TRACK AND FIELD WRITERS OF AMERICA 

2018 Armory Foundation Book of the Year Selections

FIVE FINALISTS WILL BE ANNOUNCED APRIL 15, 2019

THE WINNER ANNOUNCED JUNE 7, 2019, IN AUSTIN, TEXAS, DURING THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS 

(TAFWA Release) 2018 was a vibrant year for Track and Field writing. Our selections range from biography, memoir, history and theory to training and whimsey. 

We follow Joe Dial vaulting onto the pages in a memoir/diary THE SKY'S THE LIMIT. The story of an undersized athlete reaching great heights while having fellow Oklahoma State star Garth Brooks practice his singing on the team bus after throwing the javelin at a meet. 

THE TRACK IN THE FOREST is the story of the high-altitude preparations for the 1968 Olympic team that would compete in Mexico City surrounded by controversy and social revolution. 

THE INSIDE TRACK, by and about Fordham Ram Tom Courtney, a New Jersey kid from an athletic family of baseball players and boxers competing in the race of gladiators--the 800 meters. Finding not only gold, but a place in life, he passes on the knowledge of a lifetime of competing, investing and raising a family. 

THE WIZARD OF FOZ is the incredible story of how a high school sophomore who perfected a new style and technique brought high jumping to a higher level. 

There is more to Deena Kastor than overcoming physical challenges. In her memoir LET YOUR MIND RUN she lets us into her dynamic of thinking her way to victory. 

ELIUD KIPCHOGE: HISTORY’S FASTEST MARATHONER opens the door to the Kenyan lifestyle that has produced so many world-class runners. 

Rod Milburn’s glorious and tragic life is told in A HURDLER’S HURDLER where the hypocrisy of the sport’s bureaucracy kept athletes down. 

Then there is BORN TO RUN, not that one, but the LEON COLEMAN STORY and being the best you can be while surrounded by the best. 

THE INCOMPLETE BOOK OF RUNNING by Peter Sagal is complete in all the elements of great writing about exceptional blue-collar running, and juggling work, family and the daily demands of life. And who knows, by nominating Sagal, the host of NPR’s “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me” show,  he might mention on radio that TAFWA stands for TRACK AND FIELD WRITERS OF AMERICA! 

ENDURE is just that, as Alex Hutchinson escorts us to the peak of performance without destroying our minds or bodies. 

TIGERBELLE: The Wyomia Tyus Story tells about this wonderful Olympian, coached by another legend, Ed Temple, in a time of women riding in the caboose of athletic history. 

THE IRISH-AMERICAN ATHLETIC CLUB OF NEW YORK is the story of the Winged Fist in turn-of-the-century New York. It is astounding how a tribe of Irish athletes came together outside the closed doors of New York society and became the best in the world. Winning Olympic gold and setting National records with a team of New York City cops, and embracing a membership that included Jews, blacks and anyone else who had to use the Servants entrance to the American dream. 

While Kenya has its Rift Valley, why so many runners come from the town of Spokane in Washington State is answered by Peter Hawkins in VARSITY SEVEN. 

WHEN RUNNING MADE HISTORY by Roger Robinson takes us around the world and back to the heart of running America with insight, history and social change. 

In conclusion, this year we make special mention of a book that doesn’t meet the requirements for 2018 TAFWA Best Book since it was published in 2017. RUNNER IN RED by Tom Murphy is a mystery/thriller of a woman reportedly seen running the Boston Marathon before Kathrine Switzer. 

 

TRACK AND FIELD WRITERS OF AMERICA 2018 BEST BOOK SELECTIONS 

THE SKY’S THE LIMIT--The Joe Dial Story

By Doug Eaton with Joe Dial

Gold Medal Publishing-Tulsa, OK 2018

 

THE TRACK IN THE FOREST

The Creation Of A Legendary 1968 US Olympic Team

By Bob Burns

Chicago Review Press-Chicago, 2018

 

THE INSIDE TRACK, Tom Courtney

By Tom Courtney

Page Publishing-New York, 2018

 

TIGERBELLE: The Wyomia Tyus Story

By Wyomia Tyus and Elizabeth Terzakis

Akashic Books-Kindle 2018

 

THE WIZARD OF FOZ

Dick Fosbury’s One-Man High Jump Revolution

By Bob Welch with Dick Fosbury

Skyhorse Publishing-New York, 2018

 

A HURDLER’S HURDLER

The Life Of Rodney Milburn, Olympic Champion

By Steven MaGill

McFarland and Co.-N.C., 2018

 

THE UNIVERSITY OF NIKE

How Corporate Cash Bought Higher Education

By Joshua Hunt

Melville House-Brooklyn, London 2018

 

LET YOUR MIND RUN

A Memoir of Thinking My Way to Victory

By Deena Kastor and Michelle Hamilton

Crown Publishing; New York, 2018

 

ELIUD KIPCHOGE: HISTORY'S FASTEST MARATHONER:

An Insight Into Kenyan Life That Shapes Legends

By Tait Hearps, Matt Ingless Fox

Published Independently 2018

 

BORN TO RUN: The Leon Coleman Story

By Leon Coleman

Self Published, 2018

 

WHEN RUNNING MADE HISTORY

By Roger Robinson

Syracuse University Press, 2018

 

THE INCOMPLETE BOOK OF RUNNING

By Peter Sagal

Simon and Schuster NY, 2018

 

ENDURE-Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance

By Alex Hutchinson

Harper Collins, 2018

 

THE IRISH-AMERICAN ATHLETIC CLUB OF NEW YORK:

The Rise and Fall of the Winged Fists 1898-1917

McFarland Publishing, 2018

 

VARSITY SEVEN: An American Rift Valley

By Peter Hawkins

Starr Press-Spokane, Wash., 2018

 

SPECIAL MENTION

(Not Eligible because of 2017 Publishing)

RUNNER IN RED

By Tom Murphy

Encircle Publications-Farmington, Maine, 2017