Legends never die: athletes and their afterlives in modern America

Introduction : making immortals

Why Lou Gehrig was lucky : a meditation on the mortality of American athletes

The Gipper wins one for the Gipper : George Gipp, Knute Rockne, and Ronald Reagan

Only cowgirls get the blues : Bonnie McCarroll and Lane Frost

Who killed Benny Paret?

"Princess Diana with a pushbroom mustache" : Dale Earnhardt and the narratives of a NASCAR death

To an athlete dying old : Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Ted Williams.