Blue Yonder : Kentucky : The United State of Basketball

by Lonnie Wheeler

Traces the history of the Kentucky Wildcats basketball team; discusses coaches, scandals, and the team's slow acceptance of integration; and describes the role played by basketball in unifying the people of the state

Genres: Sports

307 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Lonnie Wheeler was an American sportswriter and author known for his work on baseball. He wrote for The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Cincinnati Post, and USA Today and was the author of twelve books. He co-wrote the autobiographies of Baseball Hall of Famers Henry Aaron (I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story) and Bob Gibson (Stranger to the Game: The Autobiography of Bob Gibson), as well as a biography of Negro league legend Cool Papa Bell. His work extended beyond baseball, including a co-written autobiography of Detroit Mayor Coleman Young and books on college sports.
Wheeler's books received multiple Casey Award nominations, and in 2022, he was posthumously inducted into the Greater Cincinnati Journalism Hall of Fame.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my favorite of all the books I've read on Kentucky Basketball--and I've read most of them, since I'm one of those obsessive Kentuckians he's writing about here. Wheeler does an admirable job of explaining the hows and whys for the reverence in which Kentuckians hold UK basketball.