Title/Author:
“The Baron and the
Bear: Rupp’s Runts, Haskins’s Miners and the Season that Changed Basketball
Forever” by David Kingsley Snell
Tags:
Basketball, college,
race, Kentucky, Western Texas
Publish date:
December 1, 2016
Length:
312 pages
Rating:
5 of 5 stars (Outstanding)
Review:
The championship game
for college basketball in 1966 was a watershed moment, not only for the sport,
but also for the civil rights movement of the time. Texas Western University
(now the University of Texas-El Paso) faced Kentucky in that game. It was
significant because Texas Western, coached by Don Haskins, started five black
players while Kentucky, coached by the legendary Adolph Rupp, not only started
five white players, but did not have a single black player at all. Texas
Western won the game and in doing so, started a transformation in the game that
still affects the sport today.
David Kingsley Snell
paints a masterful picture of the two coaches in this book that not only
chronicles the season for the two teams, it sets aside some of the hyperbole
surrounding the game and lets readers judge for themselves how much race played
a factor in the coaches’ recruitment and handling of his respective teams.
There were more similarities
than differences between the coaches, a point that Snell makes clear throughout
the book. While the players may have been different, the coaches both used
drills repeatedly throughout practice to make their teams fundamentally sound
and well-conditioned. Through interviews with surviving players from both
teams, the reader will come to view both coaches as driven men who want to win
all the time and will do whatever it takes during practice to make sure the
players are ready come game time. In fact,
many players many that the games were the easy part of the season and that
practice was the time to dread.
It isn’t often the
that epilogue of a book will be the most thought-provoking section, but that is
the case here. After the game, and even
to this day, the popular belief is that Rupp was a racist because he refused to
recruit black players and allegedly made racist remarks to reporters and his
team. Those are refuted by players, Rupp’s staff members and other members of
the press as part of the epilogue in the book. Most of these charges were
published in Sports Illustrated, at the time one of the most influential
publications in sports and therefore were common beliefs. Snell does a good job showing that coach Rupp
may not be the vile person some thought he was. It is also noted that Rupp
tried to recruit a black player (Wes Unseld) prior to the 1965-66 season but
was rebuffed by many at the school as well as by the “gentleman’s agreement” in
place at the time that Southeast Conference schools will not recruit black players.
In the same token,
Haskins is not portrayed as a champion of civil rights but simply as a coach
driven to win and to do so, he will put his best players on the floor,
regardless of their race. The team gelled during the season, was brought down
to earth when an inferior team defeated them and then went on an incredible run
to win the championship, much like any other team has done regardless of its
racial makeup.
“The Baron & The Bear” is an excellent account of not only the teams but an in-depth look at what made these two coaches tick. They will be forever linked together by this historic game and they are linked together here as well. Basketball fans will enjoy reading about the coaches and should make this one part of their libraries.
I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Book Format Read:
Hardcover
Buying links:
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