"I can't separate what part of pro football is business and what part
is personal with me," he said. "I just know that it is very important
that I succeed." He had loved games as a young boy, had played them as
a young man, and now, as a naive but determined 27-year-old in the
summer of 1959, Lamar Hunt announced that he was going to launch a new
football league. What he couldn't possibly have known on that day was
that the forces of the entrenched National Football League would soon
be arrayed against him. The league would place its own team in his
hometown of Dallas, in direct competition with his team, and would
attempt to undermine the new league, trying on repeated occasions
before that first season to prevent the new American Football League
from ever starting. And what the NFL couldn't have known, but would
soon find out, was that Hunt, the mild-mannered, bespectacled son of
legendary oilman H. L. Hunt, had an indomitable will, and patience
beyond his years. Resolute and innovative, he successfully launched
the AFL and, seven years later, helped broker a merger deal, which
created the need for a championship game between the two leagues. Then
he came up with the name of the game--the Super Bowl. Never before,
and not since, has anyone with so many resources spent so much time
watching, participating in, and being captivated by the absorbing
ritual of sports and the suspended state of play. His accomplishments
would put him in the company of the other giants of American
sports--Charles C. "Cash and Carry" Pyle, Abe Saperstein, George
Halas, Branch Rickey, Red Auerbach, Pete Rozelle. Each was present at
a revolution. But Hunt, significantly, was present at a number of
revolutions. And he was the catalyst for each one. Before his death in
2006, Hunt revolutionized three different sports--pro football,
tennis, and soccer--winding up in the Hall of Fame of each. Written by
award-winning author Michael MacCambridge, Lamar Hunt: A Life In
Sports is the definitive and official biography of one of the 20th
century's most important and beloved sporting figures; the
soft-spoken, strong-willed man whose audacious challenge to the NFL
transformed the landscape of American sports, but only served as an
opening act to his epic sporting journey. Drawing on 50 years of
Hunt's personal papers and more than 200 interviews, author Michael
MacCambridge provides an intimate, original portrait of the man
forever captivated by these serious pursuits we call games.
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A Life in Sports
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781449424725
Publisert
2016
Utgiver
Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter