Dan Patrick Outtakes. Hyperion Book, 2000. There is no doubt that Dan Patrick is one of the most entertaining interviewers in sport. This compilation is from his regular series in ESPN The Magazine. In it, he sits down to jaw with the most colorful and controversial athletes in the game. The conversations are very revealing, and unusually humorous. The introduction by the supposedly bloodless Pete Sampras is particularly striking.
Though Outtakes is made up of several one-on-ones with National Football League and Major League Baseball names, there are a handful of amusing confrontations with NBA players. Dennis Rodman is his usually scary self, and Patrick admitted that The Worm didn’t seem all there. He said "I will keep myself in front of that damn lens right there as long as I live. If it’s basketball or wrestling, or movies or pornos. What do you want?"
Charles Barkley is also normally controversial ("O am not a Cosby kid."). Gary Payton admits his kids love Kobe Bryant, and he hates it. Tim Duncan also opens up about being a competitive swimmer, being christened "Merlin" because of his magical moves on the court, and how he didn’t like Michael Jordan.
They Call Me Coach. John Wooden, McGraw-Hill, 1988. This new edition has a few new photographs and a new foreword by Bill Walton. Walton, a 1974 alumnus of the University of California at Los Angeles, gushes affectionately about how transformative his experience with the UCLA Bruins.
Young people may not appreciate the long-winded description of Wooden’s track and field and basketball career, but the people in his immediate circle are literally institutions in the game of basketball. This was a time before wireless telephones, the dawn of air travel, the birth of the automobile, and life moved at a leisurely pace. The Wizard of Westwood talks about his life during the Great Depression, World War II, and cultural upheavals in America.
Wooden was always a simple man, very conservative, endlessly in love with his wife, Nellie, whom he wrote letters to long after her death. His collection of all-star talent on the most dominant college teams of all time will never be matched: Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Keith (later Jamaal) Wilkes, Bill Walton, Bobby Warren (later a Hollywood actor who starred in Hill Street Blues), and many others.
What is of great nostalgic value is the photo section in the middle of the book. I was struck by the group photo of Victor Awardees of 1968, which included football legend Tom Harmon (father of actor Mark), Olympic medalist and movie Tarzan Johnny Weismuller, Satchel Paige, Henry Armstrong, and Vicki Draves, a.k.a. Victoria Manalo, the Filipina who won two Olympic diving gold medals for the United States in London. More than that, it gives a sense of the depth and breadth of the legacy Wooden built, and the simple universal principles that would serve our youth today.
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Living Your Dreams. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, Health Communications, Inc., 2003. Though not technically a sports book, this collection, the tenth anniversary edition, brings together a big number of inspiring stories of triumph for weekend warriors, and Olympians alike. Get to know Canadian twins Penny and Vicky Vilagos, who won Olympic silver medals for synchronized swimming despite a five-year absence from the sport. Learn about golfer Larry Alford, who lost his left arm in a car crash, but still became a champion competitor despite his disability.
There are 60 stories all in all, more than a dozen about triumphs of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, from a man who dreamed of becoming a surfer and finally did it late in life, to Olympic pairs figure skating champions Barbara Underhill and Paul Martini. At the start of the book, Canfield and Hansen also give a concrete blueprint for making your life work.
What should you look for in a sports book? Firstly, it shouldn’t be propaganda. Sometimes, athletes’ publicists look at a book as a license to skew their view of history. Secondly, photographs would be a big help, since it puts a face on the people being referred to in the book. Third, the reputation of the writer would be a big help. I’m a big fan of David Halberstam, Rick Reilly and some other award winners.