• Age: 11 to 18
• Grade: 6 to 12
• Reading age: 11 to 18

Lionel Conacher excelled at football, hockey, baseball, boxing, wrestling, and lacrosse. He taught himself how to play and he worked hard, and it paid off. He supported his struggling family, never giving up or letting people down. He was given the nickname Big Train because he was unstoppable on the football field when he ran through the opposition. In 1921 Conacher joined the Toronto Argonauts, and in 1926 he played professional baseball for the Toronto Maple Leafs. After retiring from sports, Conacher was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 1949. Richard Brignall tells this fascinating story of the man who could do it all.

Richard Brignall is a freelance writer, former newspaper sport reporter, based in Kenora, Ontario. He has over 130 articles published in magazines like Cottage Life and Outdoor Canada. He helped originate the Recordbooks series at James Lorimer and Company. This series focuses on Canadian sports history and issues like race, gender, disability, and poverty. He has written seven books for this series. Titles include Small Town Glory about the Kenora Thistles winning the Stanley Cup, Forever Champions about the Edmonton Grads women’s basketball team, Big League Dreams about black baseball player Fergie Jenkins, and China Clipper about Chinese-Canadian football player Norm Kwong. 

Richard Brignall's profile page

• Short-listed, Red Cedar Book Award, 2011-12

"A great resource for any school porject about Canadian history -- or the everyday sports buff looking for a really great read."

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"Young sports enthusiasts will be interested in this biography of sports star Lionel Conacher. The chapters are short and fast-paced with accessible vocabulary and sentence structure."

Canadian Review of Materials