Playing the White Man’s Games

By (author): Don Marks

Playing the White Man’s Games tells the extraordinary tales of Native American athletes who overcame tremendous obstacles to dominate the NFL, CFL, PGA, Olympic Games, NHL and professional wrestling. From ABC’s “Athlete of the Century” Jim Thorpe, whose track and field career began when he surpassed his college varsity high jump team in street shoes and climaxed with gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Olympic Games, before moving on to dominate NCAA and NFL football, major league baseball and 22 sports in all, including a national championship in ballroom dancing. To Billy Mills, who improved his best time by an unheard of 50 seconds to win the 10,000-metre Olympic race in “the greatest upset in Olympic history.” And Notah Begay III, a product of public courses and Navajo code talkers who won four PGA tournaments in his first two years on the pro golf tour. Sometimes referred to as the “forgotten American”, the fascinating stories of these colourful characters will make you recall Native American heroes with wonder and awe, not only for their exploits on the field of play, but for their efforts to preserve and enhance native history, culture and lifestyle with pride and dignity away from the competition.

AUTHOR

Don Marks

Playing the White Man’s Games expands on Don Marks enormous success with his first book, They Call Me Chief: Warriors on Ice (J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing, 2008). A multi-award-winning film-maker, Don has written and directed over 200 documentaries, television variety specials, music videos and drama/comedies which have won numerous major national and international awards. Don is a sportscaster, a regular contributor to the Winnipeg Free Press, a columnist with Troy Media and Editor of Grassroots News–Manitoba’s oldest and largest indigenous newspaper.

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Playing the White Man’s Games tells the extraordinary tales of Native American athletes who overcame tremendous obstacles to dominate the NFL, CFL, PGA, Olympic Games, NHL and professional wrestling. From ABC’s “Athlete of the Century” Jim Thorpe, whose track and field career began when he surpassed his college varsity high jump team in street shoes and climaxed with gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Olympic Games, before moving on to dominate NCAA and NFL football, major league baseball and 22 sports in all, including a national championship in ballroom dancing. To Billy Mills, who improved his best time by an unheard of 50 seconds to win the 10,000-metre Olympic race in “the greatest upset in Olympic history.” And Notah Begay III, a product of public courses and Navajo code talkers who won four PGA tournaments in his first two years on the pro golf tour. Sometimes referred to as the “forgotten American”, the fascinating stories of these colourful characters will make you recall Native American heroes with wonder and awe, not only for their exploits on the field of play, but for their efforts to preserve and enhance native history, culture and lifestyle with pride and dignity away from the competition.

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Details

Dimensions:

272 Pages
9in * 6in * 1in
1lb

Published:

September 20, 2014

Country of Publication:

CA

ISBN:

9781927922019

Featured In:

All Books

Language:

eng

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