Big Man on Campus: John Thompson and the Georgetown Hoyas - Hardcover

YA-- For a man who values his privacy above all else, this controversial coach is in the newspapers often. He is black, he is a professional, he is a success, he has strong opinions. He is a man you either love or hate, and Shapiro has interviewed over 250 people who feel one way or the other about John Thompson. The result is an evenhanded portrait of a complex personality. This book is more than a biography; it's also a detailed chronicling of an ineffective basketball program that Thompson turned into a great one. Along the way, he gave minority athletes a chance at an education at one of the most prestigious universities in the U. S. Out of the 63 players he has recruited for his teams, 61 have graduated. An informative and enlightening look at an impressive coach and educator.
- Pat Royal, Crossland High School, Camp Springs, MD
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Thompson, the longtime basketball coach at Georgetown University, is a big man beyond his imposing size--610, 270 pounds. He hoisted himself out of a black Washington, D.C., ghetto and now, at age 49, sits at the front of a college-coaching bus once reserved for whites. This balanced, lucid biography, written without Thompson's cooperation, examines the chief Hoya and his program. Shapiro, sports editor of the Washington Post , covers the court: recruiting players for the great teams of the 1980s, charges of reverse discrimination, the paramilitary secrecy known as "Hoya Paranoia." College athletics may be flawed, but Thompson tackled the system and won in grand style. This is a sports book that, like its subject, stands above the crowd. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.