You Gotta Love It, Baby
By Hot Rod Hundley
Sports Publishing, Inc., 1998
276 pages
Reviewed by Norman Julian, columnist
for the Morgantown Dominion Post.
When Rodney "Hot
Rod" Hundley matriculated at WVU, he quickly started a fast
break that ended with him a great player and the number-one pick
in the 1957 NBA draft. Then and now, the two-time all-American
and all-pro excelled, too, as a basketball savant and entertainer.
In this book, he goes baseline to baseline, or "full circle," as he says. He not only tells a story, he leads it, dishing out multiple assists and high points along the way.
Once, when I interviewed Hundley for a book I was writing, I asked the legend how it was growing up in Charleston and he talked for 15 minutes—memorable quotes throughout.
Reading this book is much like talking to him. He runs with a question the way he used to direct a fast break under Fred Schaus, his coach at WVU and with the Minneapolis and Los Angeles Lakers.
Hundley, the long-time "Voice of the Utah Jazz," is a master communicator. His knowledge of basketball is unparalleled among announcers today. He is the only NBA announcer to have played in the league and in this book he rates other announcers.
Of special interest are his copious anecdotes and insights into national sports personalities and those at WVU.
Of Jerry West, he says: "I love him like a brother," and, "He was the greatest clutch shooter in the history of the game." He rates him one of the five all-time best, along with Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Oscar Robertson, and Magic Johnson.
Of Schaus, he says: "He always had us prepared to play." When West joined the Lakers, Hundley was a starting guard. When Jerry was ready to start, Schaus benched Hundley, though Hundley thought he deserved to start ahead of Frank Selvy.
"The only thing I could come up with was that Schaus wasn't ever going to start West and me together because the three of us were all from WVU. . . . One West Virginia guy had to sit to make room for the other."
Of Red Brown, the coach who recruited him to WVU, he says: "He became my legal guardian and was like a father to me." Hundley moved in with him and when he got into trouble, which was often, Red "always gave me one more chance."
Of Ann DiNardi, his housemother later: "All she does is give. She was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I never had much direction in my life and she tried to get me on track."
Later Hundley helped recruit West, who came under Ann DiNardi's guidance, too, as did countless other basketball players. You'll like the picture of Hot Rod and Jerry with Ann, along with other pictures of state and national celebrities who are friends of Hot Rod.
Once when the Lakers were back East, Hot Rod and Jerry called her. After they hung up, Rod asked Jerry what she said to him. "She said I was the best basketball player ever to play at West Virginia, but don't tell you she said that." She had told Rod the same thing.
Actually Hundley admits West was better in college but maintains, as did Red Brown, that Hundley was better in high school. This book is packed with stories that will make you laugh, and some, like those about Hundley growing up without his biological parents near, will make you cry.
Through rich anecdotes, and specific examples, Hundley defines his love affair with our University, state, and people. It is reciprocal. He was parade marshall at the West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival in September 1999 and returns to the state "as often as I can." He recently returned to resume his studies and get a degree.
Once I picked this book up, I read it late into the night. Like those great games that Hundley literally took over at the old Field House, you never want the drama to end.
It is essential reading to anyone who wants to understand WVU basketball, or basketball at any level.
Norman Julian is the author of Legends: Profiles in WVU Basketball, available for $19 from Trillium Publishing, 706 Snake Hill Road, Morgantown, WV 26508. His book was reviewed in the Spring 1999 issue of West Virginia University Alumni Magazine, p. 36.
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John Brown, The Thundering Voice Reviewed by Stephen G. Smith, Ph.D. |
Once again, Stan Cohen, in his work John Brown, The Thundering
Voice of Jehovah: A Pictorial Heritage, has demonstrated
his ability as a compiler of historical materials. Cohen, a graduate
of WVU and founder of the Pictorial Histories Publishing Company,
is well known for his illustrated histories. In 1976, Cohen published
his first book, The Civil War in West Virginia: A Pictorial
History. Since then, Cohen has authored or co-authored 65 books
and has published over 200. In his research for John Brown, The
Thundering Voice of Jehovah, Cohen drew heavily on materials
collected by the late Boyd Stutler, a noted student of the Civil
War in West Virginia and a John Brown enthusiast.
In his work on Brown, Cohen documents the life and times of the
famous abolitionist. From his birth in Torrington, Connecticut,
on May 9, 1800, to his death in Charles Town, [West] Virginia,
on December 2, 1859, John Brown led a life which brooked no compromise.
While chronicling Brown's journeys through the antebellum United
States, Cohen sets the tenor of the times. He provides the reader
with a good introduction to the slavery question that divided
the nation. Cohen's emphasis is not on analysis. Instead, he
presents the reader with illustrations, photos, and original
documentation in an effort to reveal the circumstances under
which Brown lived and died.
Regarding the most famous incident in Brown's life, the raid
on Harper's Ferry, [West] Virginia, Cohen quotes at length from
authors such as Henry Kyd Douglas, a member of Stonewall Jackson's
staff; David Hunter Strother, more familiarly known by the pen
name Porte Crayon; and various newspaper articles from the North
and South. In the South, Brown was vilified as a traitor who
attempted to incite servile insurrection. In the North, though
initially condemned, he eventually became regarded as a saint.
Indeed, of Brown's self-sacrifice at Harper's Ferry, Ralph Waldo
Emerson insisted that he would "make [the] gallows as glorious
as the Cross."
Among the documents included by Cohen is the "Provisional
Constitution and Ordinances for the People of the United States."
This revolutionary instrument, which described the temporary
abolitionist government which Brown and his fellow conspirators
would establish, was written in May 1858 in Chatham, Ontario,
Canada. Brown carried a copy of his Constitution during his raid
on Harper's Ferry. Also presented by Cohen is an officer's commission
carried by William Leeman, one of Brown's men who was killed
during the Harper's Ferry raid. This commission, signed by Brown,
made Leeman a captain in Brown's Provisional Army.
Brown's execution became an issue behind which Northern soldiers
rallied during the Civil War. Declaring that he was "for
treason hung because he struck at treason's root," Massachusetts
soldiers were the first to sing of "John Brown's Body"
in the most popular Northern war anthem, "The Battle Hymn
of the Republic."
In one of the most interesting portions of the book, Cohen illustrates
John Brown's impact on popular culture. Almost immediately after
his execution, the first theatrical production dealing with Brown's
life was produced. This was just the first in a line of plays
and films that continues to this day. Cohen reviews two films,
Santa Fe Trail and Seven Angry Men, in detail. Santa Fe Trail
(1940) starred Errol Flynn as Jeb Stuart, Ronald Reagan as George
Custer, and Raymond Massey as John Brown. Though entertaining,
the film was completely apocryphal. In contrast, Cohen found
Seven Angry Men (1955), which also starred Massey as Brown, to
be fairly accurate in its portrayal of the abolitionist's life.
In a note written just prior to his execution, Brown prophesied:
"I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of
this guilty, land: will never be purged away; but with Blood."
In this prediction, Brown proved to be horribly accurate. In
the contest which engulfed the nation, hundreds of thousands
of young men, North and South, died. Though the war began as
a struggle between advocates of the states' rights and champions
of the federal government, it ended as a fight over the future
of slavery, as Brown had foreseen.
Stan Cohen's John Brown, The Thundering Voice of Jehovah
is a good introduction to the study of a man whose refusal to
compromise principle has fascinated generations and will continue
to do so.
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