Product Description

The face of rugby league, Sky Sports Mike 'Stevo' Stephenson has been appearing on UK TV screens twice a week for nearly two decades. Co-commentating with his on-screen partner, Eddie Hemmings, Stevo has developed a reputation for straight talking in the game without pulling punches! However, many viewers little realise that in his earlier days, Stevo was one of the star players in rugby league. Larger than life Stevo tells his story from growing up on the hard streets of a northern mill town, embarking on a highly successful rugby league career, his record breaking transfer to Australian club Penrith, then his second career as a journalist and TV commentator. Stevo recounts many incidents behind the scenes at Sky Sports and tells the story of his aims to build a rugby league museum and describes the work that saw his dream happen. Love him or hate him (and many fans do), Stevo is guaranteed to entertain readers with his fascinating life story in "Stevo: Looking Back".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #120005 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Customer Reviews

Fantastic Book - Recommended Buy
This book is a fantastic read! It describes Stevo's humble beginnings in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire and follows his rugby career right the way through to his move to Australia. It then outlines the start of Stevo's media career and follows this through to the present day. The narrative style lends itself perfectly to on-the-pitch descriptions of Stevo's memorable games and goes into just enough details about Stevo's off-the-pitch private life so that it does not detract from the best rugby story I've read. Stevo portrays himself as a decent (if opinionated), self-depreciating guy whose overriding love of rugby league shines through. Any rugby league fan (whatever club they support) would find this book completely engrossing - I recommend it!

Great book!!
There was a lot I didn't know about Stevo. I just thought he was an opinionated pundit on Sky with a daft turn of phrase. He's actually a really interesting guy and a bit of an entrepreneur. The following facts about Stevo were all a surprise to me: he was born in Dewsbury; he fell foul of the rugby league powers-that-be; he dabbled in journalism; and that he set up the rugby league museum at the George Hotel in Huddersfield. This man has hidden depths. After reading his book, I have new respect for him and I think he's a great champion for rugby league. This book is great if you want to find out about the 1972 Rugby League World Cup winning team. Shockingly the media at home ignored their victory until forced to acknowledge it some 30 years later. Stevo's descriptions of the world cup games paint a vivid picture of top class rugby league at the time.
In short, Stevo's book is a must for any rugby league fan. It provides an enthralling insight into the world of rugby league past and present.

Stevo pulls no punches
I received this book as a Christmas present with mixed feelings: Mike Stephenson is the self-opinionated summariser cum pundit on Sky Sports' otherwise excellent coverage of rugby league. To his credt, however, "Stevo" openly acknowledges that this is how the wider world views him and in this autobiography he takes the reader through his life with surprisingly good narrative style.
The most interesting part of the book is that dealing with "Stevo's" tough upbringing in a working class family living in post-war Dewsbury, Yorks. His graphic description of the poverty in which he and his family lived vividly conveys to the reader the daily struggle to make ends meet.
For somebody like me who has a limited knowledge of the history of the game it was a shock to learn that, shortly after contributing to Great Britain's victory in the World Cup, "Stevo" was forced into international retirement by small-minded, parochial bureaucrats following his decision to ply his trade in the Australian rugby league competition. It's hard to imagine such an attitude prevailing in this modern era of international transfers and the advent of the global game.
Overall, I'd say that the book is of interest to fans of rugby league and provides the reader into an insight on the way in which the sport has developed over the last 30 years through the eyes of one of its most prominent exponents.