Got to Do Some Coachin': Nolan's Play

by Frank Deford

* Nolan Richardson became coach of the University of Arkansas Razorback basketball team in 1984 under a triple (1) he was the first black head basketball coach not only at Arkansas but in the entire Southwest Conference; (2) he followed an enormously difficult act in Coach Eddie Sutton, who left a glittering string of conference championships, NCAA appearances, All-Americans and NBA stars to remember him by; and (3) his teen-aged daughter Yvonne was soon diagnosed as having leukemia. Frank Deford, one of Sports Illustrated’s best writers, dramatized the human side of Nolan‘s athletic and coaching career in screenplay form in the March 7, 1988 issue. It is reprinted in its entirety here and shows that many aspects of Coach Richardson‘s life are more important than winning games, although he does that, too. His story is not an ordinary one, and Deford traces Richardson’s long rise from a segregated neighborhood to national respect through his relationship with his wife Rose, Yvonne, his players, and his mother.

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About the author

Frank Deford (born December 16, 1938, in Baltimore, Maryland) is a senior contributing writer for Sports Illustrated, author, and commentator.

DeFord has been writing for Sports Illustrated since the early 1960s. In addition to his Sports Illustrated duties, he is also a correspondent for HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and a regular, Wednesday commentator for National Public Radio's Morning Edition.

His 1981 novel, "Everybody's All-American," was named one of Sports Illustrated's Top 25 Sports Books of All Time and was later made into a movie directed by Taylor Hackford and starring Dennis Quaid.

In the early 1990s Deford took a brief break from NPR and other professional activities to serve as editor-in-chief of The National (newspaper), a short-lived, daily U.S. sports newspaper. It debuted January 31, 1990 and folded after eighteen months. The newspaper was published Sundays through Fridays and had a tabloid format.

Deford is also the chairman emeritus of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He became involved in cystic fibrosis education and advocacy after his daughter, Alexandra ("Alex") was diagnosed with the illness in the early 1970s. After Alex died on January 19, 1980, at the age of eight, Deford chronicled her life in the memoir Alex: The Life of a Child. The book was made into a movie starring Craig T. Nelson and Bonnie Bedelia in 1986. In 1997, it was reissued in an expanded edition, with updated information on the Defords and Alex's friends.

Deford grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, and attended the Gilman School in Baltimore. He is a graduate of Princeton University and now resides in Westport, Connecticut, with his wife, Carol. They have two surviving children: Christian (b. 1969) and Scarlet (b. 1980). Their youngest daughter Scarlet was adopted a few months after the loss of Alex.