From Michael Jordan to Sammy Sosa to the stacked 1985 Bears roster, Chicago has a reputation for producing some of the greatest athletes and teams in American history. Whether you’re a die-hard fan or looking to give the perfect gift this holiday season, Agate’s game-changing sports titles are the perfect way to explore the rich histories of Chicago’s favorite teams!
The Chicago Tribune Book of the Chicago Bears
The Chicago Tribune Staff
The Bears grip on Chicago spans generations and cultures, endures disappointments, and celebrates triumphs great and small. From the team’s humble beginnings to its status as a marquee NFL franchise, the Chicago Tribune has documented every season. The Chicago Tribune Book of the Chicago Bears is an impressive testament to Bears tradition, compiling photography, original box scores, and entertaining essays from Hall of Fame reporters.
State
Melissa Isaacson
With the intimate insights of the girl who lived it, the pacing of a born storyteller, and the painstaking reporting of a veteran sports journalist, Isaacson chronicles one high school team’s journey to the state championship. In doing so, Isaacson shows us how a group of “tomboys” found themselves and each other, and how basketball rescued them from their collective frustrations and troubled homes, and forever altered the course of their lives.
The Chicago Tribune Book of the Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Tribune Staff
For more than a century, the Chicago Tribune has documented every Cubs season through original reporting, photography, and box scores. For the first time, this mountain of Cubs history has been mined and curated by the paper’s sports department into a single one-of-a-kind volume. Each era in Cubs history includes its own timeline, profiles of key players and coaches, and feature stories that highlight it all, from the heavy hitters to the no-hitters to the one-hit wonders.
The Chicago Tribune Book of the Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Tribune Staff
Published to commemorate the team’s 50th anniversary, this book explores the pride of Chicago’s West Side. It documents every era in the team’s history through the Tribune’s original reporting, in-depth analysis, interviews, and archival photos. Comprehensive timelines, rankings of top players by position, and profiles on key coaches, Hall of Famers, and MVPs provide an entertaining, blow-by-blow look at the team’s greatest successes and most dramatic moments.
Ramblers
Michael Lenehan
Today basketball is played by athletes of all backgrounds and colors. But 50 years ago, the opportunities it offered for African-Americans were severely limited. A key turning point was 1963, when the Loyola Ramblers of Chicago took the NCAA men’s basketball title from Cincinnati. Ramblers is an entertaining, detail-rich look back at the unlikely circumstances that led to Loyola’s historic championship. Michael Lenehan’s narrative masterfully intertwines these stories in dramatic fashion, culminating with the tournament’s final game, a come-from-behind overtime upset that featured two buzzer-beating shots.
The Chicago Tribune Book of the Chicago White Sox
The Chicago Tribune Staff
To be a Sox fan means to know breathtaking highs and dramatic lows. The team’s halcyon days—starting with the championship win during the first official season of the American League in 1901—have always been punctuated with doldrums and stormy stretches. But with the diehard support of their fans, the “Good Guys” have always made a comeback—including the team’s landmark 2005 World Series win, the first by any Chicago major league team in 88 years. This book records it all.
The Chicago Tribune Book of the Chicago Blackhawks
The Chicago Tribune Staff
Since their founding in 1926, the Hawks have won six Stanley Cup championships and produced dozens of standout stars, from Hall of Fame goaltender Mike Karakas in the ’30s to Bobby “The Golden Jet” Hull in the ’60s to current team captain Jonathan Toews. Published to coincide with the start of the 2017–18 season, The Chicago Tribune Book of the Chicago Blackhawks is a decade-by-decade look at the city’s 21st-century sports dynasty.