Basketball as the focus of a book? ‘That’s boring,’ former UK coach says.
Marianne Walker’s earlier writings so impressed former Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall that he invited her more than once to be a guest on the radio show he co-hosted with Denny Crum.
This surprised Walker, who originally dismissed the invitation to go on the “Joe B and Denny Show” as someone’s idea of a prank. She didn’t even return Hall’s initial call.
“I’m not a sports person,” Walker said last week. “I didn’t need to be on any kind of (sports) talk show.”
Is it ironic to point out that not being a sports person would make Walker all the more appealing a choice as Hall’s author?
Hall was not sure about what type of book he wanted. But he knew what kind of book he didn’t want.
“I knew it was going to have sports history, but not that much,” Hall said last week. “I didn’t want to go back and replay each game. To me, that’s boring.”
Hall, 91, wanted Walker to be his author because he liked how one of her earlier books, “The Graves County Boys,” moved beyond jump shots and transition defense. It humanized the 1952 Kentucky high school basketball state champions and took readers back to the Kentucky life of the 1940s and 1950s that Hall had lived himself.
Walker described the resulting book, titled “Coach Hall: My Life On and Off the Court,” as not so much biography as “just this old man’s memories that he wants to share with people who don’t really know him, but think they know him because they watched him coach basketball for years.
“He said, ‘I want people to know me as a person who had a life outside of basketball.’”
This convinced Walker to write the book, which was published last year. Its 190 pages are written in the first-person voice of Hall. Tellingly, it’s not until Chapter 11 that Hall comes to UK as a freshman. He becomes an assistant coach at UK in Chapter 19 and head coach seven chapters later still.
Each of the 36 chapters begins with a tone-setting quote from such luminaries as Henry David Thoreau, Washington Irving, Aristotle, Plato, Seneca and Albert Einstein. Walker, a retired professor of English and philosophy at Henderson Community College, said she used the same technique in earlier books and freelance articles she’s written.
“And I taught world literature,” she said. “I just love doing it.”
The reader learns that Hall spent a portion of his childhood living in Massachusetts and at the beach in Miami. Family life is prominent. His well-known love of fishing and the outdoors gets a chapter. He candidly details the health problems he’s faced.
Kentucky basketball is not forgotten. Being misled by Adolph Rupp in the process of being hired as an assistant and then being short-changed on a promised salary when becoming Rupp’s successor in 1972 are included.
Also getting an airing are signature on-court moments as UK coach: cuffed on the head by Bobby Knight in a regular-season game followed by sweet retribution in the 92-90 victory over undefeated Indiana in the 1975 NCAA Tournament, the 1978 national championship and the 3-for-33 shooting in the second half of the 1984 Final Four loss to Georgetown.
As a quick read chronicling an eventful life, the book meets Walker’s expectations.
“I wanted the reader to have a book that would be easy to read,” she said. “And it would be like sitting at a table with him.”
The book, which retails for $26.95, is available at stores or online at Kentuckypress.com.
Rupp revisited
Joe B. Hall is not the only former UK coach humanized in the book “Coach Hall.” So is Adolph Rupp.
In addition to winning a lot of games and raising money for Shriners Children’s Hospital, the founding father of Kentucky basketball was a backseat driver.
He exaggerated the size of audiences who attended his speaking engagements. He was quick to take credit for success and deflect blame for failure.
In the book, Hall acknowledges the perception of Rupp as a racist. While teams throughout the South were not integrated, Rupp came to personify racism “because of his mouthy, egotistical, arrogant manner” combined with “his astonishingly long string of successes,” Hall says in the book.
The book’s author, Marianne Walker, said it was significant that Hall did not label Rupp a racist.
“If Joe thought he was a racist, Joe would have said it,” Walker said. “He would have been honest about it because of everything else he told me. I don’t think he held back.”
UK reloads
When asked recently how he sized up the SEC race in the 2020-21 season, it didn’t take long for Mississippi State Coach Ben Howland to mention Kentucky.
“Kentucky is always going to be right at the top, period,” he said. “No matter what.
“Because (John Calipari) is bringing in the next Jamal Murray and the next Tyler Herro every year.”
Howland, who said he was an avid viewer of this year’s NBA playoffs, also suggested that Alabama will be a contender in Nate Oats’ second season as coach.
“Alabama will be good because they have a lot (of players) returning,” the State coach said, “and now they’re in a system they know well.”
Despite the loss of point guard and projected top-20 pick Kira Lewis Jr., to the 2020 NBA Draft, excitement is high at Alabama.
In its first season playing Oats’ fast-paced offense, the Tide broke every three-point record in program history while finishing fourth in the nation in tempo and third in scoring and three-pointers per game.
With John Petty withdrawing from this year’s draft, Alabama returns four starters and five of its top seven scorers.
Starting point
College teams can begin full preseason practices on Wednesday. There will be a limit of 30 practices permitted over a 42-day period before the season begins Nov. 25.
Other limits stated by the NCAA: Players can work out in the practices that begin Wednesday no more than 20 hours per week and four hours per day. Players must have one day off per week.
Cautionary tale
Sportswriter-turned filmmaker Branson Wright emailed a link to the documentary he did on former UK player Dwight Anderson. Titled “The Blur,” the 27½-minute film documents the cautionary tale that was Anderson’s life: A player still considered the best to ever come from Ohio — supporters say that includes LeBron James — brought down by drug use.
How fast was Anderson? “So quick he could play tennis by himself,” former Southern Cal Coach Stan Morrison quips in the documentary.
Anderson, who died at age 59 on Sept. 5, used his latter years to speak to youth groups and anyone who would listen about the dangers of drug use.
Wright helped arrange these speaking engagements.
“I’m most proud that we were able to use this film to help encourage those battling addiction, and to deter those from following a similar path that Dwight traveled before his recovery,” Wright wrote in an email. “I pray this film will honor Dwight’s legacy.”
An 11-minute prelude, which was done shortly after Anderson died, is at https://youtu.be/R2Vi-6.
The 27½-minute documentary is at https: https://youtu.be/Bu8n_X0h6kU.
Wright can be reached at BransonWrightFilms.com.
Happy birthday
To Reggie Hanson. He turned 52 on Thursday. … To Bill Busey. He turned 72 on Thursday. … To former Tennessee coach Wade Houston. He turned 76 on Friday. … To former South Carolina coach Dave Odom. He turned 78 on Friday. … To Mark Krebs. He turned 34 on Saturday. … To Keldon Johnson. He turns 21 on Sunday (today). … To Mike Ballenger. He turns 58 on Sunday (today). … To Alabama Coach Nate Oats. He turns 46 on Tuesday. … To Matt Scherbenske. He turns 33 on Wednesday.
This story was originally published October 11, 2020 at 11:01 AM.
