Hoosiers: The Fabulous Basketball Life of Indiana

by Phillip Hoose

First published in 1986 by Random House, this revised and updated second edition includes expanded information on Bob Knight, women's basketball, coverage of The Region, and more. Included are stories of Damon Bailey and Glenn Robinson, Stephanie White and Gene Keady, along with updated stories of Knight, Bird, Oscar and the Mounts, Judi Warren, and Milan and Attucks.

Genres: Sports

310 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Phillip Hoose is the widely-acclaimed author of books, essays, stories, songs, and articles, including the National Book Award winning book, Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice.

He is also the author of the multi-award winning title, The Race to Save the Lord God Bird, the National Book Award Finalist We Were There Too!: Young People in U.S. History, and the Christopher Award-winning manual for youth activism It's Our World Too!.

The picture book, Hey, Little Ant which began as a song by the same title was co-authored with his daughter Hannah. The book is beloved around the world with over one million copies in print in ten different languages. Teaching Tolerance Magazine called it, "A masterpiece for teaching values and character education."

Phillip's love of the game is reflected in his acclaimed books, Perfect Once Removed: When Baseball Was All the World to Me which was named one of the Top 10 Sports Books of 2007 by Booklist and Hoosiers: the Fabulous Basketball Life of Indiana.

A graduate of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, Hoose has been a staff member of The Nature Conservancy since 1977, dedicated to finding and protecting habitats of endangered species.

A songwriter and performing musician, Phillip Hoose is a founding member of the Children's Music Network and a member of the band Chipped Enamel. He lives in Portland, Maine.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/philli...

Reviews

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The chapters on Damon Bailey and Steve Alford were great. Reading the 3rd edition allowed for a chapter with “the rest of the story” on several previous chapters.

Hoose could have used a better editor… the Indiana High School Athletic Association should not be referenced as “ISHAA” throughout the book.

[Will Hubbard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book on basketball I’ve ever read.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hoose’s Hoosiers is a the history and culture of basketball in Indiana, through narrative stories, mostly focused on the high school basketball. Hoose declares that basketball is the religion of Indiana, while the home high school gym is its temples, and the bleachers are the pews. Published originally in 1986, at the time 18 of 20 of the largest high school gyms, holding around 9000, were in Indiana, which should say something about the unique sporting culture. Hoose argued that basketball developed well in Indiana because of the sparseness of population prevented Indiana towns from supporting larger teams like football or baseball, but that basketball tended to be a stabilizing influences in places of desperate rural poverty. Hoose noted that the town rivalries also led to a hardening of defense of individual high schools, which resisted consolidation. In the statewide March tournament, small schools routinely upset big schools, and while Indiana is highly segregated, basketball often crossed racial divides and help integrate playgrounds. It reminds me highly of the centrality of high school football in Texas, but in smaller towns.

[hamptonenglish10 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Patrick Murray
English Book Review 10(Patrick Murray)
Academic English 10
22 December 2012
Hoosiers: The Fabulous Basketball Life of Indiana is a nonficiton history book that tells the story of a set of different stories about the rich history of basketball in Indiana. This collection of stories ranges from last second shots to win state championships, Larry Bird and his unbelievable career and underdogs that take down some of the state's top teams. These stories tell tales of inspiration, heart break and success. The author Phillip Hoose clearly has interest in the sport of basketball, particularly in the state of Indiana. The reader can tell this by all the research that the author did to make this story possible and by how much respect the author has for Indiana baskeball.
The best part about this book is the many different stories that Hoose tells about "Hoosier Hysteria". For example, Hoose tells the story of how a small town, Milan, won the state championship and at the parade there was a crowd of over 40,000 people. This is very crazy considering the town only has a population of 10,000. Also, Hoose tells the story of many different heros. This is illustrated when Hoose tells the story of Larry Bird, who was rose from a small town Indiana boy to being one of the best players in the history of the NBA. Another interesting part of the book is when Hoose tells the story of a team that only won 9 games in the regular season and went on to win the state title. Lastly, this book contains many intersting facts about the coaches of Indiana's high school teams. This is seen in the book when Hoose talks about Bobby Knight and tells about his many accomplishments at the University of Indiana. These stories about peoples love for basketball give sports fans and basketball fans something that they can connect to their own lives to. This theme gives athletes everywhere inspiration to never give up and always chase your goals.
Finally, I would highly recommend this book to anyone that likes sports books and espicially people that enjoy the game of basketball. The heros that are featured in the book will give readers inspiration and a interesting summary of their personal achievements. The only thing that prevented me from rating the book with 5 stars is the fact that Hoose doesn't transition from story to story as well as he could have thus making the book change topics to quick for my taste.

[Ronald · Rating 5 out of 5]

read SOMETIME in 2002