Summary

The booming decade following World War II saw many advances in sports and the continued integration of people of other races into major sports leagues. A lanky Oxford University medical student broke the four-minute-mile record, the first African American won a U.S. Open singles title, and the color barrier broke in the National Basketball Association. 1950–1959, Second Edition explores this decade of sports, presenting full-color and black-and-white photographs and further resources for interested readers.

Highlights include:

• African-American players Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton, Chuck Cooper, and Earl "Big Cat" Lloyd break the color barrier in the National Basketball Association in 1950
• Bobby Thomson hits "the shot heard round the world" to win the 1951 National League pennant for the New York Giants
• In 1954 Roger Bannister, a medical student at Oxford University, becomes the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes
• Boxer Rocky Marciano defeats challenger Archie Moore in 1955 to end his career as the undefeated heavyweight champion
• Althea Gibson becomes the first African American to win the U.S. Open singles title in 1957
• Alan Ameche and Johnny Unitas lead the Baltimore Colts to the 1958 NFL championship in "the Greatest Game Ever Played."

Specifications

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

About the Author(s)

Jim Gigliotti is a freelance writer and former editor at NFL Publishing. He is the coauthor of Baseball: A Celebration, Obsessed with Football, and several books on sports for young readers, including a biography of Olympic champion Jesse Owens

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.