Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA knowing, respectful and caring look at heartland America.
* The New York Times *
An unusually perceptive and entertaining study of heartland America.
* The Chicago Tribune *
Transcends sports and operates as cultural history. . .Warm, graceful, full of the happy savor of letter jackets and cheerleaders' sweaters.
* The Boston Globe *
Will appeal not only to basketball fanatics but to mainstream readers as well. It is a knowing, respectful and caring look at heartland America.
* The New York Times *
A truly superior book. . . It's a steal.
* The Indianapolis News *
If you're a Hoosier Hysteric, call time out and go buy it; if you're not, reading Hoosiers will be like studying the strange ways of a cult that worships gym shoes.
* Playboy *
From reviews of the second edition: The finest book ever written on Indiana Basketball.
-- Bob Collins,
Indiana history as view through a basketball net. . . An absorbing historical narrative, woven around modern Indiana history, using basketball as the thread.
* The Indiana Historical Society *
From reviews of the second edition: Hoose develops a narrative that transcends sports and operates as cultural historyWarm, graceful, full of the happy savor of letter jackets and cheerleaders' sweaters...includes the great personalities of the game — Larry Bird, Rick Mount and the maniacal Bobby Knight—yet keeps the locus local, social and intimate.
-- The Boston Globe
To say this little gem is a sports book is to say The Sun Also Rises is about bullfighting.
-- Scripps Howard News Service
Terrific reading.
--
The Sporting NewsFrom reviews of the second edition: The best book ever written on Indiana high school basketball. Hoose not only writes well, but his vignettes and anecdotes are fascinating. His chapter on Larry Bird is probably the best short piece ever written about him.
-- Author Lee Daniel Levine, in
One of ten recommended sports books for kids.
* The Kids' World Almanac of Records and Facts *
A thoughtful, elegantly crafted and shrewdly entertaining examination of a fascinating American subculture. . . An amusing, vital and intelligent book about a slice of America too easily ignored.
* Kirkus Reviews *
This superbly written piece of sports journalism will alternately tickle the funnybone and pluck at the heartstrings of basketball fans everywhere.
* Booklist *
Phillip Hoose examines the phenomenon of Indiana basketball with wit and whimsy.
--
U.S. News and World ReportOf all the books written about high school basketball in Indiana, this is the one that has lasted and will last, for good reason: None better explains the whys and wherefores, the context, culture, and fascinating history behind the hysteria. Read it to better understand Indiana as you would read Friday Night Lights to better understand Texas, or The City Game to better understand Harlem.
-- Alexander Wolff
An unusually perceptive and entertaining study of heartland America.
* The Chicago Tribune *
Transcends sports and operates as cultural history. . .Warm, graceful, full of the happy savor of letter jackets and cheerleaders' sweaters.
* The Boston Globe *
Indiana history as view through a basketball net. . . An absorbing historical narrative, woven around modern Indiana history, using basketball as the thread.
* The Indiana Historical Society *
If you're a Hoosier Hysteric, call time out and go buy it; if you're not, reading Hoosiers will be like studying the strange ways of a cult that worships gym shoes.
* Playboy *
Will appeal not only to basketball fanatics but to mainstream readers as well. It is a knowing, respectful and caring look at heartland America.
* The New York Times *
From reviews of the second edition: Hoose develops a narrative that transcends sports and operates as cultural historyWarm, graceful, full of the happy savor of letter jackets and cheerleaders' sweaters...includes the great personalities of the game — Larry Bird, Rick Mount and the maniacal Bobby Knight—yet keeps the locus local, social and intimate.
-- The Boston Globe
To say this little gem is a sports book is to say The Sun Also Rises is about bullfighting.
-- Scripps Howard News Service
Terrific reading.
-- The Sporting News
One of ten recommended sports books for kids.
* The Kids' World Almanac of Records and Facts *
A thoughtful, elegantly crafted and shrewdly entertaining examination of a fascinating American subculture. . . An amusing, vital and intelligent book about a slice of America too easily ignored.
* Kirkus Reviews *
This superbly written piece of sports journalism will alternately tickle the funnybone and pluck at the heartstrings of basketball fans everywhere.
* Booklist *
Phillip Hoose examines the phenomenon of Indiana basketball with wit and whimsy.
-- U.S. News and World Report
Of all the books written about high school basketball in Indiana, this is the one that has lasted and will last, for good reason: None better explains the whys and wherefores, the context, culture, and fascinating history behind the hysteria. Read it to better understand Indiana as you would read Friday Night Lights to better understand Texas, or The City Game to better understand Harlem.
-- Alexander Wolff * Sports Illustrated Senior Writer *
A knowing, respectful and caring look at heartland America.
* The New York Times *
A truly superior book. . . It's a steal.
* The Indianapolis News *
Table of ContentsForeword by Bob Plump
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Farm Boys—How Indiana Became the Basketball State
2. Milan High School—The Hoosier Dream
3. Indianapolis Crispus Attucks High—The Black and White of Hoosier Hysteria
4. Anderson, Indiana—Basketball Town
5. The Calumet Region—Hoops in the Other Indiana
6. Judi Warren and the Warsaw Tigers—Into the Front Court
7. Fathers and Sons—The Mounts of Lebanon, Indiana
8. Meadowood Park
9. Larry Bird—The Guy Down the Road
10. The Education of Stephanie White
11. Coaches—From the Lady Lions to Bob Knight
12. Steve Alford—All In
13. An Interview with Damon Bailey
14. Four Class Basketball—Death or Salvation of Hoosier Hysteria?
15. Perspective—Four Things that Remain Distinctive about Indiana's Game
16. Passages—What Has Become of Selected, People, Places and Gyms
Index
