Spanning 1898-1955, Rafters of the Plains shows how a brand-new game became a KU institution and a national force. Through Miles "Bell" Gaines-a fictional Black aide whose bell rope, tape, and timetables keep the team moving-the book braids documentary fact with lived scene work to confront segregation on trains, in diners, and inside gyms, always letting collective action answer policy.
Two doctors define the spine: James Naismith, whose "play hard, never mean" ethos prizes character, and Phog Allen, who systematizes the craft and builds a coaching tree. That lineage stretches through Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith before branching to later generations, situating KU at the center of the game's evolution. Rupp's chapter is handled with nuance-innovation within a segregated system-while Dean Smith's KU roots are noted alongside other mentees. The wartime campus beats include future U.S. Senator Bob Dole, underscoring how global conflict reshaped rosters, travel, and daily life.
Players such as Paul Endacott, Clyde Lovellette, LaVannes Squires, and Wilt Chamberlain animate the arc, while spaces chart progress: the constraint of Snow Hall, the ambition of Robinson, the communal crush of Hoch, and the 1955 dedication of Allen Fieldhouse-"James Naismith Court"-as the program's cathedral. Throughout, the prose stays lean and cinematic, favoring objects and tasks-nets, whistles, checklists, tickets-that pass hand to hand and chapter to chapter. The book ultimately honors a community that carried Kansas basketball through segregation's barriers and up into the rafters.
SCOTT HAMELE is a prolific Kansas City-based novelist with more than twenty books to his name, spanning historical and biographical thrillers, near-future suspense, and speculative fiction. He blends cinematic pacing with research-driven authenticity-real streets, tight timelines, and lived-in backstories.His historical fiction catalog includes Capone's North Road, The Petticoat Butcher, Hanna's Room, Promise in the Sky, Hitler Survives, Staff of Moses, Orchard of Secrets, Dust & Honor, Mercy in the Sky, Between Two Flags, and Kentucky Whiskey Barons. He is known for richly researched historical fiction, romantic historical epics, and a growing line of heartwarming, hopeful stories from America's backroads.Hamele's work weaves real places and archival detail with everyday grace-acts of courage, second chances, and communities that choose kindness. When he isn't mapping timelines, he's listening for the small moments that light a life and turning them into page-turning, feel-good reads such as Miles of Good and Porchlight Promises.My books are published in partnership with Schuyler & Sons Publishing
