Players and Pretenders: The Basketball Team That Couldn't Shoot Straight
Players and Pretenders tells the story of the flip side of basketball's "March Madness, " where the game is played by average players for love, not for money. At the end of the 1970s at Bard College, where there was no pretense of institutional support, Charley Rosen gathered his hoops hopefuls and put together a basketball season whose impact reached far beyond the court. & Writing with a humorous touch, Rosen details the Running Red Devils' season, simultaneously examining the lives of those who made it so memorable and providing a glimpse of how the team members existed off the courts as both players and pretenders. His book playfully depicts the 1979-80 basketball season at Bard College and the "sports for fun" side of the game.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:003053786X
ISBN13:9780030537868
Release Date:January 1981
Publisher:Holt McDougal
Length:305 Pages
Weight:1.20 lbs.
Customer Reviews
2 ratings
a journal about how things used to be
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
I played ball for the Bard basketball team this past season, and upon hearing of my decision to sign up, my dad gave me this book to read. Charlie Rosen and Disco sought out a school like Bard to coach basketball at its purist, with no pretense of talent, no real shot at success, at a school that provided no institutional support whatsoever for athletics (just imagining playing ball in the building the school used as a gym when the book was written sends chills down my spine). The complexion of the Bard team has changed a bit, as the school recently built a multi-million dollar facility and began an ernest attempt to recruit athletes, but there were still a couple of throwbacks to the kind of players you would have seen on the "Players and Pretenders" squad. Experiencing small-school college hoops vicariously through Players and Pretenders gives the reader a glimpse of a world where sports at advanced levels can still be played with the reckless abandon and brevity of a 3rd grade basketball team. I'd have played for coaches Rosen and Disco Dodds' "ship of fools" any day.
disco dodds 16 years later
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 27 years ago
This is the true story of charlie rosen and myself (disco) (not my real name) coaching the Bard College basketball team. It is an amusing tale of a group of strangers that come together and touch each other's lives for a year, and then go their own way. Of the other central "characters" in the book, I have recently been in touch with Lance Lavender, full of life then and now, and Matt out in California, who calls to check in evry few years. I would certainly be interested in how our other team members are doing. Back to the book, other than being an amusing read, this tells the story of what its like to play on a small college team where you play because you love to play, knowing you are just an average player, and this is your one chance to be on a team. And the growth of this group of young men and two coaches, who learn what it takes to stick together. Highly recommended! And you get to read about me, disco!!!!
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