Razzano

Virginia Tech's Shayne Graham trots onto the field at West Virginia on November 6, 1999, with two thoughts in his mind. One is a missed field goal that would have beaten Miami a year earlier. The other is the 44-yard field goal he is about to try against the Mountaineers, a kick he must make if the Hokies are to stay unbeaten and on track for a national championship. Head down, he focuses on his mark as the ball is snapped. He steps forward, the dream of an entire team resting with his leg.Now, hear Graham's memory of that kick in his own words, for the first time. Game of My Life: Virginia Tech celebrates the extraordinary football and basketball moments that have shaped the college's rich athletic heritage. Through interviews with some of the school's most prestigious athletes, Hokies fans can relive the big games that defined the school's winning tradition.Carroll Dale, later a fixture with the Green Bay Packers, dove-arms outstretched-to haul in a crucial two-point conversion in a 1957 game against the University of Richmond. Les Henson shot from the baseline-the other baseline-as the clock neared zero against Florida State in 1980. Chris Smith went well beyond the "double-double" standard for points and rebounds. How about 30 and 31 against Marshall in 1959? Corey Moore made life miserable for Clemson quarterback Brandon Streeter one night in 1999. Bruce Smith did the same for Duke quarterback Ben Bennett in 1983. The Hokies' Jim Pyne, meanwhile, made sure Syracuse's Kevin Mitchell didn't do the same to Tech quarterback Maurice DeShazo in 1993.Carlos Dixon, Mike Imoh, Andre Davis, Dell Curry, Bryan Still, Don Strock, Bryan Randall-all the Tech greats from the gridiron and hardwoodare in these pages, including coach Frank Beamer. Join thousands of Virginia Tech fans in remembering these cherished stories. For the athletes within, these truly were the games of their lives.

In the first biography in English of the great Argentinian tango singer Carlos Gardel (1890-1935), Collier traces his rise from very modest beginnings to become the first genuine “superstar” of twentieth-century Latin America. In his late teens, Gardel won local fame in the barrios of Buenos Aires singing in cafes and political clubs. By the 1920s, after he switched to tango singing, the songs he wrote and sang enjoyed instant popularity and have become classics of the genre. He began making movies in the 1930s, quickly establishing himself as the most popular star of the Spanish-language cinema, and at the time of his death Paramount was planning to launch his Hollywood career. Collier's biography focuses on Gardel's artistic career and achievements but also sets his life story within the context of the tango tradition, of early twentieth-century Argentina, and of the history of popular entertainment.