre sports.

The Professionalisation of Women’s Sport draws upon the expertise of a range of scholars from the fields of sport sociology, sport history, sport economics to critically discuss the complex and often fragmented histories of women’s involvement in professional sport.

Randall Balmer was a late convert to sports talk radio, but he quickly became addicted, just like millions of other devoted American sports fans. As a historian of religion, the more he listened, Balmer couldn't help but wonder how the fervor he heard related to religious practice. Houses of worship once railed against Sabbath-busting sports events, but today most willingly accommodate Super Bowl Sunday. On the other hand, basketball's inventor, James Naismith, was an ardent follower of Muscular Christianity and believed the game would help develop religious character. But today those religious roots are largely forgotten. Here one of our most insightful writers on American religion trains his focus on that other great passion—team sports—to reveal their surprising connections. From baseball to basketball and football to ice hockey, Balmer explores the origins and histories of big-time sports from the late nineteenth century to the present, with entertaining anecdotes and fresh insights into their ties to religious life. Referring to Notre Dame football, the Catholic Sun called its fandom "a kind of sacramental." Legions of sports fans reading Passion Plays will recognize exactly what that means.