They are the Forgotten Figures! They came from Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas, and the United Kingdom and showed America how to play soccer. They exhibited highly technical skills of the game, taught the youths in communities across the USA and Canada, and were their role models. They crusaded the game's uniqueness and its beauty. They were the black pioneers of the (original) North American Soccer League (1968–'84). Among them were the first MVPs of the league and the very first NASL Rookie of the Year; they were among the leading scorers and led their teams to NASL titles. In the process, they played a significant role in making the NASL a world–respected league, which led to the 1994 World Cup in the USA and now the successful MLS. Their efforts made soccer an American sport, and among them were Alberto, Archibald, Auguste, Best, Cannon, Charles, Coker, Cole, Cubillas, Cummings, David, De Leon, Eusebio, Evans, Fowles, Gamaldo, Grell, Horne, Horton, Ingram, Kapengwe, Knight, Lamptey, Largie, Lewis, Lichaba, Lindsay, Mathieu, Mfum, Mokgojoa, Motaung, Mwila, Ntsoelengoe, Odoi, Pearce, Phillips, Sanon, Scott, Sono, St. Lot, St. Vil, St. Vil, Steadman, Valentine, Welch, Welch, Whalen, and Pele. It all started with them; now they will be forgotten no more. This book is their tribute!

They are the Forgotten Figures! They came from Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas, and the United Kingdom and showed America how to play soccer. They exhibited highly technical skills of the game, taught the youths in communities across the USA and Canada, and were their role models. They crusaded the game's uniqueness and its beauty. They were the black pioneers of the (original) North American Soccer League (1968-'84). Among them were the first MVPs of the league and the very first NASL Rookie of the Year; they were among the leading scorers and led their teams to NASL titles. In the process, they played a significant role in making the NASL a world-respected league, which led to the 1994 World Cup in the USA and now the successful MLS. Their efforts made soccer an American sport, and among them were Alberto, Archibald, Auguste, Best, Cannon, Charles, Coker, Cole, Cubillas, Cummings, David, De Leon, Eusebio, Evans, Fowles, Gamaldo, Grell, Horne, Horton, Ingram, Kapengwe, Knight, Lamptey, Largie, Lewis, Lichaba, Lindsay, Mathieu, Mfum, Mokgojoa, Motaung, Mwila, Ntsoelengoe, Odoi, Pearce, Phillips, Sanon, Scott, Sono, St. Lot, St. Vil, St. Vil, Steadman, Valentine, Welch, Welch, Whalen, and Pele. It all started with them; now they will be forgotten no more. This book is their tribute!

Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2014 Spectator sport is living, breathing, non-stop theatre for all. Focusing on spectator sports and their accompanying issues, tracing their origins, evolution and impact, inside the lines and beyond the boundary, this book offers a thematic history of professional sport and the ingredients that magnetise millions around the globe. It tells the stories that matter: from the gladiators of Rome to the runners of Rift Valley via the innovator-missionaries of Rugby School; from multi-faceted British exports to the Americanisation of professionalism and the Indianisation of cricket. Rob Steen traces the development of these sports which captivate the turnstile millions and the mouse-clicking masses, addressing their key themes and commonalities, from creation myths to match fixing via race, politics, sexuality and internationalism. Insightful and revelatory, this is an entertaining exploration of spectator sports' intrinsic place in culture and how sport imitates life – and life imitates sport.

Journalist Ian Plenderleith's Rock 'n' Roll Soccer presents the raucous history of the hype and chaos surrounding the rapid rise and cataclysmic fall of the NASL. The North American Soccer League - at its peak in the late 1970s - presented soccer as performance, played by men with a bent for flair, hair and glamour. More than just Pelé and the New York Cosmos, it lured the biggest names of the world game like Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer, Eusebio, Gerd Müller and George Best to play the sport as it was meant to be played-without inhibition, to please the fans. The first complete look at the ambitious, star-studded NASL, Rock 'n' Roll Soccer reveals how this precursor to modern soccer laid the foundations for the sport's tremendous popularity in America today. Bringing to life the color and chaos of an unfairly maligned league, soccer journalist Ian Plenderleith draws from research and interviews with the men who were there to reveal the madness of its marketing, the wild expectations of businessmen and corporations hoping to make a killing out of the next big thing, and the insanity of franchises in scorching cities like Las Vegas and Hawaii. That's not to mention the league's on-running fight with FIFA as the trailblazing North American continent battled to innovate, surprise, and sell soccer to a whole new world. As entertaining and raucous as the league itself, Rock 'n' Roll Soccer recounts the hype and chaos surrounding the rapid rise and cataclysmic fall of the NASL, an enterprising and groundbreaking league that did too much right to ignore.

Lovingly nicknamed the Igloo, the Civic Arena was home to the Pittsburgh Penguins until 2010 and hosted some of the most important sports and entertainment events in Steel City history. During the glorious Mario Lemieux era, the venue hosted four Stanley Cup Finals, including three championship-winning seasons. Muhammad Ali KO'ed Charlie Powell in 1963 there. It was home to Duquesne Basketball in the arena's early days and has hosted some of the University of Pittsburgh's most important basketball games as well. Some of the biggest acts in music history have rocked the Igloo's seats, including Elvis, the Beatles and frequent favorite, Bruce Springsteen. Join local sports and media writers as they recall the greatest moments in Civic Arena's storied history.

Soccer Made in St. Louis covers the history, playing styles, and evolution of the world's most popular sport in the nation's original soccer capital, St. Louis. Starting with the first reported game in 1875, the book details the teams, the players, and the organizers who brought home national championships at every level of soccer. Author and longtime St. Louis soccer writer Dave Lange tells the stories of those who took the game from the sandlots of St. Louis to soccer's biggest stage, the World Cup. From Harry Ratican, the first St. Louisan to gain nationwide soccer fame; to the six St. Louisans who led the United States to the biggest upset in World Cup history; to Lori Chalupny, who helped the U.S. Women's National Team to Olympic gold; the book covers the rich heritage of soccer in St. Louis and shows how the sport is woven into the fabric of the city's makeup.