The Game of Their Lives - Hardcover

Douglas, Geoffrey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805038752 ISBN 13: 9780805038750

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co, 1996

Synopsis

Presents the life stories of the eleven young immigrant strangers who joined together and went on to win the 1950 World Cup during a time before big TV deals and endorsement contracts, when their only inspiration was their love for the game of soccer.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

In the late spring of 1950, eleven young immigrants' sons, most of them strangers to each other, came together for the love and fun of a game. They came from Missouri, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York, from jobs in canneries, brickyards, post offices, classrooms, and bars, to play for their country in the 1950 World Cup, resulting in what has since been called, by scores of sources for more than forty years, the greatest upset victory in the history of American sports. But no one in America at the time paid attention. Their only public honor - roughly twenty minutes' worth - was from a throng of strangers in a Brazilian mining town. This is the story of the lives of these men: their jobs, wives, sweethearts, neighborhoods, the innocence of their era, the anonymity in which they worked and played. It is the story of heroism, stoicism, and simple unsung grace. Of a time before television, endorsement contracts, movie rights for serial killers, and seven-figure idols who denigrate us all. And ultimately - though it is not a sports story - it is the story of a game, played brilliantly. A single game of soccer, the greater game of life.

About the Author:

Geoffrey Douglas is the author of three earlier books of nonfiction--The Game of Their Lives: The Untold Story of the World Cup's Biggest Upset; Dead Opposite: The Lives and Loss of Two American Boys; and Class: The Wreckage of an American Family. An adjunct professor of writing at the University of Massachusetts, he lives in southern New Hampshire.

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt & Co
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0805038752
• ISBN 13: 9780805038750
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 146