The Other Side of Sports

Sports fans! Get your game on with our sports-themed how-to and documentary films.

Sprint upstairs to the second floor educational DVDs for mixed martial arts and wrestling titles and more. Need to coach your team more efficiently? Hope Bruce Weber can teach you how to dribble a bball? Want to relive classic football or baseball games? Do you thrill to the jostling elbows in roller derby? Is NASCAR your thing? Are you a marathoner? If so, we have the DVD(s) for you!

But the library also has sports documentaries that have a more serious bent.

You can take home ESPN's collection 30 for 30. (In two parts of 15.) This acclaimed documentary series contains 30 films covering the sports world from 1979-2009.The filmmakers used their own points of view to create very personal features about athletes, teams and issues prominent in those three decades. Films like The Two Escobars, about soccer in Colombia; or Without Bias, detailing the effect of basketall player Len Bias' cocaine overdose ; or Into the Wind, celebrating amputee Terry Fox's run across Canada.

 ESPN released another documentary late last year--Unguarded. Chris Herren of Fall River, Massachusetts, was the quintessential home-town hero--a superb basketball player recruited by many colleges. But his glory days ended. Drafted by the NBA's Boston Celtics, Chris found it impossible to conquer his addiction habits. He bounced from team to team to the end of his career til he hit bottom. During Unguarded, three years sober, Herren seeks redemption by sharing his story, unvarnished and explicit, in hopes that other won't follow his path.





In What Happened, Dad? young high school quarterback Max slips into a coma during a football game, having suffered a concussion earlier due to a faulty helmet. What have schools and coaches done to protect their students from the dangers of contact sports? Here's an online clip where Max's dad talks about helmet certification.

Coming soon--Blood Equity--a film about the heavy toll of playing pro football.

These and many other DVD tales and how-tos of sports are available for you to enjoy at The Urbana Free Library. Place a hold online, or contact the adult services librarians at 367-4405 or reference@tufl.info