An insightful, funny, touching history from the man who witnessed great moments and characters of North American sport.

Jim Coleman saw the Victoria Cougars win the Stanley Cup in 1925 and the Team Canada–Russia hockey showdown in 1972. He saw Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth slam homers in training camp and was there when Jack Dempsey KO’d Jack Sharkey. He interviewed a young man named Jackie Robinson who wistfully dreamed of the day when black men might play in baseball’s major leagues. And he won his greatest fame as a chronicler of the characters of horse racing’s shedrow—Johnny Needle-Nose, the Blow-Back Kid, Knifey, the Good Kid, Sir Benjamin Stockley and many more.

From 1939 until his death at 89, Coleman covered every sport imaginable with eloquence, wit and an unfailing love that earned him a position as Canada’s first nationally syndicated sports columnist, membership in five Canadian Sports Halls of Fame, the Order of Canada and status as the country’s most beloved sportswriter. Sports columnist, Jim Taylor discovered Coleman’s columns in an old filing cabinet after Coleman’s death and assembled the finest pieces. The result is The Best of Jim Coleman, an insightful, fall-down funny, lump-in-the-throat history from the man who was there to witness the great moments and characters of North American sport.