Lapchick: the life of a legendary player and coach in the glory days of basketball - Softcover

Alfieri, Gus

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1480030775 ISBN 13: 9781480030770

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016

Synopsis

LAPCHICK encapsulates Joe Lapchick’s fifty-year career that mirrors the framework of basketball in America. Coach Lapchick, twice enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame, experienced a life in basketball that places him with a handful of the pioneers of the game. The book uses Joe Lapchick as a lens through which the rise and development of basketball is clearly understood. Lapchick began a professional career that led him in the 1920s to the famous Original Celtics where he became the game’s most successful big man. After a successful professional career, he turned to coaching where he spent more than twenty years coaching at St. John’s University [1936-1947, 1956-1965] only separated by nine years with the New York Knickerbockers. His record was among the nation’s best, both as a collegiate and professional coach, winning four NITs. During his second stint at St. John’s, Gus had the pleasure of playing for Coach Lapchick. The experience was so riveting that he later was motivated to write his coach’s biography. Alfieri conducted more than 250 interviews, including ones with Lou Carnesecca, Wilt Chamberlain, Bobby Knight, and John Wooden.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Joe Lapchick. The name is legendary in the history of basketball. As a Hall of Fame player and member of the original Celtics barnstorming team, a coach of four national championship teams at St. John’s, and the first coach of the New York Knicks, Lapchick made a lifetime of contributions to the game he loved. In this, the first and only biography of Lapchick, Gus Alfieri not only tells Lapchick’s life story but also provides a priceless look at the history of the game from its early rule changes and barnstorming and club teams, to dramatic National Invitational Tournament games (when the NIT was the tournament in the country) and college basketball point-shaving scandals, to the formation of the National Basketball Association. Perhaps most significantly, Lapchick’s signing of the Knicks’ Sweetwater Clifton, the first African-American player to sign with an NBA team, led the way in the movement to integrate the league. Both an inspiring story of a pioneer sports figure and a nostalgic look at the era in which he played, Lapchick is a must-read for any basketball fan with a passion for the game.

About the Author:

Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Gus Alfieri was the point guard on Hall-of-Fame coach, Joe Lapchick's 1959 St. John's NIT Championship Team. He received his BA & Masters in Education from St. John's and taught high school social studies for over 35 years on Long Island. Gus Alfieri coached 2 state championship teams and earned national recognition for St. Anthony's High School which inspired his second book, The Heart of a Champion. Gus returned to school for his Ph.D. in American Cultural History at Stony Brook University. With this foundation, he taught for 14 years in Stony Brook's graduate school while also writing a syndicated sports column in Suffolk County newspapers. Gus started the first sports book club in the country; this concept has struck a nerve and has gained national publicity. In 2006, he accomplished his lifelong goal of writing a book when the biography of his coach, Joe Lapchick was published (LAPCHICK). He is the director of the All-American Basketball Camp, which he has maintained for the past forty years; it is his legacy. Gus lives in Smithtown with his wife, Janet & his golden retriever, Jake. He has four children & nine grandchildren. He loves to write & ride his bike.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1480030775
• ISBN 13: 9781480030770
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 404