Personal Fouls: The Broken Promises and Shattered Dreams of Big Money Basketball at Jim Valvano's North Carolina State

by Peter Golenbock

Personal Fouls [hardcover] GOLENBOCK, Peter [Aug 01, 1989]

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Basketball

311 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1989

About the author

Golenbock grew up in Stamford, Connecticut, and in 1963 graduated St. Luke's School in New Canaan, Connecticut. His heroes were Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford. One day in the local library he discovered the book, The New York Yankees: An Informal History by Frank Graham ( G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1943) and it made a strong impression on him.''

Golenbock graduated from Dartmouth College in 1967 and the New York University School of Law in 1970.

He was a radio sports talk show host in 1980 on station WOR in New York City. He was the color broadcaster for the St. Petersburg Pelicans of the Senior Professional Baseball League in 1989-90 and has been a frequent guest on many of the top television and radio talk shows including "Biography on A&E," the "Fifty Greatest Athletes and the Dynasties on ESPN," "Good Morning America," "Larry King Live," "ESPN Classic," and the YES network.

Golenbock lives in St. Petersburg, Florida with his two basset hounds, Doris and Fred.

Reviews

[Johntaylor1973 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Garbage, garbage, garbage. Did Jimmy V have control of his players? I do not think so. I think he was not the best coach when it came to maintaining situational awareness around some of his players. But was he the person portrayed in Golenbock's book? Absolutely, positively not.

This is a MUST-READ for anyone thinking of pursuing a career in journalism. This is what NOT to do. Do not base an entire book on the bitter and acrimonious ramblings of a walk-on who has a grudge because he did not get much playing time. Do not make wild assertions without any semblance of fact to back it up.

Above all, go to your nearest community college and pay the first English major you see fifty bucks to spellcheck your manuscript.

It is that bad. The pages Amazon lists in their preview window are a great example. This is hack journalism at its most acute and its most damaging.

[Kevin Bailey · Rating 1 out of 5]

People rating this book highly have to have a grudge against Valvano or NC State. It is poorly written, horribly researched, and full of blatant lies. The NCAA themselves have refuted about 99% of the accusations in this book. There is a reason that no one knows who "Peter Golenbock" is today, and the horrible quality of this book is a large part of that.

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Personal Fouls: The Broken Promises and Shattered Dreams of Big Money Basketball at Jim Valvano’s North Carolina State by Peter Golenbock (Carroll & Graf 1989) (796.323) (3947).

I feel dirty after handling this book. This author has performed a hatchet job in brutal fashion on North Carolina State University, on the ACC, and especially upon former NC State basketball coach and athletic director Jim Valvano, known universally as “Coach V.”

Something doesn’t add up here. I love college basketball, and I am very familiar with the NC State program and with Coach Valvano. Valvano passed away in 1993 at the age of 47 from cancer. Though his public persona could be grating at times, Valvano is warmly remembered as a legendary coach. Valvano’s status as a basketball wizard was cemented when his 1983 NC State team won the NCAA national championship over a heavily favored University of Houston team.

I learned one lesson from this: Though Jim Valvano was greatly admired as a motivator, as a friend, and for the courage he showed in the face of his fatal illness, Peter Golenbock HATES Jim Valvano for reasons that are never explained in this volume. I have no idea why Golenbock felt this way. It is certainly possible that Valvano rose to the top of the NCAA coaching heap in spite of the fact that he was (according to Golenbock) the rude and manipulative cutthroat portrayed in this book. It could be that certain bad behaviors were forgiven and forgotten upon Valvano’s death, but the only source I’ve ever heard of that trashed Valvano’s memory is: (drum roll)...Peter Golenbeck in this account.

I suspect that this book was written in tell-all fashion by a mean-spirited scribbler in need of a paycheck. (I hope he was paid a nominal sum.)

The author was right about one thing: NC State gets little respect among its ACC conference mates. Here is an anecdote that helps explain NC State’s place in the ACC pecking order:

“Duke is another ACC college that takes its superior image over NC State seriously. Duke University probably has the highest academic standards in the ACC, and Duke students are not above letting the NC State visitors know just how much smarter they are. Duke students chant, “If you can’t go to school, go to State. If you can’t go to State, go to jail.” - (Personal Fouls, p. 229).

All in good fun. Right, Dookies? Uh-huh.

I purchased a HB copy in good condition from Amazon on 2/26/24 for $5.41.

My rating: 7/10, finished 5/8/24 (3947).

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Joe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jimmy Valvano.was put on this earth to perform a miracle, then use his fame to raise money for cancer research. Jimmy V impacted millions of lives in a positive way. This bealzebub wrote a book of lies to destroy a good man. No worries, he'll be with his people soon...and where he's going, he will not be seeing Jimmy V.

[Gini · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this just before going to college at NC State. It was interesting, but didn't affect my decision in any way.

[Lane · Rating 2 out of 5]

golenbock is only fair as an author but the book is sloppy in its reporting as are most of his books. not much of the book has been verified by others.

[David Barney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it a long time ago. Did not paint NCSU in a good light.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was never a big fan of Valvano or of NC State but I’m sure this wasn’t the only big-time Division I program of which things like this could have been written.