The author takes you behind the scene for the story of two coaches from two different backgrounds and styles who matched wits and strategy in a nail biting chess match in Lexington, Kentucky, for the national title.
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Kyle Keiderling takes readers behind the headlines of the greatest upset in NCAA Tournament history. The revealing portrait of the coaches and players that took part in the stunning 1985 Villanova upset of defending champion Georgetown University is a compelling “Cinderella” story. On April 1, 1985, Rollie Massimino’s Wildcats clawed their way to victory over John Thompson’s Hoyas in a “game for the ages,” and stunned the basketball world. The author takes you behind the scene for the story of two coaches from two different backgrounds and styles who matched wits and strategy in a nail biting chess match in Lexington, Kentucky, for the national title.
Shooting Star – The Bevo Francis Story
In the history of college and professional basketball, only three men have ever scored 100 points in a game. One of those, Bevo Francis, turned the trick twice. Shooting Star is a fascinating biography of the smooth-shooting sensation who leapt from obscurity to become a national hero.
Olympic Collision – The Story of Mary Decker and Zola Budd
It remains one of the most memorable moments in modern Olympic history. At the 1984 summer games in Los Angeles, a raucous crowd of ninety thousand saw their favorite in the women’s 3,000-meter race, Mary Decker, go down. An audience of two billion around the world witnessed the mishap and listened to the instantaneous accusations against the suspected culprit, Zola Budd.
Just seventeen, the South African Budd had already been the target of a vicious and vocal campaign by the antiapartheid lobby after she transferred to the British team in order to compete at the games. Decker, at twenty-six, was America’s golden girl, ready to overcome years of bad luck and injuries to rightfully take the Olympic gold for which she had waited so long. With three laps to go, Decker and Budd’s feet became tangled. Decker went down and didn’t get up, wailing in primal agony as her gold medal hopes vanished. Decker’s stumbles continued in the race’s aftermath when she refused Budd’s apology and race officials found her, not Budd, at fault for the collision. Although both women found success after the Olympics, neither could escape the long shadow of the infamous event that forever changed both of their lives and defines them in popular culture to this day.
Olympic Collision follows Decker and Budd through their lives and careers, telling the story behind the controversy; the account that emerges is certain to revise the view Americans, in particular, have held since that fateful day in Los Angeles more than thirty years ago. Olympic Collision relives one of the most famous incidents in Olympic history, its legacy, and what has happened to both athletes since.
Heart of a Lion – The Life, Death and Legacy of Hank Gathers
On March 4th, 1990 Hank Gathers, the leading candidate for college basketball’s player of the year award, fell to the court at Gersten Pavilion on the campus of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Within minutes the man who had led the nation in scoring and rebounding as a junior, and who had proudly boasted of being the strongest man alive, was dead. Heart of a Lion is the story of Hank Gathers, a young man who dared to dream while growing up in “the worst slum in America.”
“Hank Gathers was an extraordinary player. He was a young man who dared to dream in a place where dreams go to die. Hank’s dream ended tragically but his teammates carried on in his honor. Together they provided one of the greatest stories in NCAA tournament history. Hank has been gone 20 years but, the dream is alive.” – Jim Nantz, CBS Sports.
The story of Evansville and the Aces is the story of a remarkable relationship between a town and a team forever bound by triumph and tragedy, trophies and tears, and an uncommon ability to overcome the most horrific tragedy in the history of college basketball. Evansville and the Aces-inextricably bound through triumph and tragedy. This is their story.
