Summary

The decade following World War I was known as the "Roaring Twenties," and sports were no exception, from Babe Ruth's fateful trade to the New York Yankees to a transcontinental footrace from Los Angeles to New York. Following this decade of letting loose was the more somber 1930s, a time of worldwide economic depression. Jesse Owens's four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics and War Admiral's Triple Crown win served as beacons of light for a downtrodden nation. Learn about these events, and many more, in 1920–1939, Second Edition.

Highlights include:

• Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sells Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1920
• Four powerful players on University of Notre Dame's football team are dubbed "the Four Horsemen" by sportswriter Grantland Rice in 1924
• The Harlem Globetrotters launch a basketball legacy in 1927
• The Transcontinental Race, a foot race from Los Angeles to New York, is run over 84 days in 1928
• One of football's most celebrated coaches, Knute Rockne of University of Notre Dame, dies in a plane crash in 1931
• Babe Didrikson, one of the greatest female athletes of all time, wins two gold medals and a silver medal at the 1932 Olympics
• African-American athlete Jesse Owens wins four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, striking a blow against Nazi racism
• War Admiral wins the Triple Crown in 1937.

Specifications

Full-color and black-and-white photographs. Sidebars. Resources. Index.

About the Author(s)

James Buckley Jr. is one of America's most successful children's writers, with more than 60 books on sports for young readers. His books include Eyewitness Baseball, Sports Immortals, The Scholastic Ultimate Guide to Football, two volumes of The Scholastic Book of Lists, and Treasures of the NFL. He has also written biographies of Serena and Venus Williams, Muhammad Ali, Bill Bradley, Roberto Clemente, and Lou Gehrig. A former editor at Sports Illustrated and NFL Publishing, he is also the editor of Chelsea House's Sports in America set.

John Walters wrote for many years for Sports Illustrated and authored the books Basketball for Dummies with Digger Phelps; The Same River Twice, about University of Connecticut's women's basketball; and Notre Dame Golden Moments. He had a blog about Notre Dame football during the 2009 season and has also written several other books on sports for young readers.

Series foreword author Larry Keith is former assistant managing editor of Sports Illustrated. He is a creator of SI Kids and was the editor of the official Olympic programs in 1996, 2000, and 2002. He is a former adjunct professor of sports journalism at Columbia University and is a member of the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame.