The Gods Of Sport

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Sport of the Gods" by Paul Laurence Dunbar. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

An exclusive collection of previously unseen images taken from the photo-shoots of the 'Naked for a cause: Australian footballers 2008/9' calendar, which was launched in Australia in September 2007 as part of a fundraising initiative in aid of 'The McGrath Foundation' - an Australian based charity.

The Christian Athlete is a gospel-centered guide that assists athletes who identify as Christians and are seeking to understand how to practically apply their faith to their sport. Athletes desire—and deserve—a more substantive expression of the Christian faith in the context of sport, but they don’t know what it looks like or where to turn to learn more. Author Brian Smith shares his story as an athlete and coach, and his experience working with high-level athletes in the last decade to help readers better understand how to integrate faith and sport by: Assisting those who want a wide-angled understanding of how to live the Christian faith in the context of sports Walking through the many questions Christian athletes ask about winning, losing, injuries, practice, and everything in between Moving Christian athletes from simply having clichéd spiritual sayings decorating their bodies or t-shirts to actually living out their faith through all the opportunities their sport offers them The Christian Athlete will show readers how to live out a biblical perspective on athletics and urge them to engage in the gifts they are given to glorify God whether they are the team MVP or riding the bench.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, proudly presents the original Olympics in all their sweaty, heroic glory. Like today, sports were a vital part of daily life in ancient Greece. "Games for the Gods" unearths the original traditions of athletics, highlighting both the fascinating similarities and the jarring differences between the ancient ways and our own. We might not be used to such Classical customs as associating athletic festivals with certain gods, seeing our athletes compete in the nude, or having them indulge in dirty fighting as accepted practice (then again...), but the excitement of competition, admiration for athletic skill, and adoration of champions--as well as several of the sports--are just as familiar to fans today as they were to the ancients. The Greek Games here come to life in a series of texts that explore the Olympics then and now, the origins of the games and various athletic events, and the ways in which the contests were prepared for and the victors honoured. With stunning illustrations of over 140 sculptures, vases, and coins, as well as photographs of modern athletes, "Games for the Gods" is a unique celebration of the Olympic spirit through the ages.

Sexy Australian football stars at the beach, on the open sea and under the shower.

First published in 1902, "The Sport of the Gods" tells the story of a black family forced to leave the South and face the harsh realities of life in a Northern city. A moving examination of the life of African-Americans post-emancipation, "The Sport of the Gods" represents a landmark in African-American literature that will appeal to those with an interest in this particular chapter of American history. Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet during the start of the 20th century. Born to ex-slave parents, Dunbar began writing at a very early age and had even published his first poems by the age of 16 in a local newspaper. Much of his work was written in the "African-American Vernacular" associated with the antebellum South, although he also employed conventional English in his novels and poems. Dunbar was among the first African-American writers to garner international acclaim for their work. Contents include: "The Hamiltons", "A Farewell Dinner", "The Theft", "From a Clear Sky", "The Justice of Men", "Outcasts", "In New York", "An Evening Out", "His Heart's Desire", "A Visitor from Home", "Broken Hopes", "'All the World's a Stage'", etc. Read & Co. Classics is proudly republishing this novel now complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.

Twelve interviews with Australian sports stars who are Christians in different churches, including charismatic, Uniting Church, Catholic and Anglican, telling of their careers and how their Christian experiences and values influence what they do. The players, in a wide range of sports, include Peter Warner, Tani Ruckle, Steve Lawrence and Craig Warren.

A beautifully observed narrative of American sport: character, grit, tragedy, unremarked heroism, and, always, the illuminating story behind the story. As a columnist for Time magazine, among many other publications, Tom Callahan witnessed an extraordinary number of defining moments in American sport across four decades. He takes us from Roberto Clemente clinching his 3,000th, and final, regular-season hit in Pittsburgh; to ringside for the Muhammad Ali–George Foreman fight in Zaire; and to Arthur Ashe announcing, at a news conference, that he’d tested positive for HIV. There are also little-known private moments: Joe Morgan whispering thank you to a virtually blind Jackie Robinson on the field at the 1972 World Series, or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar saying he was more interested in being a good man than in being the greatest basketball player. Brimming with colorful vignettes and enlivened by Callahan’s eye for detail, Gods at Play offers surprising portraits of the most celebrated names in sports. Roger Rosenblatt calls Callahan “the most complete sportswriter in America. He knows the most and writes the best."

That Americans take to sports with a spiritual fervor is no secret. Athletics has even been called a civil religion for how it permeates our daily lives as we chase our own dreams of glory or watch others compete. Few would deny our national devotion to sports; however, many would gloss over it as all of a piece. To do that, as William J. Baker shows us, is to miss the fascinating variety of experiences at the intersection of sports and religion—and the ramifications of such on a national citizenry defined, as Baker writes, “by the team they cheer on Saturday and the church they attend on Sunday.” With nods to modern and ancient history, Baker looks at the ever-changing relationship between faith and sports through vignettes about devout athletes, coaches, and journalists. Of Gods and Games offers an accessible entrée into some of the larger issues embedded in American culture’s sports–religion connection. Baker first considers two Christian athletes who have engaged sports and religion on fundamentally different terms: Shelly Pennefather, one of the dominant women’s basketball players of the late 1980s, who left the sport for life as a cloistered nun; and Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow, who has used his college and pro football careers as a platform for evangelizing. In discussing basketball coach Dean Smith (University of North Carolina) and football coaches Steve Spurrier (University of South Carolina) and Bill McCartney (University of Colorado) Baker looks at how each strove to honor faith amid sometimes complicated personal lives and ever-crushing professional demands. Finally, Baker looks at how faith inspired such sportswriters as Grantland Rice, who sprinkled his stories with religious allusions, and Watson Spoelstra, who struck a deal with God at his daughter’s deathbed (she recovered) and subsequently devoted his off-hours and retirement years to charity work.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.