Stephen Brunt – författare

Hockey''s most famous voice, now in his own words.If you are a hockey fan, you know Bob Cole''s legendary voice.      He has done the play-by-play for some of hockey''s best-remembered games, including the Summit Series, Canada''s gold-medal game in Salt Lake City, and twenty years of Stanley Cup finals. The infectious excitement in his voice, his boyish love of the game, and his uncanny ability to anticipate the play have earned him the affection of generations of fans, induction into the Hall of Fame, and the unofficial title of best hockey broadcaster ever.     Now, for the first time, readers will see Cole at the centre of the story rather than watching it from the broadcast booth. We meet the young man growing up in Newfoundland in the years before it joins Canada. We see him talk his way into Foster Hewitt''s office and into his first job. And of course we see some of the most cherished players in the game backstage: on the plane back from Russia in 1972, rubbing elbows with Bobby Orr; in the hallway on the old Montreal Forum, running into Jean Beliveau; meeting young players like Steve Stamkos, who grew up listening to him on Hockey Night in Canada.      Written with the expert help of massively bestselling author and respected broadcaster Stephen Brunt, these stories come to life with the charm and detail of a conversation with Cole. They sound like Cole.      No one has been closer to the game over the years than Cole, and no one is more closely associated with all we love about the game than the man whose eyes we''ve seen it though. Now we will see so much more through those same eyes and in that unforgettable voice.

They won, they lost, they were scorned or cheered, but they got in the ring with the champ. Muhammad Ali through the stories of 15 of his opponents — an incredible cross-section that reveals Ali as never before. Every fighter who got into the ring with Ali shone brighter as a result; no life or career could be the same afterwards. Stephen Brunt, Canada’s most respected sports writer, has travelled to meet the men who fought Ali, opening a new perspective on the most famous man on the planet. They include great champions and “tomato cans”, no-hopers and a few men who beat Ali; by turns triumphant and tragic, hilarious, uplifting and angry, each tells a different story. Brunt speaks to men like Joe Frazier and Larry Holmes, who remember their titanic bouts with Ali with love and rancour. In 1963 Henry Cooper’s perfect left hook floored Ali — but he was saved by the bell and some ringside shenanigans. Cooper’s moment still helped make “ ’Ammerin’ ’Enry” into Sir Henry Cooper, while the little-known Jurgen Blin returned from facing Ali in Zurich straight to his job at a sausage factory.The men he fought can tell us about Ali the boxer as no-one else can. But they also saw Ali invent himself as a media personality before such a thing existed. They were there when Ali’s personality and courage, his controversial beliefs and his refusal to play the parts assigned to him, indelibly changed the United States and the world. Stephen Brunt has fashioned their stories into an engaging portrait of the man who remains a phenomenon.“That night I could have beaten Godzilla. I was that sure of myself. And in that kind of shape, I could have fought for fifty rounds, easy. I was just so cocky at that point. I knew before the bell rang, in my head and in my camp, that I was going to win the fight. . . . After the decision was announced, I went right to Howard Cosell and said, ‘What do you say now, Howard?’” -- Ken Norton“When Ali was down, I remember saying to my ringman Al Braverman, ‘Start the car, we’re going to the bank, we’re millionaires.’ And Al said, ‘You’d better turn around. Because he’s getting up, and he looks pissed off.’” -- Chuck WepnerFrom the Hardcover edition.

In the first ever anthology of its kind, Canada’s premier sportswriter — Globe and Mail columnist and author of the internationally acclaimed bestseller Facing Ali — brings together the best writing on sport in this country, with a strong contemporary flavour.It’s all here: classic reports on Canada’s great sporting triumphs, from Joe Carter’s World Series–winning home run for the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993 to the excitement of the back-to-back men’s and women’s hockey gold medals in Salt Lake City. Stephen Brunt gives an entire section to writers who, unlike those covering other beats, must work tightly by the clock, submitting their stories just as soon as the action for the day is over. But he has also chosen our best writers’ more thoughtful pieces on our national obsessions — such as Ed Willes on the WHA’s seven tumultuous years and Wayne Johnston on the Original Six — and a good sampling of the great sportswriters such as Trent Frayne, Peter Gzowski and Milt Dunnell. The net effect is an examination of the deep role sport plays in our lives and imaginations, in our sense of self and nationhood.Stephen Brunt has cast his net widely. He includes superb stories of lower profile Canadian sports such as wrestling and horse racing, even Monster Truck battles, and allows space for his own unequalled and unforgettable profiles of Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson, as well as his post-mortem on Ben Johnson’s fall from grace.Full of triumph and heartbreak, great writing and great passions — and a few wonderful surprises — this book will be essential reading for every serious sports fan.Including:• Ian Brown on the stud-horse business• Christie Blatchford on the 2003 Women’s Olympic Hockey Gold• Rosie DiManno on the Men’s• James Christie on Ben Johnson’s 1988 Olympic triumph in Seoul• Michael Faber on Pat Burns• Red Fisher on Lemieux and Gretzky at the 1987 Canada Cup• Trent Frayne on Canadian Open golf champ Ken Green deciding to play Sun City during apartheid• Bruce Grierson on Canada’s best squash player• Peter Gzowski on the Oilers with Gretzky• Tom Hawthorn on John Brophy’s last brawl• Brian Hutchinson on Owen Hart’s widow’s revenge• Wayne Johnston on the Montreal Canadiens• Guy Lawson on curling• Allan Maki on the 1989 Hamilton–Saskatchewan Grey Cup• Dave Perkins on the biggest home run in World Series history• Mordecai Richler on snooker’s Cliff Thorburn• Steve Simmons on Donovan Bailey• Mike Ulmer on Cujo’s charmand more…From the Hardcover edition.

The book that hockey fans have been waiting for: the definitive, unauthorized account of the man many say was the greatest player the game has ever seen.The legend of Bobby Orr is one of the most enduring in sport. Even those who have never played the game of hockey know that the myth surrounding Canada’s great pastime originates in places like Bobby Orr’s Parry Sound. In the glory years of the Original Six – an era when the majority of NHLers were Canadian – hockey players seemed to emerge fully formed from our frozen rivers and backyard rinks, to have found the source of their genius somehow in the landscape. Like Mozart, they just appeared – Howie Morenz, Gordie Howe, Maurice Richard and Bobby Orr – spun out of the elements, prodigies, geniuses, originals, to stoke the fantasy of a nation united around a puck.Bobby Orr redefined the defensive style of hockey; there was nothing like it before him. He was the first to infuse the defenseman position with offensive juice, driving up the ice, setting up players and scoring some goals of his own. He was the first player to win three straight MVP awards, the first defenseman to score twenty or more goals in a season. His most famous goal won the Boston Bruins the Stanley Cup in 1970 – for the first time in twenty-nine years – against the St. Louis Blues in overtime. But history will also remember Bobby Orr as a key figure in the Alan Eagleson scandal, and as the unfortunate player forced into early retirement in 1978 because of his injuries. His is a story of dramatic highs and lows.In Searching for Bobby Orr, Canada’s foremost sportswriter gives us a compelling and graceful look at the life and times of Bobby Orr that is also a revealing portrait of a game and a country in transition.So Bobby Orr could skate, he could stickhandle, he could fight when he had to. He could shoot without looking at the net, without tipping a goaltender as to what was coming. His slapshot came without a big windup, and was deadly accurate. Skating backwards, defending, he was all but unbeatable one on one. He could poke check the puck away, or muscle a forward into the boards. In front of his own net, stronger on his feet than his skinny frame would suggest, he wouldn’t be moved. But there was more…–from Searching for Bobby OrrFrom the Hardcover edition.

Renowned sportswriter Stephen Brunt reveals how “the Great One,” who was bought and sold more than once, decided that the comfortable Canadian city where hockey ruled couldn’t compete with the slushy ice of a California franchise.Bobby Orr’s career ended prematurely, with tears. Wayne Gretzky’s tears, unlike Orr’s, announced not an ending but another beginning. Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers had four Stanley Cup victories, but Gretzky may then have had other goals in mind.Beginning with his dad, Walter, and continuing with Nelson Skalbania, Peter Pocklington, Bruce McNall, Jerry Buss — and with the CBC’s Peter Gzowski as chronicler for the eager masses — the enormity of Gretzky’s talent attracted all sorts of people who were after a variety of vicarious thrills.From the Hardcover edition.

From celebrated author and sports journalist Stephen Brunt comes a beautifully illustrated, elegiac tribute to the Toronto Maple Leafs of yesteryear.     In 2006, Lewis Parker, an artist and illustrator, was disposing of some of his belongings from years before in preparation of a move. He and his friend Dennis Patchett were going through boxes, and anything that was deemed not worth saving was relegated to a roaring fire. As Lewis passed him box after box, Dennis would pitch them in the blaze, one after the other. Suddenly, he caught the words on a file folder: "Leafs 1965." Inside were photo negatives and contact sheets. "I think we should keep these," said Dennis.     In the fall of 1965, artist Lewis Parker received a call from Maclean''s magazine for a possible gig: accompanying a reporter to Peterborough to cover the Toronto Maple Leafs''s preseason training camp. Lewis would spend some time with the team, and shoot stills that would run alongside the magazine piece. Though it was a career departure, he agreed, and the result of his time spent with the Stanley Cup-winning team during the training camp before their last Cup win are within these pages: beautiful, visually arresting photography that captures the comraderie and purity of a time in hockey and Canadian history not seen since. With complete, unfettered access to the team -- many of the players from remote farms in the country, and none with agents -- and GM Punch Imlach, Lewis Parker''s photos (which, once the piece was cancelled by Maclean''s, were never used) reflect a wistful moment in time before the hockey league changed forever.     Accompanied by acclaimed writer Stephen Brunt''s essay on the ''65 training camp -- based on interviews with team members -- Leafs ''65 is the ultimate tribute to the Stanley Cup-winning Toronto Maple Leafs, to a forgotten era of hockey, and to a moment in Canadian history that will resonate with any reader.From the Hardcover edition.

This country and its people are made of the same hardy stuff that makes our game and our league. The Grey Cup has helped unite our country for 100 years now. And it has revealed us, built our pride and our sense of Canadianness in annual tributes to effort, sweat and toil. But what does 100 years of history and cultural relevance add up to? When we Canadians look at the Grey Cup, we see far more than a gleaming football trophy; we see a reflection of ourselves. After its first years as an amateur challenge cup, the Grey Cup would go on to be awarded to the best football team in Canada, with Western challengers traveling back east to fall at the hands of the more established Toronto teams. That is, until a group of frustrated Winnipeggers paid an enormous sum during the Depression to buy up star players and bring the cup west for the first time. Following this, the games became about the pride of the country, East versus West, the national identity fought over the gridiron, all chronicled dutifully by bestselling author Stephen Brunt. From the birth of the modern CFL in 1958, through the dynastic Edmonton Eskimos and into the nineties, attempted USA expansion, franchise re-birth in Montreal, 100 Grey Cups has it all: behind-the-scene anecdotes, never-before-seen photographs, and unprecedented access to the CFL archives. It is a must-have for all fans of this national tradition

Muhammed Ali cast a blinding light onto his sport, on the tumultuous times he in part initiated and on all of those who surrounded him. That includes the fighters brave enough to stand alone, across the ring from the greatest heavyweight champion of all time.Ali's own story has been told again and again, but the stories of those who faced him have, by and large, been ignored. For each, the moments alone with Ali changed their careers, changed their lives, and affected them for ever. Facing Ali tells the story of fifteen men from around the world, from famous names like Joe Frazier, Joe Bugner, George Foreman and Henry Cooper to lesser lights like Tunney Hunsaker and Jurgen Blin. Each man, many for the first time, tell their stories in their own words. With an updated introduction from author Stephen Brunt following Ali's death, the resulting book offers a unique perspective on what it was really like to fight him, and gives insights into the character of the most famous man on the planet.

Muhammed Ali cast a blinding light onto his sport, on the tumultuous times he in part initiated and on all of those who surrounded him. That includes the fighters brave enough to stand alone, across the ring from the greatest heavyweight champion of all time.Ali's own story has been told again and again, but the stories of those who faced him have, by and large, been ignored. For each, the moments alone with Ali changed their careers, changed their lives, and affected them for ever. Facing Ali tells the story of fifteen men from around the world, from famous names like Joe Frazier, Joe Bugner, George Foreman and Henry Cooper to lesser lights like Tunney Hunsaker and Jurgen Blin. Each man, many for the first time, tell their stories in their own words. With an updated introduction from author Stephen Brunt following Ali's death, the resulting book offers a unique perspective on what it was really like to fight him, and gives insights into the character of the most famous man on the planet.