City of Champions: A History of Triumph and Defeat in Detroit

The changing fortunes of Detroit, told through the lens of the city’s major sporting events, by the bestselling author of Soccernomics, and a prizewinning cultural critic

“City of Champions is a sweeping‚ gripping‚ and delightfully unconventional history of one of this nation's most important cities‚ told via its most glorious and heartbreaking moments in sports. We come to understand more about ourselves and this city than we ever imagined.”
—Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy

From Ty Cobb and Hank Greenberg to the Bad Boys, from Joe Louis and Gordie Howe to the Malice at the Palace, City of Champions explores the history of Detroit through the stories of its most gifted athletes and most celebrated teams, linking iconic events in the history of Motown sports to the city’s shifting fortunes.

In an era when many teams have left rustbelt cities to relocate elsewhere, Detroit has held on to its franchises, and there is currently great hope in the revival of the city focused on its downtown sports complexes—but to whose benefit? Szymanski and Weineck show how the way Detroit has fared in its stadiums, gyms, and fields is echoed in the rise and fall of the car industry, political upheavals ushered in by the depression, World War 2 and the 1967 uprising, to its recent bankruptcy and renewal.

Driven by the conviction that sports not only mirror society but also have a special power to create both community and enduring narratives that help define a city’s sense of self, City of Champions is a unique history of the most American of cities.