Light Blue Reign: How a City Slicker, a Quiet Kansan, and a Mountain Man Built College Basketball's Longest-Lasting Dynasty

by Art Chansky

Book Overview

The 09'-10' NCAA college basketball season marks the 100th anniversary of North Carolina basketball. The Tar Heels have earned top-five rankings in preseason polls four of the last five years, twice at #1. But they weren't always seen as a power - house team. Their strength has been decades in the making. Light Blue Reign documents the building of a program, a behindthe- scenes, far-reaching, wide-angle perspective on one of the most formidable college...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312384084
• ISBN13: 9780312384081
• Release Date: October 2009
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 355 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

What a Book

By far one of the best books I have ever read concerning the Tar Heel Basketball lineage. Very descriptive and detailed in it's description of collage basketball as a whole. Good Reading.

Must-read book all Tar Heels and serious basketball fans

One of the best college basketball books I've read in years -- and I've read them all. Beginning with the author's "Ten What-Ifs of Carolina Basketball" I started to wonder if this unlikely dynasty might be based on as much *luck* (or happenstance) as anything else? The book details the lives of three legendary coaches (Frank McGuire, Dean Smith and Roy Williams) and their uncanny connections that have sustained the most consistently successful college basketball program of the last half century. The author tells all the story of all three coaches factually and, at times, vividly as he melds a timeline of historical events and behind-the-scenes insider accounts of the coaches, players, recruits, and fans. This book should be on the must-read list for all Tar Heels and serious basketball fans. It's informative, entertaining, and authoritative (which is not a surprise, really) since the author has been covering Carolina basketball for over thirty years. Highly recommend.

RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "STORIED TAR HEEL BASKETBALL FAMILY STARTED WITH FRANK McGUIRE A STREET

The North Carolina Tar Heels are one of the most successful college basketball programs in the land. There are of course many ways to decipher which program or team is the greatest ever... and the author massages history to present a book that constantly summarizes that North Carolina's is by far the greatest. To a lot of fans the final crown should be placed on the head of the team that has won the most National Championships and that is by far UCLA with eleven. Kentucky has seven and Indiana and North Carolina have five each. But if the reader can put the championship total discrepancy aside... the more salient subject that the author accurately portrays is the unmatched growth of a "TAR HEEL FAMILY"... that was started by the "dressed-to-the-nines" street wise in life and basketball... inimitable... New York Irishman Frank McGuire. Frank was one of thirteen children who grew up Fatherless when his New York cop Dad died at an early age. His life was built around sports and he became the coach of St. Johns University in New York which became one of the greatest basketball teams in the country. In fact McGuire led them to the NCAA championship game. A point well made in the book is that he also accomplished this with North Carolina when he won it all with his undefeated North Carolina team in 1957. The 1957 championship is still mentioned as one of the greatest upsets in history as Carolina beat the all-time-all-time great Wilt Chamberlain and his Kansas team in triple overtime to win the NCAA Championship. As of this writing there are only two other coaches in history that have led two different schools to the NCAA Championship game... and they are Larry Brown (UCLA & Kansas), Roy Williams (Kansas & North Carolina). Since Larry Brown had played college ball at North Carolina for McGuire and the immortal coach, Dean Smith, who was handpicked (from Kansas) by McGuire as an assistant and an eventual replacement... all three coaches have ties to the North Carolina family... and that is the essence of this book. (It should be noted that Coach McGuire also coached the St. Johns baseball team to the NCAA Championship game.) The biographical coverage of Coach McGuire is fascinating and how his street moxie created what was known as the "UNDERGROUND RAILROAD" in which he recruited the heart of North Carolina's teams from New York. One of his best teams starting lineup was known as "Four Catholics and a Jew"... the Jewish ballplayer from New York was Lennie Rosenbluth who not only had the highest individual season scoring average in North Carolina Tar Heel history... but he also holds the career record for highest Carolina scoring average also. The author tells Dean Smith's life story as well as current coach Roy Williams and current Bobcats coach Larry Brown's. The method in which the author keeps jumping back and forth between coaches and simultaneously changes time stamps becomes very confusing at times. One second you're in the middle of 1990's C