Echoes of Kansas Basketball: The Greatest Stories Ever Told [Hardcover]

Matthew Fulks (Author), Max Falkenstien (Introduction), Bill Self (Foreword)

Book Description

Series: Echoes of. | Publication Date: September 1, 2006

The University of Kansas—with more compelling coaches, players, and highlights than any other program—has a tradition that dwarfs nearly all others in college basketball. Echoes of Kansas Basketball brings that history to life through the accounts of sportswriters over past decades as they documented the most memorable games, profiled the coaching and playing legends, and tried to explain the University of Kansas basketball mystique.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Many college basketball programs can claim that they have a rich tradition. But how many can say that James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, was their program’s first coach? How many can say that the "father of basketball coaching," Phog Allen, guided their team for decades? Or that Wilt Chamberlain, the most compelling basketball player ever, wore their school uniform? The only college that can claim all of these men is the University of Kansas, a solid member of college basketball’s elite.

Multiple Final Fours, national championships, and conference crowns explain only part of the Kansas basketball mystique. There’s also "Rock, chalk, Jayhawk," the strange but electric chant that cascades down the rafters in regal Allen Fieldhouse. There are the sellout crowds and the unceasing and almost unequaled passion of students, alumni, and fans for Jayhawks basketball.

This passion—and tradition of excellence—has always been colorfully documented by writers, locally and nationally. Echoes of Kansas Basketball unearths the greatest stories ever written about the most successful program in college basketball history. It brings to life the most memorable moments in Jayhawks history and the people who lived them. From Frank Deford’s riveting account of the KU–North Carolina 1957 NCAA championship game to Jackie MacMullan’s Boston Globe article on the 1988 championship run, this book delivers the greatest games and the greatest stories. The personalities also come to life in Jimmy Breslin’s profile of Wilt Chamberlain from The Saturday Evening Post, in John Feinstein’s Washington Post article on Danny Manning, and in many more memorable stories. Finally, David Halberstam, William Gildea, and others attempt to describe the Kansas basketball mystique.

Much more than a scrapbook of Kansas’s finest moments, Echoes of Kansas Basketball is also a look at sportswriting from past decades and how the games, players, coaches, and tradition of Kansas basketball have been recorded over time.

About the Author

Matt Fulks has written numerous sports books and is a lifelong fan of the Kansas Jayhawks.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Triumph Books (September 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572438681
• ISBN-13: 978-1572438682
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,110,266 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)