Arcadia Public Library

A biography of Native American athlete Jim Thorpe, focusing on his early athletic career.

The first comprehensive biography of the legendary figure who defined excellence in American sports: Jim Thorpe, arguably the greatest all-around athlete the United States has ever seen.

Describes the life of the sharecroppers' son who became an Olympic legend and challenged Hitler's dream of Aryan superiority.

Jim Thorpe rose to world fame as a mythic talent who excelled at every sport. He won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, was an All-American football player at the Carlisle Indian School, in the first class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and played major league baseball for the New York Giants. But despite his colossal skills, Thorpe's life was a struggle against the odds. As a member of the Sac and Fox Nation,...

The life and athletic career of Steven Holcomb, an Olympic bobsledder who hid his encroaching blindness from his coach, sled mates, and the public until he finally told his coach, who led him to a revolutionary treatment that restored his eyesight to 20/20.

A simple biography of the noted black track star who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

A look at the accomplishments of Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympic Games draws on interviews, family sources, and archival research to provide a portrait of a remarkable man in relation to the intrigues, controversies, and political machinations that took place.

Traces the world record-setting athlete's early childhood ambitions through her courageous final battle with cancer, covering such topics as her achievements at the 1932 Olympics and her later dominance in professional golf.

"On a May afternoon in 1943, an American military plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane's bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary sagas of the Second World War. The lieutenant's name was Louis Zamperini."--...