Hockey in Syracuse retraces the history of the eight professional teams that have taken the ice in Syracuse in six different leagues since 1930. Each team has its own colorful story, beginning with the Syracuse Stars of the International Hockey League. The "Twinklers" have the distinction of capturing the first Calder Cup ever awarded. Other teams included the Warriors (1951-1954), the Braves (1962-1963), the Blazers (1967-1977), the Eagles (1974-1975), the Firebirds (1979-1980), and the Hornets (1980-1981). The present-day Crunch brought hockey back in 1994 and have provided Syracuse fans with thrills on the ice ever since. Salt City teams have won four playoff championships and have set several all-time professional hockey records that still stand today. Hockey Hall of Famers from these teams include Keith "Bingo" Allen, Gord Drillon, Phil Esposito, Syd Howe, and Dave "Sweeney" Schriner. Syracuse truly has a rich hockey heritage.

It's off to Lake Placid for a tournament the team will never forget. Hockey, history and mystery come into play in an action-packed adventure as the youth hock- ey players experience their own little Miracle on Ice.

Leveling the Playing Field tells the story of the African American members of the 1969–70 Syracuse University football team who petitioned for racial equality on their team. The petition had four demands: access to the same academic tutoring made available to their white teammates; better medical care for all team members; starting assignments based on merit rather than race; and a discernible effort to racially integrate the coaching staff, which had been all white since 1898. The players’ charges of racial disparity were fiercely contested by many of the white players on the team, and the debate spilled into the newspapers and drew protests from around the country. Mistakenly called the "Syracuse 8" by media reports in the 1970s, the nine players who signed the petition did not receive a response allowing or even acknowledging their demands. They boycotted the spring 1970 practice, and Coach Ben Schwartzwalder, a deeply beloved figure on campus and a Hall of Fame football coach nearing retirement, banned seven of the players from the team. As tensions escalated, white players staged a day-long walkout in support of the coaching staff, and an enhanced police presence was required at home games. Extensive interviews with each player offer a firsthand account of their decision to stand their ground while knowing it would jeopardize their professional football career. They discuss with candor the ways in which the boycott profoundly changed the course of their lives. In Leveling the Playing Field, Marc chronicles this contentious moment in Syracuse University’s history and tells the story through the eyes of the players who demanded change for themselves and for those who would follow them.

A list of legends is significant not only for who makes the list, but who gets left off of it. If there are no obvious omissions, then the list of candidates was probably less than legendary in the first place. Not so in the case of the Syracuse University Orangemen. Calling roll on Syracuse’s all-time basketball greats can take up the greater part of a day. The school produced its first All-American, Lewis Castle, in 1912. More recently, Carmelo Anthony, one of the best freshmen to ever play college basketball, led the 2003 Orangemen to the school’s first NCAA championship. In between there were legends such as the incomparable Dave Bing, Roosevelt Bouie, and Louis Orr, who together formed the Louie and Bouie Show, along with names like Derrick Coleman, Sherman Douglas, Lawrence Moten, and John Wallace. Legends of Syracuse Basketball, now newly revised, features twenty-four players, one coach, and one special team. Of the players mentioned, seventeen played in the NBA. Within the book’s pages are stories straight from the legends’ teammates, their coaches, and the legends themselves.

In 1979, a group of women athletes at Michigan State University, their civil rights attorney, the institution’s Title IX coordinator, and a close circle of college students used the law to confront a powerful institution—their own university. By the mid-1970s, opposition from the NCAA had made intercollegiate athletics the most controversial part of Title IX, the 1972 federal law prohibiting discrimi nation in all federally funded education programs and activities. At the same time, some of the most motivated, highly skilled women athletes in colleges and universities could no longer tolerate the long-standing differences between men’s and women‘s separate but obviously unequal sports programs. In Invisible Seasons, Belanger recalls the remarkable story of how the MSU women athletes helped change the landscape of higher education athletics. They learned the hard way that even groundbreaking civil rights laws are not self-executing. This behind-the-scenes look at a university sports program challenges us all to think about what it really means to put equality into practice, especially in the money-driven world of college sports.

How a movie about minor league hockey became a box office hit-and an international cult classic Even thirty-odd years after Slap Shot's release, diehard hockey fans can still recite scenes of dialogue by heart, making lines like "putting on the foil" just common argot for the devoted. Yet many may be surprised to learn that the true story behind the making of the film is as captivating as the film itself. In The Making of Slap Shot, veteran sports writer Jonathon Jackson lets fans not only relive just how the film was made, but brings to light surprising facts (i.e., Al Pacino was the first choice for the role of Reggie Dunlop; almost every scene-even the absurd and unbelievable ones-depicts a real life event). With access to those involved in the making of the film, he brings to life some of the magic behind the creation of memorable scenes and characters, especially the Charleston Chiefs, one of the most popular fictional sports teams in history. Based on interviews with over 50 cast members, production staff, and anyone of note involved in the film's creation Destined to be a collectible and keepsake (along with the jerseys, bobbleheads, and other paraphernalia associated with the film), The Making of Slapshot is a must for fans eager to learn even more about their favorite film.