20 Instant Replay
BY JERRY KRAMER AND DICK SCHAAP (1968)
After a publishing exec implored him to find the "football Brosnan" (see above), Schaap corralled Kramer, a literate lineman for Lombardi's Green Bay Packers. The book climaxes with Bart Starr's sneaking behind Kramer's block to win the Ice Bowl against the Cowboys.[Out of print][ New York Times best-seller]
21 Everybody's All-American
BY FRANK DEFORD (1981)
In this novel Deford captures the romance and pageantry of 1950s football at North Carolina, then shows how star halfback Gavin Grey and his beauty-queen wife struggle after the cheering stops. Deford's 1975 biography Big Bill Tilden is also highly recommended.[Out of print][Made into a movie][Authors with other list-worthy books]
22 Fat City
BY LEONARD GARDNER (1969)
Weighing in at a trim 189 pages, Gardner's tale meticulously depicts the seedy, second-rate boxing scene in Stockton, Calif., and the desperate but hopeful men who inhabit it. Many consider this and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird to be the best two novels by one-time-only novelists.[Made into a movie]
23 The City Game
BY PETE AXTHELM (1970)
The master prose stylist portrays parallel basketball worlds in New York City: Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks won the 1969-70 championship, and the playgrounds of Harlem, where stars such as Earl (the Goat) Manigault burned brightly but too briefly.
24 The Natural
BY BERNARD MALAMUD (1952)
The movie was a Mawkish Rocky-in-flannels, but the novel is a darker, more subtle tale of phenom Roy Hobbs, who loses his prime years to a youthful indiscretion, then gets a second chance. TIME called the novel (which ends differently from the film) "preposterously readable."[ New York Times best-seller][Made into a movie]
25 North Dallas Forty
BY PETER GENT (1973)
Gent was a cowboys receiver from 1964 to '68, so his darkly funny novel about a league rife with drugs and depravity left fans guessing. (Is Seth Maxwell really Dandy Don Meredith?) Also recommended: The Franchise, Gent's still-darker take on the NFL.[Out of print][ New York Times best-seller][Made into a movie][Authors with other list-worthy books]
26 When Pride Still Mattered
BY DAVID MARANISS (1999)
Pulitzer Prize winner Maraniss turns his attention to pro football's most acclaimed coach, Vince Lombardi, and skillfully reveals the complex man behind the legend. SI's review said it "may be the best sports biography ever published."[ New York Times best-seller]
27 Babe: The Legend Comes to Life
BY ROBERT CREAMER (1974)
This biography, which broke new ground with its voluminous research and unsentimental gaze at an American folk hero, is still considered the final word when it comes to separating Ruth fact from fiction, such as his alleged called shot in the 1932 World Series.
28 The Golf Omnibus
BY P.G. WODEHOUSE (1973)
Wodehouse's status as golf's Shakespeare, its master comedian and tragedian, is borne out by this collection of short stories in which golf and love are the two constants. "I doubt if golfers should fall in love," says one character. "I have known it to cost men 10 shots per medal round."[Authors with other list-worthy books]
29 About Three Bricks Shy of a Load
BY ROY BLOUNT JR. (1974)
Blount spent the '73 season following (and drinking with) the predynasty Steelers. (As the subtitle says, they were "Super but Missed the Bowl.") The stars are all here, but it's colorful second-stringers such as Moon Mullins and Craig Hanneman that make this an unforgettable romp.[Out of print]
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