In the 1966 NCAA basketball championship game; an all-white University of Kentucky team was beaten by a team from Texas Western College (now UTEP) that fielded only black players. The game; played in the middle of the racially turbulent 1960s—part David and Goliath in short pants; part emancipation proclamation of college basketball—helped destroy stereotypes about black athletes. Filled with revealing anecdotes; The Baron and the Bear is the story of two intensely passionate coaches and the teams they led through the ups and downs of a college basketball season. In the twilight of his legendary career; Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp (“The Baron of the Bluegrassâ€) was seeking his fifth NCAA championship. Texas Western’s Don Haskins (“The Bear†to his players) had been coaching at a small West Texas high school just five years before the championship. After this history-making game; conventional wisdom that black players lacked the discipline to win without a white player to lead began to dissolve. Northern schools began to abandon unwritten quotas limiting the number of blacks on the court at one time. Southern schools; where athletics had always been a whites-only activity; began a gradual move toward integration. David Kingsley Snell brings the season to life; offering fresh insights on the teams; the coaches; and the impact of the game on race relations in America.
#127918 in Books University of Nebraska Press Bison Books 2002-05-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.50 x .23 x 5.50l; .29 #File Name: 0803273282164 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Great; lesser-known book by a great authorBy B. HarrisonGreat book! John Hersey has long been my favorite writer; and probably one of the more underappreciated ones out there -- we all read Hiroshima in high school; but that was probably it. He writes a story that is real; true to life and human; even exposing his own limitations as well as the extraordinary courage of average men in a brutal situation. It's a short book and written as he recovered at home after being in the South Pacific. Worth it.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. World War II StoryBy Kindle CustomerThis is a very good book. The author is John Hersey; who wrote as a young man about the first battle he was in. His good with action and with his descriptions. Ivan that a boy just getting involved with the war would know much better after reading him what was in store.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Good readBy CustomerExcellent account of the Marines on the canal. Like being there.Not some fiction; the real thing. A must read.
