Netting Out Basketball 1936: The first team to Dunk, Zone Press, and win the Olympic Gold Medal: the McPherson Refiners.

by Rich Hughes

The Netting Out Basketball story travels from the sport’s creation when James Naismith nailed two peach baskets on either end of a class room gymnasium, through to the 1936 Olympic Final contest. The book covers Naismith’s long career at the University of Kansas where Naismith mentored the Father of Basketball Coaching (Forrest Allen) and the Father of Basketball Integration (John McLendon). The special role played by the state of Kansas in nurturing the infant sport is also explored.The book describes the top four teams of the 1935-36 season as they marched toward the rainy Olympic Final. A revealing treatment of Hitler’s propagandized Olympics is seen through historical records and the three weeks in the Olympic Village experienced by these players. The American basketball players returned as heroes only to be fired from their Depression jobs, for taking time off to represent their country. The Netting Out Basketball 1936 story concludes with vignettes on what basketball’s first Olympians did with the rest of their lives.

339 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 15, 2020