Bøger af John Grasso

Wrestling as a legitimate contest is one of the oldest, if not the oldest form of sport. There are cave drawings depicting memorable matches in France, which are over 15,000 years old. Egyptian and Babylonian reliefs depict wrestling bouts where wrestlers are using most of the holds known to the modern-day sport. Wrestling was also a big part of ancient Greek literature and legend and historical records of sport indicate that wrestling under various sets of rules was contested at the Ancient Olympic Games in Greece. Today's modern wrestling is a form of sports entertainment in which highly skilled athletes enact wrestling matches in such a way so that their opponents do not get hurt and the matches endings are scripted (although the audience is not aware of the script).This Historical Dictionary of Wrestling covers the history of Wrestling through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 600 cross-referenced entries on important amateur and professional wrestling, wrestling personalities, announcers, managers and promoters from all eras, and wrestling organizations. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the sport of Wrestling.

Boxing is one of the oldest sports in the world, reaching back to the Ancient Greeks, although it has become popular only in the past century or so. But, in some ways, it is a rather complicated sport since to avoid unnecessary harm it has been endowed with rules to keep it clean, referees to see the rules are obeyed, and organizations to regulate the sport. Boxing was once largely amateur, although the professional bouts attracted the most attention, but now it is also an Olympic sport. And, over the years, there has been one champion after another who symbolized what boxing was all about, such Joe Louis, Mohammad Ali and Cassius Clay.Naturally, these champions are the focus of the Historical Dictionary of Boxing as well, and they have the biggest entries in the dictionary section, but they had to fight against someone and there are dozens and dozens of other boxers with smaller entries. More of these boxers come from the United States than elsewhere, but there are others from Europe, Asia and Latin America, and there are also entries on the major boxing countries as well. Plus entries on the rules, on the organizations, and on the technical terminology and jargon you have to know just to follow the bouts. The introduction provides a broad view of boxing's history while the chronology traces events from 688 B.C. to 2012 A.D. Not all that much has been written on boxing that is not ephemeral, but much of that literature can be found in the bibliography. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the sport of boxing.

The Historical Dictionary of Football covers the history of American football through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 600 cross-referenced entries on both amateur (collegiate) and professional players, coaches, teams and executives from all eras. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the sport of football.

The Historical Dictionary of Basketball is a comprehensive account of all forms of basketball-amateur, professional, men's, women's, Olympic, domestic, and international-from its invention in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith through the present day. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, an extensive bibliography, and over 600 cross-referenced dictionary entries on the people, places, teams, and terminology of the game.

The Historical Dictionary of Bowling contains over 500 cross-referenced entries on professional and amateur bowlers, bowling coaches, writers and other contributors to the sport of bowling; descriptions and results of major tournaments; terminology of the sport; chronology; introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography.