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Living out of Bounds The Male Athlete's Everyday Life
Steven J. Overman
ISBN: 0-313-34668-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-34668-2
256 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 11/30/2008
List Price: $44.95 (UK Sterling Price: £31.95)
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • "Sport biographies and autobiographies dominate the sport sections of bookstores, and those who read enough notice common themes: struggle, of family support or nonsupport, and finally of triumph. Overman (a journalist) has performed a kind of a meta-analysis of a large number of biographies and autobiographies of male, predominantly US, athletes. Using the athletes' and their biographers' descriptions of the lives of male athletes, he describes the common themes and bonds these athletes share. He examines topics like early family life and how many athletes view sport as both a sanctuary and a place that allows them to avoid the responsibilities of being an adult. He describes their daily activities, their struggles to maintain their health, and their response to retirement."
    —CHOICE     5/1/2009
Description: Despite some enormous differences in salary among professional athletes, most aspects of their daily lives remain surprisingly constant across sports and income levels. In Living out of Bounds author Steven J. Overman mines a wide array of sports biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, and diaries to construct a representative picture of the athlete's life. In the course of the work a portrait emerges that transcends the individual lives lived. The shared experiences of devoted training, of travel and hotels, and of tension within and beyond the clubhouse or gym, force us to appreciate the often oppressive reality of the sporting life, at the same time that the individual lives lived also provide us with a glimpse of the rewards that make sports so compelling to audiences and athletes across America.



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Table of Contents:
  • Preface
    Introduction
    Chapter One: The Athletes Family and Youth Roots
    Opening Rounds
    The Influence of Parents
    Coaches and Father Figures
    Looking Backward
    Chapter Two: The Narrow World of Sports
    Part I: Sport as Sanctuary
    Home Away from Home
    Sanctum Sanctorum
    Part II: Sport As Neverland
    From Peter Pan to Pete Rose
    Living in Neverland
    Coaching as Paternalism
    The Wider World
    Chapter Three: Public Life, Private Space
    Introduction
    Coping with Celebrity
    Chapter Four: In the Arenas Shadow
    Gladiators Holiday
    Practice Time
    On the Road
    Hotel Living
    Time in; Time out
    Filling Leisure Time
    Playing Cards and Gambling
    Recreational Drugs
    Life Styles of the Nouveau Riche and Famous
    Teammates and Buddies
    Revealing the Inner Man
    Chapter Five: Sex and Sexuality
    Male Enclave
    Cheerleaders, Temptresses, and Centerfolds: Marginalizing Women
    Home and Away
    Sexual Athletes
    The Evolving Status of Gay Athletes
    Chapter Six: Team Colors: Sport and Race
    A Century of Change
    Chapter Seven: The Athlete and His Body
    The Toll of Training
    Better Living through Chemistry
    Getting Hurt
    The Three Rs of Injuries: Repair, Rehab, and Recovery
    No Pain, No Gain
    Chapter Eight: Retiring from Sport
    One Game at a Time
    One-more-year Syndrome
    Transition and Adjustment
    The Ex-athlete in Search of Identity
    Representative Retirements
    Endnotes
About the Author: Steven J. Overman has spent most of his professional life writing about various aspects of sport. He has published some three-dozen articles and reviews in academic journals, including a recent article on male athletes and their fathers for the British journal Auto/biography. His book-length publications include a college textbook, a mini-text for high school history students, and a monograph on The Influence of the Protestant Ethic on Sport and Recreation (1997). Overman wrote several short biographies for David Wiggins' African Americans in Sports (2004), and he also regularly contributes columns and op-ed pieces for newspapers.
PDF Catalogs:
Praeger Public Library Spring 2009.pdf
Praeger Public Library Spring 2008.pdf
Pop Culture Spring 2008.pdf
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