JAMIE'S BOOKSHELF: Exciting Sports Books for Spring Reading
Compiled by Jamie H. Vaught
--Déjà Blue: A Sportswriter Reflects on 41 Seasons of Kentucky Basketball by Jerry Tipton (Acclaim Press, $26.95) is a behind-the-scenes look at his career in sportswriting, from his early years at the Huntington Herald-Dispatch in West Virginia to over four decades of covering the highs and lows of the Kentucky Wildcats for the Lexington Herald-Leader. More than just a memoir, the 256-page hardcover presents a journalistic reflection on Tipton’s award-winning career in which he recalls the stories, the games, the personalities, and his relationships with coaches, players, and members of Big Blue Nation. Déjà Blue also gives insight into Tipton’s skill as a beat reporter—interviewing, writing, and old-fashioned hard work—that led to his induction into not just one, but three sportswriting hall of fame associations. A personal note: I'm currently reading Tipton's book, and so far, it's one of the more entertaining UK books that I have read in a long time.
--They Call Me Goose: My Life in Kentucky Basketball and Beyond by Jack Givens with Doug Brunk (University Press of Kentucky, $27.95) is an intimate look at the life and career of the Kentucky Wildcat legend who is currently a commentator for the UK Basketball Network. Givens shares personal and endearing stories from his childhood—how he was initially interested in baseball instead of basketball, the summers spent with his grandmother in Danville, Kentucky, and the teachers and coaches who guided and supported him along his journey. The former UK All-American also speaks candidly about his experiences with poverty, ruinous financial debt, the blowback from sexual assault allegations, and how his faith and his family helped sustain him through hardships and challenges. In collaboration with San Diego-based journalist Doug Brunk, Givens presents fans with the powerful story of a husband, father, mentor, businessman, and ambassador for UK.
--It’s Hard for Me to Live with Me: A Memoir by Rex Chapman and Seth Davis (Simon & Schuster, $27.99) is a powerful story about the UK basketball legend, NBA veteran, and social media influencer about his recovery from addiction. At the end of his hoops career, Chapman was harboring a destructive secret. Years before America’s opioid crisis would become national news, Chapman developed a dependency on Vicodin and Oxycontin, ultimately ingesting 50 painkillers a day. In addition, he developed a severe gambling addiction, once nearly losing $400,000 at a Las Vegas blackjack table. All this would cost him his family as well as most of the $40 million fortune he’d made in basketball, leaving him to live in his car and shoplift to support his addictions. Only when he was arrested—and his mugshot made national news—did he finally commit to getting clean. The former Wildcat also describes his history with depression; the racism he witnessed growing up in Kentucky and how that shaped his outspokenness on matters of social justice; and his complex and volatile relationship with his father, who played four years in the old American Basketball Association and later became the head coach at high school and college levels.
--Boston Ball: Rick Pitino, Jim Calhoun, Gary Williams, and the Forgotten Cradle of Basketball Coaches by Clayton Trutor (University of Nebraska Press, $36.95) is the story of how three ambitious young coaches learned their trade in the shadow of the dynastic Celtics, as well as the story of how the young players—in their recruitment, relationships, and basketball lives—made these teams into winners. Before Pitino became the face of the Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville programs, before Calhoun turned UConn into a national power, and before Williams brought Maryland to its first national championship, all three of these coaches cut their teeth in front of modest-sized crowds in the crumbling college gymnasiums of Boston during the 1970s and early 1980s. And all three eventually became members of the Basketball Hall of Fame.
--Kingdom on Fire: Kareem, Wooden, Walton, and the Turbulent Days of the UCLA Basketball Dynasty by Scott Howard-Cooper (Atria Books, $28.99) draws on more than a hundred interviews and extensive access to many of the principal figures, including Wooden’s family to deliver a rich narrative that reveals the turmoil at the heart of this storied college basketball program. Making the eye-opening connections between UCLA and the Nixon administration, Ronald Reagan, Muhammad Ali, and others, the book puts the UCLA basketball team’s political involvement and influence in full relief for the first time. Few basketball dynasties have reigned supreme like the UCLA Bruins did over college basketball from 1965–1975 (seven consecutive titles, three perfect records, an 88-game winning streak that remains unmatched). At the center of this legendary franchise were the now-iconic players Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Bill Walton, naturally reserved personalities who became outspoken giants when it came to race and the Vietnam War.
--Blonde Bomber: A Ride with Shide by Jay Shidler and Paul Corio (independently published, $21.99) takes an exclusive and provocative inside look at what it's like to be a basketball star at UK. Shidler tells the story of what it was like to come from a small town in Illinois and walk into the national spotlight of starting for a college basketball powerhouse during the late 1970s. The book also examines the hard-hitting life experiences that Shidler encountered both during his playing days and after the "final horn" had sounded on his athletic career.
--George Allen: A Football Life by Mike Richman (University of Nebraska Press, $39.95) is a biography about a fascinating and eccentric coach whose remarkable career spanned six decades, from the late 1940s until his sudden death in 1990 at the age of 73. Although he never won a Super Bowl, Allen never had a losing season as an NFL head coach and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2002. In addition to his coaching feats, Allen had an idiosyncratic and controversial personality. His life revolved around football 24-7. One of his quirks was to minimize chewing time by consuming soft foods, giving himself more time to prepare for games and study opponents. He lived and breathed football; he compared losing to death.
--Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball by Keith O’Brien (Pantheon, $35) tells the full story America’s most epic tragedies—the rise and fall of a baseball legend. In the 1980s, Rose came to be at the center of one of the biggest scandals in baseball history. He kept secrets, ran with bookies, took on massive gambling debts, and he was magnificently, publicly cast out for betting on baseball and lying about it. Drawing on firsthand interviews with Rose himself and with his associates, as well as on investigators' reports, FBI and court records, archives, a mountain of press coverage, the author chronicles how Rose fell so far from being America’s “great white hope.” It is Pete Rose as we've never seen him before. It's one of the better baseball books that I have read for awhile. An enjoyable read.
--Baseball Heaven: Up Close and Personal, What It Was Really Like in the Major Leagues by Peter Golenbock (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, $28.95) is a behind-the-scenes look at baseball history, as told through interviews with former major leaguers. The stories range from Elden Auker remembering the day Lou Gehrig told him he was sick to Albert "Happy" Chandler reflecting on his decision to allow Jackie Robinson into the big leagues, from Ralph Branca discussing the home run he gave up that cost the Dodgers the pennant to Del Webb talking about why he hired Casey Stengel and why he fired him. For 50 years, Golenbock, a bestselling author, has been interviewing some of the most fascinating figures in baseball and his new work is baseball history at its very best.
--When Baseball Was Still Topps: Portraits of the Game in 1959, Card by Card by Phil Coffin (McFarland, $39.95) is filled with insightful stories for each card (or player) from the 1959 Topps baseball card set. The entire Topps set of 572 cards looks at the lives and times of mid-20th century baseball. That season was in the heart of a period of turmoil: milestones in integration, franchise shifts to the West Coast, a potential rival league, the major leagues’ expansion, and labor issues that included paying young prospects not to play. Pick any card, and you’ll find another engaging tale about baseball, including the slugger (not Joe DiMaggio) who had a date with Marilyn Monroe.
--Chuck Tanner and the Pittsburgh Pirates by Dale Perelman (The History Press, $36.99) presents the life and career of baseball's Mr. Sunshine through substantial research and interviews. A beloved son of Western Pennsylvania, Tanner spent a career in baseball both as a player and manager. He lead the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1977 to 1985 and helped capture the 1979 World Series. Tanner was key in developing the relief pitcher through his work with Goose Gossage and he played a role in the careers of numerous players such as Willie Stargell and Dave Parker.
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By the way, you may want to consider other sports books that were featured in a December 2023 story. Click here for the December article on recent sports books.
Jamie Vaught, a longtime sports columnist in Kentucky, is the author of six books about UK basketball, including recently-published “Forever Crazy About the Cats: An Improbable Journey of a Kentucky Sportswriter Overcoming Adversity." He is the editor and founder of KySportsStyle.com Magazine, and a professor at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro. You can follow him on Twitter @KySportsStyle or reach him via email at KySportsStyle@gmail.com.
