Intended Audience
Trade
LCCN
2023-042358
Reviews
"[ The Real Hoosiers ] as good a basketball book as I've ever read.... This book is such a towering achievement.... an incredible blend of social history and sports.... My favorite Jack McCallum book was Seven Seconds or Less , but now I have to amend that and say The Real Hoosiers is....I think it's my favorite basketball book now."-- Dave Zirin, "Edge of Sports" podcast, " The Real Hoosiers is the remarkable story of Oscar Robertson's high school team.... McCallum makes quick work of the movie's legacy to tell a much deeper and richer story about life under de facto legal segregation in 1950s Indiana.... The book goes well beyond simply resuscitating those Crispus Attucks Tigers and giving them their just due. The Real Hoosiers has a real edge to it.... [McCallum] pulls all the tricks from a Hall of Fame career out of his righteous writer's bag to show what these teenagers endured while compiling an 85-6 record in Robertson's three varsity seasons. He jumps back and forth in time, throws in fun footnotes about figures like Cab Calloway and Kurt Vonnegut, weaves in historical antecedents and ancillary tales, offers technical basketball analysis, and breaks the fourth wall with commentary and jokes, both grandpa groaners and one-liners dripping with animus at racial injustices past and present.... While filling out the brackets this year, consider getting your hoops mind right with [ The Real Hoosiers ]." -- The Washington Post, "Jack McCallum brings his 'A' game in his latest book.... The subjects McCallum interviews and the extensive research he did provide a deeper, richer portrait.... McCallum brings humor, snark and turns many a phrase in The Real Hoosiers , like dishing off no-look passes. His writing is every bit as breathtaking as Robertson's court demeanor.... McCallum offers a well-researched, balanced look at a basketball program that broke down racial barriers in a city that was loathe to change. He also offers a sobering look at prejudice that was still prevalent 70 years ago. Readers should be aghast and angry at what took place during the 1950s, and no feelgood movie is ever going to erase that."-- Sports Bookie, "A must-read for sports enthusiasts, history buffs, and anyone interested in social justice."-- Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, "I will never forget this team. This book. Crispus Attucks. Oscar Robertson. Willie Merriweather. Al Maxey. Ray Crowe. Remember these names. Our nation's best basketball scribe Jack McCallum has offered a profound and soulful account of one of the greatest basketball stories largely gone untold. May it never be written out of history again."-- Mirin Fader, author of Giannis
CLASSIFICATION_METADATA
{"IsNonfiction":["Yes"],"IsOther":["No"],"IsAdult":["No"],"MuzeFormatDesc":["Hardcover"],"IsChildren":["No"],"Genre":["BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY","SPORTS & RECREATION"],"Topic":["General","Basketball","Sports"],"IsTextBook":["No"],"IsFiction":["No"]}
Synopsis
The true story behind Crispus Attucks High School and the all-Black basketball team loosely depicted as the championship opponent in the beloved classic sports movie Hoosiers . For far too long the mythology of Indiana basketball has been dominated by Hoosiers . Framed as the ultimate underdog, feel-good story, there has also long been a cultural debate surrounding the film. The Real Hoosiers sets out to illuminate the narrative that the film omits, the story of the unheralded Crispus Attucks Tigers, playing the game at the highest level in the 1950s in a racially divided Indiana. After a crushing loss to Milan High School in the 1954 semifinal, which was the game that the final scenes in Hoosiers are based on, Attucks went on to win back-to-back Indiana state championships. That team was led by a young Oscar Robertson and coached by Ray Crowe, who fully recognized the seemingly insurmountable challenges of playing basketball in a state that was a bastion for not only the game but also the Ku Klux Klan. Veteran sportswriter and the bestselling author of Dream Team , Jack McCallum, pulls back the curtain on that history, which is rich, far beyond the basketball court. The Real Hoosiers replaces a lacuna in the history of Indiana while dissecting the myths and lore of Hoosier hoops; placing the game in the context of migration, segregation, and integration; and enhancing our understanding of this country's struggle for civil rights.
LC Classification Number
GV885.42.I4M33 2024
ebay_catalog_id
4
