Football in the Akron-Canton area can be traced back to the 1890s with Buchtel College and John W. Heisman. In the early 1900s, multiple professional teams sprouted throughout the eastern Ohio region. Major powerhouses included the Canton Bulldogs, Akron Indians, and Massillon Pros. In 1920, the Akron Pros became the fi rst modern-day national champions of organized football. With the formation of the American Professional Football Association and the National Football League, many players and coaches with ties to the Akron-Canton region have become synonymous with football excellence. Today football in this area continues to play an integral part of life from the high school level to the college ranks to all types of professional football. Akron-Canton Football Heritage traces the rich and storied history of football in the region as well as the contribution of local players, coaches, and teams through pictures obtained from multiple collections. Football in the Akron-Canton area can be traced back to the 1890s with Buchtel College and John W. Heisman. In the early 1900s, multiple professional teams sprouted throughout the eastern Ohio region. Major powerhouses included the Canton Bulldogs, Akron Indians, and Massillon Pros. In 1920, the Akron Pros became the fi rst modern-day national champions of organized football. With the formation of the American Professional Football Association and the National Football League, many players and coaches with ties to the Akron-Canton region have become synonymous with football excellence. Today football in this area continues to play an integral part of life from the high school level to the college ranks to all types of professional football. Akron-Canton Football Heritage traces the rich and storied history of football in the region as well as the contribution of local players, coaches, and teams through pictures obtained from multiple collections.

Baseball has a strong presence in the Akron-Canton area dating back to its formative years in the late 1880s with such teams as the Akron Acorns (1887), the Akron Akrons (1890), and the Canton Nadjys (1889). In the 1920s, manufacturing companies such as Goodyear and Firestone fielded baseball teams that battled for local bragging rights and opportunities for players to make the big leagues. Along with these industrial leagues, professional baseball found its way to the Akron-Canton area with minor-league teams including the Akron Yankees (1935-1941), the Canton-Akron Indians (1989-1996), and the Akron Aeros (1997-). In addition to teams affiliated with major-league ball clubs, this area gave birth to independent teams such as the Canton Crocodiles (1997-2001), the Canton Coyotes (2002), and others. Besides professional baseball gracing local fields, nearby universities have storied baseball programs of their own. These schools have turned out such major-league greats as Eugene Michael, Thurman Munson, and 1980 Cy Young winner Steve Stone. Akron-Canton Baseball Heritage offers a unique look into the history of baseball in the region with historic and present-day photographs.

The sixteen original essays in this collection cover influential and famous rivalries from a variety of sports, including track and field, golf, boxing, basketball, tennis, ice skating, baseball, football, soccer, and more. The essays are diverse, but together they illustrate what is common to any rivalry: equally matched opponents that often have decidedly different backgrounds, styles, and personalities. These differences may center on race and culture, political and societal ideologies, personality, geography, or religion—a mix intensified by fans and the media. From highly publicized and emotionally charged individual competitions to bitterly fought team contests, Rivals illuminates what one-of-a-kind opponents and the passion they inspire tell us about ourselves and our society.

Covers the greatest players in college and pro football, including the inspirational stories of Pat Tillman and Tedy Bruschi.

As a star linebacker for the Cleveland Browns in the 1940s and 1950s, Marion Motley invented the modern concept of the fullback. In 1946, he and three other players broke professional football's color barrier, helping set the stage for Jackie Robinson's desegregation of Major League baseball in 1947. Retiring with five championships and the universal respect of his peers, Motley returned to ordinary life as a black man in pre-Civil Rights Act America. Because his career pre-dated nationally televised football, Motley's name is largely unknown today, when a figure of his stature would enjoy celebrity as a coach or owner. This first ever biography tells the story of the football player Sports Illustrated's Paul "Dr. Z" Zimmerman described as the greatest ever to take the field.