Oscar Robertson, Jack Twyman, and the Cincinnati Royals. The University of Cincinnati and Xavier University in their annual crosstown shootout, one of the nation's great rivalries. Legendary coaches like Mary Jo Huismann and Bob Huggins. The longest game in college basketball history (seven overtimes!) and the creation of long baggy basketball shorts. The venerable Cincinnati Gardens and the Armory Fieldhouse. These are just a few of the people, places, and events in the colorful history of basketball in Cincinnati. Cincinnati Hoops is the story of basketball in an American city. The heritage of basketball in Cincinnati has never been fully revealed, and this book tells the complete story from the game's arrival in the Queen City to the present, exploring the cultural and social history of the sport. The role of women, segregation, amateur, and collegiate basketball, and the big business of the professional game are all documented in over 200 classic images.

This chronicle of the storied history of the University of Cincinnati basketball program is filled with anecdotes from and about its star players, coaches, and colorful characters. The coaches include Bob Huggins, who took over the program in 1989 and led the Bearcats back to prominence with a 1992 Final Four appearance; his predecessor Tony Yates, a former star Cincinnati player who was eventually fired as the coach; Ed Badger, who went on to coach and scout in the NBA: Gale Catlett, who left UC for West Virginia; Ed Jucker, who coached the Bearcats to their two national championships: and Tay Baker, the only man to coach at both UC and crosstown rival Xavier University. Among the star players featured in the book are, of course, Hall of Famers Oscar Robertson and Jack Twyman; 2000 National Player of the Year Kenyon Martin, and All-Americans such as Nick Van Exel, Danny Fortson and Steve Logan. Author Michael Perry also recounts some of the program's most memorable games and moments, including recaps of the most exciting Crosstown Shootouts against the rival Xavier Musketeers. Tales from the Cincinnati Bearcats Hardwood will be a comprehensive trip down memory lane, providing insight into the Huggins era and, for those who did not start following the team until the 1990s, a nice history lesson about one of America's top basketball programs.

Those who avidly followed the on-court acrobatics and off-court celebrity of the OC Dream TeamOCO in Barcelona in 1992 would hardly recognize what passed as basketball fifty-six years earlier, when the United States first played the game in the 1936 Olympics. In those early days of menOCOs Olympic basketball, many teams lacked basic skills, games were played in the pouring rain, only seven players could suit up, and the rules allowed only two substitutions and no time-outs. How this slow, low-scoring sport became the breakneck game that enraptures millions worldwide is the story of American Hoops.In this fascinating history of Olympic basketball on the world stage and behind the scenes, Carson Cunningham presents a kaleidoscopic picture of the evolution into the twenty-first century of one of AmericaOCOs most popular sports. From clashes between celebrated egos and thrilling action on the court to the intense rivalries of the Cold War and technological advances in everything from television to sports equipment off the court, American Hoops follows the fortunes of Olympic basketball, in the United States and internationally, as it developed and emerged as one of the most challenging and entertaining sports in the world.Cunningham traces how the modifications made by the International Olympic Committee and the International Basketball Federation have transformed the game of basketball over the years, from the Berlin to the Beijing Olympics. His book offers a remarkable view of the changing world through the prism of Olympic sport."

All-American George Glamack was known as the "Blind Bomber" because his eyesight was so poor that he couldn’t see the basket. Bobby Bailey once fouled out of a game in three minutes. The first professional basketball player, Fred Cooper, earned sixteen dollars per game. Swedish player Mats Wermelin scored all 272 points in a game. Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach punched out the owner of the St. Louis Hawks prior to a game. Dennis Rodman dressed like a bride for his book signing. Wilt Chamberlain, who scored 100 points in an NBA game, claimed to have had 20,000 lovers. The 1936 Olympic basketball gold medal game was played on a muddy court during a driving rainstorm. Former vice president Al Gore played college basketball at Harvard. Basketball's Most Wanted™ chronicles 700 of the most outlandish players, coaches, and fans in basketball history. Its seventy lists describe in humorous detail basketball’s top-ten worst shooters, strangest plays, bizarre nicknames, politicians who played, little-known records, unlikely NBA teams, and more.

A prominent Navajo educator once told historian Peter Iverson that “the five major sports on the Navajo Nation are basketball, basketball, basketball, basketball, and rodeo.” The Native American passion for basketball extends far beyond the Navajo, whether on reservations or in cities, among the young and the old. Why basketball—a relatively new sport—should hold such a place in Native culture is the question Wade Davies takes up in Native Hoops. Indian basketball was born of hard times and hard places, its evolution traceable back to the boarding schools—or “Indian schools”—of the early twentieth century. Davies describes the ways in which the sport, plied as a tool of social control and cultural integration, was adopted and transformed by Native students for their own purposes, ultimately becoming the “Rez ball” that embodies Native American experience, identity, and community. Native Hoops travels the continent, from Alaska to North Carolina, tying the rise of basketball—and Native sports history—to sweeping educational, economic, social, and demographic trends through the course of the twentieth century. Along the way, the book highlights the toils and triumphs of well-known athletes, like Jim Thorpe and the 1904 Fort Shaw girl’s team, even as it brings to light the remarkable accomplishments of those whom history has, until now, left behind. The first comprehensive history of American Indian basketball, Native Hoops tells a story of hope, achievement, and celebration—a story that reveals the redemptive power of sport and the transcendent spirit of Native culture.

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