Book Review: Miracles on the Hardwood
An upcoming book by John Gasaway of ESPN beautifully tells the story of Catholic College Basketball and its major impact on the game we love.
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Book Review TL;DR
I had a chance to review Miracles on the Hardwood, an upcoming book by John Gasaway of ESPN. You’ve probably read John’s work recently since he tracks the NCAA Men’s Tournament Bubble better than anyone. This book focuses on “Catholic College Basketball.” It’s not about Catholicism or College Basketball. Rather, it’s about where those two concepts collide and what makes them so intertwined in American history. The book is fun to read and packed with great stories. I enjoyed it immensely. Miracles on the Hardwood comes out on March 16th.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.
Gabe’s Book Tiers: Tier 2-Excellent books that I will recommend to my friends and family. See footnote for more on my tiers.1
Book Review in Full
Miracles on the Hardwood sets out to uncover “what is it, exactly, that ties Catholic colleges and universities so indelibly to, of all things, basketball?” Author John Gasaway starts at the beginning with the protestant invention of the sport by James Naismith and takes us through the next century of basketball success by Catholic schools.
Reading this book, you’ll learn about the early bond between the NIT and Catholic basketball, how George Mikan (DePaul) and Bill Russell (University of San Francisco) redefined the game, and why racism at other universities benefited Catholic schools (which were among the first to accept black players). The book includes tales of NBA legends who starred at Catholic schools including Patrick Ewing (Georgetown), Dwyane Wade (Marquette), and Elgin Baylor (Seattle). It also details the stories behind some of college basketball’s most memorable moments, like Villanova’s triumph over Georgetown in the 1985 NCAA title game, Loyola Maramount’s run to the Elite Eight in 1990 after Hank Gathers’s death, and Al McGuire’s miracle championship with Marquette in 1977. The book may even help you with your 2021 bracket as Gasaway goes in-depth on the current success of projected one-seed Gonzaga and projected four-seed Villanova. Perhaps most importantly, Loyola Chicago’s Sister Jean was interviewed and is featured in the book.
Miracles on the Hardwood is a great book because it gives you context about familiar events and the Greats of the game, and teaches you about historical facts and figures you’ve never heard of. The story of Walter Dukes, a star for Seton Hall in the 50s, made a lasting impression on me. You probably have never heard of Dukes. I certainly hadn’t. Gasaway explained his greatness on the court and made a compelling case to place Dukes in the same category as Russell, Ewing and Mikan.
However, Dukes stood out for the challenges he had to face rather than his success. Gasaway recounts Seton Hall’s trip to Louisville in 1953 when the Pirates had to sleep on the train the night before the game because Dukes, one of two black players on the team, could not enter any hotels in the city. According to some retellings, Dukes was hit in the face by a Lousiville player and crumpled to the ground with the ball. The refs called him for traveling, and Seton Hall eventually lost.
Unfortunately, Dukes faced that mixture of injustice and misfortune throughout his time as a professional basketball player for the Harlem Globetrotters and in the NBA, and then more acutely in his second career as an attorney in New York. Gasaway tells the story of Dukes’s later life and death, which I will not spoil here. After finishing this portion of the book, I had to put it down because I was crying from a straightforward recounting of events. That’s what makes a great history book, folks.
If my praise seems effusive, I will point out that I am the exact target audience for Miracles on the Hardwood. I actually highlighted it as an upcoming book to read for a few reasons. First, my dad, who grew up in Washington D.C. after immigrating from Cuba, has always talked about the great Georgetown teams of the 1980s and I really wanted to know more about them, especially with the recent passing of John Thompson. The book did not disappoint on that front with almost two chapters dedicated to the Georgetown Hoyas.
Second, I attended Catholic school from Pre-K through 12th grade, so Catholic basketball programs have always held a special place for me. Third, my college basketball experience has been deeply impacted by Catholic programs with the three best Miami Hurricanes’ teams in the current century getting eliminated by Marquette in the 2013 Sweet 16 (when I was a sophomore at the U), Villanova in the 2016 Sweet 16, and Loyola-Chicago in the first round of the 2018 tournament. All three of Miami’s losses were mentioned (*sigh*), as well as Miami coach Jim Larranaga’s playing career at Providence.
Above all, the book is an ambitious historical re-telling of the whole of college basketball history, which was perfect for me as an NBA-first fan. I didn’t know much about college basketball beyond my memories starting in the early 2000s. Now, my knowledge stretches back to the 1930s because Gasaway found a throughline that can capture 90 years of basketball history in about 300 pages.
Of course, there is stuff that Gasaway left out because books can only be so long. However, it’s truly an accomplishment to tell all of the stories that he told in an easy-to-read fashion. I will warn you that there is some thinking involved while reading. Gasaway comes to conclusions at the end of chapters, but he largely lets the reader come to their own conclusions first. He allows you space to take a breath with paragraph breaks every few pages.
If you enjoy what we do in this newsletter, I think you will greatly enjoy this book because it’s the type of book I’d like to write one day. Even if you have no idea what we do on Ball and Order, I suggest reading this book to expand your knowledge of basketball and to understand how a seemingly small group of people can change an entire section of life--in this case--basketball.
Here is the rest of my tiers for comparison: Tier 1-Books that changed my soul and are seminal texts in my life including Harry Potter and Into the Wild; Tier 2 includes Into Thin Air and Loose Balls; Tier 3-Solid books that I’m glad I read it but not likely to revisit it including Love and Hate in Jamestown; Tier 4-I read this book including The System and The Name of the Wind.