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The Bruin 100: The Greatest Games in the History of UCLA Basketball
Facts, team statistics, individual coach and player records, top crowd attendances, the Olympians, and the 100 greatest games in UCLA basketball history -- it's all included inThe Bruin 100. But most importantly, relive the traditions and read the stories that can't be told in the record books.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 21, 2017
I haven't read a book about sports in probably 5 years and the only good ones I remember are Rome 1960 by David Maraniss, Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand (Unbroken, too, is partially a book about sports) and Last Dance by John Feinstein. I didn't read this book for the reviews or based on the reputation of the author. It was the subject matter: the team I have followed the longest in my life. This brought back plenty of good memories and some that weren't so good.
Scott Howard-Cooper describes this not as a history book but as a memory book. In some ways, that seems like an excuse but, when you are covering 100 different basketball games, perhaps asking for more than three pages for each game is too much. What I know is that I learned quite a bit about those games from the 1930s to the mid-70s. But I started going to the games in 1977-78 (until 1986). Probably a quarter of the games in this book come from the late 70s until 1998 when the book was published. A few of Howard-Cooper's accounts of those games taught me something. Probably half of them told me what I already knew. A few of them that I knew and remembered very well were underwhelming both in length and detail.
Also, even considering how much of the book is dedicated to 1964-1975, there is also a fair amount of recency bias. In 1997-98 alone, the first year of the Steve Lavin "era", there are at least four wins alone mentioned as games that turned around the season.
This book has been on my Amazon wishlist for a few years and I finally bought it. I'm glad that I did. There are a lot of good memories here, even on bad teams. There are great games and championships here that I didn't see. There are great performances I didn't see that Howard-Cooper really brings to life. There are even some oddities like the 19-17 game in 1932 or Dick Enberg singing Raindrops are Falling on my Head at center court after the Bruins clinched the Pac-8 title in the early 70s. The students all held up umbrellas as they knew it was coming. My parents were at that game. I never knew about it. Thank you very much Scott Howard-Cooper. My attention span for sports isn't what it used to be but I think I'll be watching the Bruins a little more closely next season.
Scott Howard-Cooper describes this not as a history book but as a memory book. In some ways, that seems like an excuse but, when you are covering 100 different basketball games, perhaps asking for more than three pages for each game is too much. What I know is that I learned quite a bit about those games from the 1930s to the mid-70s. But I started going to the games in 1977-78 (until 1986). Probably a quarter of the games in this book come from the late 70s until 1998 when the book was published. A few of Howard-Cooper's accounts of those games taught me something. Probably half of them told me what I already knew. A few of them that I knew and remembered very well were underwhelming both in length and detail.
Also, even considering how much of the book is dedicated to 1964-1975, there is also a fair amount of recency bias. In 1997-98 alone, the first year of the Steve Lavin "era", there are at least four wins alone mentioned as games that turned around the season.
This book has been on my Amazon wishlist for a few years and I finally bought it. I'm glad that I did. There are a lot of good memories here, even on bad teams. There are great games and championships here that I didn't see. There are great performances I didn't see that Howard-Cooper really brings to life. There are even some oddities like the 19-17 game in 1932 or Dick Enberg singing Raindrops are Falling on my Head at center court after the Bruins clinched the Pac-8 title in the early 70s. The students all held up umbrellas as they knew it was coming. My parents were at that game. I never knew about it. Thank you very much Scott Howard-Cooper. My attention span for sports isn't what it used to be but I think I'll be watching the Bruins a little more closely next season.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 31, 2021
Rating 100 games is very subjective. Plus they are very much out of order chronologically. I am a life long fan of Bruin basketball, and I had a hard time remembering them in the short recaps the author required. I recommend taking the time to figure the chronological order and reading them in that order. I'm sure if I had done that, I would have rated it higher.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews