Big Con: Australia's Unknown Soccer Pioneer

Big Con: Australia's Unknown Soccer Pioneer - Paperback

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Sale price  $23.02 Regular price 
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Big Con: Australia's Unknown Soccer Pioneer

Big Con: Australia's Unknown Soccer Pioneer - Paperback

$23.02
Sale price  $23.02 Regular price 

Book Overview

He fled a scandal. He built a sporting empire. He left behind a legacy-largely forgotten in his homeland.

Con Jones-born Thomas Shortel-was a bookmaker, a fugitive, a family man, and a genius sports promoter who reshaped Canadian soccer and lacrosse in the early 20th century. Leaving Sydney in disgrace after a Melbourne Cup betting scandal, he arrived in Vancouver and reinvented himself as a sporting visionary. Jones introduced professional soccer to British Columbia, built a stadium, and helped forge North America's first international football links. He was bold, brash, and endlessly ambitious.

Big Con is a gripping tale of reinvention, scandal, and sporting revolution. It's a vivid portrait of a forgotten trailblazer who played a major role in shaping modern sport-and got away with it.

A compelling read for sports lovers, historians, and anyone fascinated by the messy intersection of ambition, identity, and redemption.

ISBN9781923236318
Author Trevor Thompson
PublisherFair Play Publishing
GenreBiography, Sports, and History
FormatPaperback
PublishedSeptember 2025
LanguageENG- English
Pages108
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

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About Trevor Thompson

Matt Schrader is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and Emmy Award-winning news producer. As a special projects producer for news agencies including CBS and NBC, his investigative journalism has changed lives and laws, and returned millions of dollars to consumers and communities. In 2014, he left his job with CBS to pursue a documentary, SCORE: A FILM MUSIC DOCUMENTARY, which became one of the most comprehensive collections of interviews with modern maestros ever assembled. Matt is a graduate of the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts and Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.

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