Rooting for Goliath

by Phil Hutcheon

Marvin Walker is a seven-foot six-inch basketball prodigy from Harlem. Having promised his godmother that he will earn a degree before moving on to the NBA and the millions that await him, Marvin is woefully unprepared for the classroom challenges in his path. Wade is an English instructor, two feet shorter, a generation older, and with no future millions on the horizon. Already encumbered by a demented dissertation advisor and a disenchanted wife, Wade takes on the daunting task of helping Marvin improve his academic skills. Guns, drugs, fractured grammar, fickle lovers, and politically correct morons plague their progress as issues of academic integrity, interracial coupling, domestic violence, and the exploitation of student-athletes test whether the unlikely bond formed between these two men can transcend their differences in age, race and economic expectation. Complications abound as the worlds of academia and athletics collide in this irreverent novel of contemporary college life.

248 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 31, 2020

About the author

Phil Hutcheon grew up in Redwood City, California, where his youth baseball teammates included Dick Sharon, later of the Detroit Tigers and San Diego Padres. With his father he attended games at Seals Stadium and Candlestick Park in San Francisco during the heyday of Willie Mays. He earned a bachelor’s degree from University of the Pacific and a PhD from Rice University. He teaches composition and film at Delta College. He has also taught at Pacific and at Menlo College. Where Triples Go to Die is his third novel.