Stephen Brunt

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 Orr

Searching for Bobby Orr

Contemporary Canadian Writing on Sports

The Way It Looks from Here

Hockey, Canada, and the Day Everything Changed

Gretzky's Tears

Brian Burke

A Life in Hockey

Burke's Law

Facing Ali tells the stories, each in his own words, of 15 boxers - from famous names like Joe Frazier, Joe Bugner, George Foreman and Henry Cooper to lesser lights like Tunney Hunsaker and Jurgen Blin. It offers a perspective on what it was really like to fight Muhammad Ali.

The Opposition Weighs in

Facing Ali

Bob Cole

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.

My Life On and Off the Air

Now I'm Catching On

Canadian Football League

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

This Is Our Game

100 Grey Cups

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 Wepner

15 Fighters, 15 Stories

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER The gruffest man in hockey opens up about the challenges, the feuds, and the tragedies he's fought through. Brian Burke is one of the biggest hockey personalities--no, personalities full-stop--in the media landscape. His brashness makes him a magnet for attention, and he does nothing to shy away from it. Most famous for advocating "pugnacity, truculence, testosterone, and belligerence" during his tenure at the helm of the Maple Leafs, Burke has lived and breathed hockey his whole life. He has been a player, an agent, a league executive, a scout, a Stanley Cup-winning GM, an Olympic GM, and a media analyst. He has worked with Pat Quinn, Gary Bettman, and an array of future Hall of Fame players. No one knows the game better, and no one commands more attention when they open up about it. But there is more to Brian Burke than hockey. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, and an accomplished businessman with hard-earned lessons that comefrom highly scrutinized decisions made at the helm of multi-million-dollar companies. And despite his brusque persona on camera and in the boardroom, he is nevertheless a father with a story to tell. He lost his youngest son in a car accident, and has had to grapple with that grief, even in the glare of the spotlight. Many Canadians and hockey fans knew Brendan Burke's name already, because his father had become one of the country's most outspoken gay-rights advocates when Brendan came out in 2009. From someone whose grandmother told him never to start a fight, but never to run from one either, Burke's Law is an unforgettable account of old beefs and old friendships, scores settled and differences forgiven, and many lessons learned the hard way.

Stephen Brunt

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