Where were you on June 19, 1986? That's the day when Len Bias, one of the greats of the college basketball game, a player seemingly destined for NBA stardom, died of a cocaine overdose. For the next several months, millions followed the continuing, unfolding tragedy at the University of Maryland at College Park. Six years later, where is big-time basketballthe big-money game whose vulnerabilities began to come to life with Bias's death? How far has it come in reforming itself against the abuses that contributed to the Bias tragedy? In Lenny, Lefty, and the Chancellor, Baltimore Sun reporter C. Fraser Smith answers those questions through the microcosm of the University of Maryland. He demonstrates how, despite numerous obstacles, the University of Maryland has been reforming its program during the five years since Bias's deathactually transforming it from sinkhole to national model. In so doing, Smith provides the first book to look at the problems of intercollegiate sports from the college president's perspectivea point of view crucial to getting balance instilled in such programs.From 1929, the year the Carnegie Commission issued its report on the subject, through 1991, when the Knight Commission released its report, every analyst has said that university presidents are the ones who must solve the problems of intercollegiate athletics, says Smith. My book, more than any available, carefully analyzes what presidents [such as former UM Chancellor John Slaughter] have to work with, and what they are up against. Reliance on the presidents, Smith concludes, is illusory and unrealistic. In Lenny, Lefty, and the Chancellor, Smith gets at the central issues through three main characterseach of them extraordinary and compelling. Clearly, Len Bias captured the imagination of the sporting world, says Smith. People still remember where they were when they heard the seemingly impossible news that Bias, just drafted the day before by the Boston Celtics, had died. Lefty Driesell, though now at James Madison University and thus somewhat out of the national spotlight, is vividly remembered by college basketball followers nationwide as a uniquely charismatic and successful coach.Chancellor John Slaughter, a black college president, is less well-known but just as interesting. His core experience as UM chancellor was built around a dead basketball superstar and a problem-plagued college basketball program, but his story is important well beyond that, because it delves into such important areas as race relations in America today. Fully-textured and crisply written, sober yet gripping, Lenny, Lefty, and the Chancellor is a people and issue book that brings the problems of big-time college basketball down to the understandable level of the individual. That, says Smith, is something you can't get from a year's worth of reading dry texts and graduation statistics. Though the book offers an insider's look at the University of Maryland, and at Maryland politics, it fits snugly into a larger and timely framework. With the Knight Commission refocusing attention on big-time basketball, the NCAA enacting new reforms pioneered at UM, and NCAA teams headed into another season, the lessons of the Len Bias tragedy at Maryland are important at the national level as well. University basketball, says Smith, permeates the American culture.

This engaging and informative work highlights the 100 biggest moments in the history of American sports, illustrating powerful connections between sporting events and significant social issues of the time. In this homage to sports history, author Lew Freedman compiles athletic feats that caught fans off guard, inspired awe, and left viewers on the edge of their seats, all while making an impression on the world at large. Freedman ranks 100 of the greatest moments in sports, reflecting on the dramatic impact of the events as well as their greater influence on American society of the time. The work showcases the social, historical, and cultural background of memorable games, teams, and athletes, highlighting the enduring value and importance of each selection. An introduction discusses the history of sports and explains the criteria for choosing the 100 sporting events in the book. Fascinating, little-known facts punctuate entries, such as how the athletic accomplishments of Jackie Robinson and Joe Louis helped ease racial tensions in the United States; why the passage of Title IX changed gender relations in the United States forever; and which technologies have altered the way Americans view sport. Content also traces the tremendous advancements of safety gear in sports, from the batting helmet and catchers' shin guards in baseball, to the hardshell helmet and face guard in football, to the face mask for goalies in hockey.

All of their stories are told in Maryland Basketball: Tales from Cole Field House.

Not distributed; available at Arkansas State Library.

Containing more than 450 entries, this easy-to-read encyclopedia provides concise information about the history of and recent trends in drug use and drug abuse in the United States—a societal problem with an estimated cost of $559 billion a year. Despite decades of effort and billions of dollars spent to combat the problem, illicit drug use in the United States is still rampant and shows no sign of abating. Covering illegal drugs ranging from marijuana and LSD to cocaine and crystal meth, this authoritative reference work examines patterns of drug use in American history, as well as drug control and interdiction efforts from the nineteenth century to the present. This encyclopedia provides a multidisciplinary perspective on the various aspects of the American drug problem, including the drugs themselves, the actions taken in attempts to curb or stop the drug trade, the efforts at intervention and treatment of those individuals affected by drug use, and the cultural and economic effects of drug use in the United States. More than 450 entries descriptively analyze and summarize key terms, trends, concepts, and people that are vital to the study of drugs and drug abuse, providing readers of all ages and backgrounds with invaluable information on domestic and international drug trafficking and use. The set provides special coverage of shifting societal and legislative perspectives on marijuana, as evidenced by Colorado and Washington legalizing marijuana with the 2012 elections.

From its early days as a sport to build “muscular Christianity” among young men flooding nineteenth-century cities to its position today as a global symbol of American culture, basketball has been a force in American society. It grew through high school gymnasiums, college pep rallies, and the fits and starts of professionalization. It was a playground game, an urban game, tied to all of the caricatures that were associated with urban culture. It struggled with integration and representations of race. Today, basketball’s influence seeps into film, music, dance, and fashion. Hoops tells the story of the reciprocal relationship between the sport and the society that received it. While many books have celebrated specific aspects of the game, Thomas Aiello presents the only contemporary cultural history of the sport from the street to the highest levels of professional mens and womens competition. He argues that the game has existed in a reciprocal relationship with the broader culture, both embodying conflicts over race, class, and gender and serving a s public theater for them. Aiello places cultural icons like Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant in the context of their times and explores how the sport negotiated controversies and scandals. Hoops belongs on the bookshelf of every reader interested in the history of basketball, sports, race, urban life, and pop culture in America.

This is a book about leadership in all complex organizations which uses the university as its vehicle to illustrate behaviors of exemplary leaders.