Publishers Weekly
★ 10/09/2023
The 1970s heralded the “emergence of spectator sports as an ever-expanding mainstream phenomenon, as well as... remarkable changes in the way athletes were paid, how they played, and how they were perceived,” according to this invigorating history. Sports journalist MacCambridge (’69 Chiefs) chronicles how sports became big business, noting that pro players in the late 1960s made so little they took off-season jobs (“The Pistons’ Dave Bing worked as a bank teller”) before a series of 1970s labor battles secured pro basketball, baseball, and football players a greater share of ballooning profits. Offering vibrant accounts of the decade’s most significant contests and their social impact, MacCambridge examines the boom in women’s sports in the context of the 1973 tennis match between Bobby Riggs, described here as “slouching into middle age” in his “World War II–era black horn-rimmed glasses,” and Billie Jean King, who was “at once strong and feminine, resplendent in a sequined multicolored dress.” Elsewhere, MacCambridge sharply analyzes the 1971 fight between the “boastful, draft-dodging” Muhammad Ali and the “sullen but respectful” Joe Frazier as a proxy battle over respectability politics (“Whom you were rooting for often said something about the sort of person you were”). Impressive in scope and vividly told, this is a winner. (Oct.)Correction: An earlier version of this review had the wrong year for the Muhammad Ali–Joe Frazier fight analyzed by the author.
From the Publisher
Michael MacCambridge has produced a riveting book you didn't know needed to be written until you turn the first page—at which point you realize it's indispensable history. THE BIG TIME is part cultural biography and part stroll down charming lanes of nostalgia, revisiting indelible characters at their peak powers, from Chrissie Evert to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. But mainly it's an engrossing appraisal of an American decade that changed, well, everything.”—Sally Jenkins, author of The Right Call
“Michael MacCambridge’s THE BIG TIME is a meticulously researched, beautifully written and wonderfully entertaining walk down memory lane. The ‘70s were such a fascinating decade in sports and culture, and this book brings all the characters and moments to life in riveting detail. We know that time travel doesn’t exist, but this book sure comes close.”—Christine Brennan, USA Today sports columnist and author of the best-selling Inside Edge
“Michael MacCambridge is one of America’s finest chroniclers and when he told me he was turning his eye to the 1970s, the decade of my childhood, I couldn’t have been more thrilled. He delivers exactly what I hoped he would, a book brimming with nostalgia and fun, filled with all the marvelous names that shaped my life as a sports fan as well as shaping sports as we now know them.”—Joe Posnanski, bestselling author of The Baseball 100
“If you remember how great sports were in those days, THE BIG TIME will remind you, and if you doubt how great, this book will show you.”—Roy Blount, Jr., author, About Three Bricks Shy of a Load
"Impressive in scope and vividly told, this is a winner."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“The Big Time crackles…and induces longing for a time when sporting events were less scripted, scrutinized and corporatized.” —New York Times
bestselling author of The Baseball 100 Joe Posnanski
Michael MacCambridge is one of America’s finest chroniclers and when he told me he was turning his eye to the 1970s, the decade of my childhood, I couldn’t have been more thrilled. He delivers exactly what I hoped he would, a book brimming with nostalgia and fun, filled with all the marvelous names that shaped my life as a sports fan as well as shaping sports as we now know them.
author of The Right Call Sally Jenkins
Indispensable history.”
Roy Blount
If you remember how great sports were in those days, THE BIG TIME will remind you, and if you doubt how great, this book will show you.
USA Today sports columnist and author of the best- Christine Brennan
Michael MacCambridge’s THE BIG TIME is a meticulously researched, beautifully written and wonderfully entertaining walk down memory lane. The ‘70s were such a fascinating decade in sports and culture, and this book brings all the characters and moments to life in riveting detail. We know that time travel doesn’t exist, but this book sure comes close.
Library Journal
10/23/2023
Caught between the idealism of the 1960s, its youth-led counterculture movement, and the greed-is-good ethos of the 1980s, the 1970s are often overlooked as a decade of change. Journalist MacCambridge (Chuck Noll: His Life's Work) delves into the quirky details of that time period with regard to U.S. athletics. Take, for example, the purple skates worn by the Los Angeles Kings hockey team and the American Basketball Association's introduction of red, white, and blue basketballs, though some readers may believe MacCambridge missed exploring some particularly galvanizing historical moments in sports, such as hockey's 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the USSR. His book emphasizes that changes in the sports world during the 1970s mirrored societal ones. The work shows how women, via Title IX, gained access to areas that had been beyond their grasp, how the popularity of sports grew due to the power of television, and how the Super Bowl, the Battle of the Sexes tennis match, and other events created shared societal experiences on an unprecedented scale. The 1970s was also the first decade of millionaire celebrity athletes, and this time period showcased athletes working together to form stronger labor unions and gain free agency. VERDICT A valid and solid work on a decade of significant changes in the world of sports.—Brian Renvall
NOVEMBER 2023 - AudioFile
Sean Runnette is comfortable with the athletes' names, the jargon, and the general tone of this audiobook. He's a good fit for MacCambridge's conversational style. The 1970s were a decade of fundamental change in American society, and nowhere was this more apparent than in the world of professional sports. At just under 18 hours, THE BIG TIME is sprawling--some long sections could have been safely excised--and Sean Runnette's sleepy pace makes it seem longer. Through the stories of key figures like Billie Jean King, Muhammad Ali, and Hank Aaron, listeners of a certain vintage will occasionally be shocked by how different sports culture was just 50 years ago. D.B. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
