Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part 1. Hundred-Yard Warriors -- Chuck Bednarik: Concrete Charlie -- Walter Payton: The Poetry of Silence -- Terry Bradshaw: A Country Boy Can Survive -- Bear Bryant: A Win, and a Coach, for All Time -- Dan Hampton: A World of Hurt -- John Matuszak: Me and the Tooz -- The Other Side of the Story -- John Riggins: Runaway -- Dan Marino: A Kid Among Legends -- Joe Montana: Easy to Underestimate, Hard to Beat -- Gary Fencik: Boola! Boola! -- Part 2. Legends of the Box Score -- Willie Mays: Out of the Past -- Stan Musial: The Man, Forever -- Reggie Jackson: The Ego Is a Lonely Hunter -- Pete Rose: Pete Belongs in Cooperstown -- Nolan Ryan: On Second Thought -- Johnny Bench: Old Too Young -- Earl Weaver: The Earl of Baltimore -- Gene Mauch: The Toughest Loss of All -- Dick Allen: More a Ghost Than a Legend -- Frank Robinson: Hard Game, Hard Man -- Brooks Robinson: Honored To Be a Hero -- Ernie Banks: Mr. Cub Remembers -- Bill Veeck: "Bionic Man I'm Not" -- Carl Yastrzemski: Family Tradition -- Bill Lee: Spaceman -- Mark Fidrych: Bird with a Broken Wing -- Steve Bilko: The Slugging Seraph -- George Brett: Lipstick on a .407 Batting Average -- Willie Stargell: The Pirates' Patriarch -- Fernando Valenzuela: And a Rookie Shall Lead Them -- Jim Palmer: Good-bye Doesn't Come Easy -- Oscar Charleston: A One-Way Ticket to Obscurity -- Part 3. Hoops and Horses andEverything in Between -- Pete Maravich: The Pistol's Parting Shot -- Julius Erving: Sky King -- Larry Bird: The Ultimate Celtic -- Big House Gaines: No Way to Treat a Legend -- Al McGuire: Sunday's Jester -- Ben Wilson: Only the Good Die Young -- Wayne Gretzky: Borderline Case -- Jimmy Connors: Blue Collar at a Tea Dance -- John Carlos: The Olympic Ideal -- Johnny Kelley: The Elder.

Ron Turcotte: Rider Down -- Buddy Delp: The Happy Anarchist -- Bill Shoemaker: A Million for the Shoe -- Part 4. Arts and Letters -- Red Smith: The Write Stuff -- W. C. Heinz: The Professional -- A. J. Liebling: Joe -- Mark Kram: Poet and Provocateur -- F. X. Toole: One Tough Baby -- Part 5. Sweet Scientists -- Marvelous Marvin Hagler: The Proud Warrior -- Sugar Ray Robinson: He Gave Style a Name -- Joe Louis: Larger Than Life or Death -- Tony Zale: Raise Your Glass to a Teetotaler -- Paddy Flood: One of a Kind -- Sugar Ray Leonard: The One-Eyed Man -- Ray Arcel: A Touch of Class -- Roberto Duran: A Man of Stone -- He Cramped His Own Style -- Larry Holmes: His Time and No One Else's -- Muhammad Ali: No Garden Party -- Marching Off to Slaughter -- Ali! Ali! Ali! -- Source Acknowledgments.