Players and Pretenders tells the story of the flip side of basketball's "March Madness," where the game is played by average players for love, not for money. At the end of the 1970s at Bard College, where there was no pretense of institutional support, Charley Rosen gathered his hoops hopefuls and put together a basketball season whose impact reached far beyond the court.
Writing with a humorous touch, Rosen details the Running Red Devils' season, simultaneously examining the lives of those who made it so memorable and providing a glimpse of how the team members existed off the courts as both players and pretenders. His book playfully depicts the 1979-80 basketball season at Bard College and the "sports for fun" side of the game.
(20070509)
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
a journal about how things used to be:
I played ball for the Bard basketball team this past season, and upon hearing of my decision to sign up, my dad gave me this book to read. Charlie Rosen and Disco sought out a school like Bard to coach basketball at its purist, with no pretense of talent, no real shot at success, at a school that provided no institutional support whatsoever for athletics (just imagining playing ball in the building the school used as a gym when the book was written sends chills down my spine). The complexion of the Bard... more info
disco dodds 16 years later:
This is the true story of charlie rosen and myself (disco) (not my real name) coaching the Bard College basketball team. It is an amusing tale of a group of strangers that come together and touch each other's lives for a year, and then go their own way. Of the other central "characters" in the book, I have recently been in touch with Lance Lavender, full of life then and now, and Matt out in California, who calls to check in evry few years. I would certainly be interested in how our other team members are... more info
