Beyond the Sports Huddle: Mona on Minnesota Review

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(More customer reviews)What a great group of stories about Minnesotans, especially sports personalities. Even if you aren't a sports enthusiast, the stories are engaging, clever and well written, This book is a great gift and will enable the reader to be a star in the office as they relate the fun anecdotes.

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If it happened in Minnesota sports in the last forty years, Dave Mona was there. Working the sports beat for print and radio, covering the big stories and the ones others missed, rubbing shoulders with the stars and introducing the rookies, Mona is a longtime fixture on the sports scene. Join Dave Mona as he revisits a lifetime of vignettes, each one a window onto Minnesota's sports world. As he recounts his days reporting on the Twins and the Gophers, sparring with Sid Hartman on their Sports Huddle radio program, and preparing his award-winning pregame vignettes for Gopher football, Mona takes readers behind the scenes to meet celebrities and characters like Hartman, Billy Martin, Rod Carew, Dave Moore, Halsey Hall, Molly Ivins, and many more. A wonderful story of life around the locker room, his book is also a portrait of a remarkable personality and a fascinating aspect of Minnesota's cultural world.

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Thirteen Women Strong: The Making of a Team Review

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(More customer reviews)I will admit I have not read this book, but Dr. Wallace is an awesome professor. And the Norse ladies rock... So buy this book now.

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In 1974, Nancy Winstel joined the women's college basketball team at Northern Kentucky University as a walk-on. She had little basketball experience, never having played on a high school team -- her high school didn't even have girl's basketball. Despite her inexperience, Winstel served NKU as a talented student athlete, but her legacy didn't end there. Appointed head coach at NKU in 1983, she gained a reputation as one of the most successful coaches in women's college basketball history with more than 500 wins. Winstel garnered these victories in an athletic landscape vastly different from the one she knew as an NKU undergraduate. Many of the student-athletes on her twenty-first-century squads have been playing organized basketball for most of their lives. In a post--title IX America, more women than ever are involved in team sports and their teams attract a large following of enthusiasts. NKU professor Robert K. Wallace, one of many passionate fans of the Norse, has brought his appreciation for the team's players and their accomplishments to Thirteen Women Strong: The Making of a Team. Chronicling the 2006--07 season of twelve remarkable student-athletes and their legendary coach, Wallace was granted unprecedented access to the team. Sitting in on closed meetings and practice sessions, he follows the players through grueling training drills, intensely close games, exhilarating wins, and anguished losses. During the 2005--06 season, a squad of NKU women with no seniors achieved unanticipated success, earning a 27--5 record that led to a Great Lakes Valley Conference championship. The entire team returned the following season to expectations of even greater success, but their 2006--07 season was plagued by injuries and other major obstacles. After a string of tough losses, the women mounted a comeback to earn a 21--8 record and reach the NCAA Division II Tournament once again. The team's story is one of loss, triumph, and personal growth. Thirteen Women Strong profiles each member of the team, including the coach. Wallace provides keen insight into the emotional and physical demands of high-level competition. Exploring the impact of Title IX legislation on women's collegiate sports with the critical eye of a scholar and the love of a fan, Wallace documents the story of how thirteen women faced high expectations and difficult trials to come together as a team, their growth culminating in the 2007--08 national championship. Thirteen Women Strong is a fascinating study of this dynamic group of female student-athletes and their renowned leader.

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