City Of Champions

Stefan Szymanski, co-author of Soccernomics, is a sports economist who teaches sport management at the University of Michigan. He lives in Ann Arbor.Silke-Maria Weineck, author of The Tragedy of Fatherhood, is a professor of German and Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan. She lives in Ann Arbor.

Praise for City of Champions:A Michigan Notable Book"A sophisticated yet entertaining history that captures both Detroit's colorful peculiarities and the deep tectonic forces shaping them."—Publishers Weekly"A fluid, thoughtful contribution to sports literature, reaching far beyond the confines of Michigan's premier city."—Kirkus Reviews"City of Champions is a sweeping, gripping, and delightfully unconventional history of one of this nation's most important cities, the Motor City. This beautiful chronicling of the history of Detroit is told through the lens of some of its most glorious and most heartbreaking moments in sports and, in ways that both move and surprise, we come to understand more about ourselves and this city than we ever imagined. As City of Champions makes clear, not only have Detroit's ups and downs been a true bellwether for the fortunes and fate of the entire country, but also the sport figures and events that Detroiters have turned to time and again to escape their moments of despair, or to celebrate their successes were, in their own way, mirroring as well as shaping those same moments this great American city."—Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy "City of Champions provides a rich history of Detroit's teams and athletes, as you'd expect, but also delivers an unexpected delight: the battles fought off the field among the city's leaders that determined where those competitors played—or didn't. The conflicts over stadium locations, Olympic bids, the unions, and the always-forceful auto industry—whether up or down—are as fascinating as those waged in the rings and rinks. I came away convinced Detroit's story is inextricably intertwined with its sports, reflecting and sometimes advancing the city's cause, and you cannot fully understand Detroit without understanding its champions."—John U. Bacon, New York Times bestselliing author of Three and Out