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Lenny, Lefty, and the Chancellor: The Len Bias Tragedy and the Search for Reform in Big-time College Basketball
342
Lenny, Lefty, and the Chancellor: The Len Bias Tragedy and the Search for Reform in Big-time College Basketball
342eBook
$6.99
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Overview
Where were you on June 19, 1986?
That's the day when Len Bias, one of the greats of the college basketball game, a player seemingly destined for NBA stardom, died of a cocaine overdose.
For the next several months, millions followed the continuing, unfolding tragedy at the University of Maryland at College Park.
Six years later, where is big-time basketball—the big-money game whose vulnerabilities began to come to life with Bias's death?
How far has it come in reforming itself against the abuses that contributed to the Bias tragedy?
In "Lenny, Lefty, and the Chancellor," Baltimore Sun reporter C. Fraser Smith answers those questions through the microcosm of the University of Maryland. He demonstrates how, despite numerous obstacles, the University of Maryland has been reforming its program during the five years since Bias's death—actually transforming it from sinkhole to national model.
In so doing, Smith provides the first book to look at the problems of intercollegiate sports from the college president's perspective—a point of view crucial to getting balance instilled in such programs. "From 1929, the year the Carnegie Commission issued its report on the subject, through 1991, when the Knight Commission released its report, every analyst has said that university presidents are the ones who must solve the problems of intercollegiate athletics," says Smith. "My book, more than any available, carefully analyzes what presidents [such as former UM Chancellor John Slaughter] have to work with, and what they are up against." Reliance on the presidents, Smith concludes, "is illusory and unrealistic."
In Lenny, Lefty, and the Chancellor, Smith gets at the central issues through three main characters—each of them extraordinary and compelling. "Clearly, Len Bias captured the imagination of the sporting world," says Smith. "People still remember where they were when they heard the seemingly impossible news that Bias, just drafted the day before by the Boston Celtics, had died. Lefty Driesell, though now at James Madison University and thus somewhat out of the national spotlight, is vividly remembered by college basketball followers nationwide as a uniquely charismatic and successful coach. Chancellor John Slaughter, a black college president, is less well-known but just as interesting. His core experience as UM chancellor was built around a dead basketball superstar and a problem-plagued college basketball program, but his story is important well beyond that, because it delves into such important areas as race relations in America today."
Fully-textured and crisply written, sober yet gripping, Lenny, Lefty, and the Chancellor is a "people and issue" book that brings the problems of big-time college basketball down to the understandable level of the individual. "That," says Smith, "is something you can't get from a year's worth of reading dry texts and graduation statistics."
Though the book offers an insider's look at the University of Maryland, and at Maryland politics, it fits snugly into a larger and timely framework. With the Knight Commission refocusing attention on big-time basketball, the NCAA enacting new reforms pioneered at UM, and NCAA teams headed into another season, the lessons of the Len Bias tragedy at Maryland are important at the national level as well. "University basketball," says Smith, "permeates the American culture."
That's the day when Len Bias, one of the greats of the college basketball game, a player seemingly destined for NBA stardom, died of a cocaine overdose.
For the next several months, millions followed the continuing, unfolding tragedy at the University of Maryland at College Park.
Six years later, where is big-time basketball—the big-money game whose vulnerabilities began to come to life with Bias's death?
How far has it come in reforming itself against the abuses that contributed to the Bias tragedy?
In "Lenny, Lefty, and the Chancellor," Baltimore Sun reporter C. Fraser Smith answers those questions through the microcosm of the University of Maryland. He demonstrates how, despite numerous obstacles, the University of Maryland has been reforming its program during the five years since Bias's death—actually transforming it from sinkhole to national model.
In so doing, Smith provides the first book to look at the problems of intercollegiate sports from the college president's perspective—a point of view crucial to getting balance instilled in such programs. "From 1929, the year the Carnegie Commission issued its report on the subject, through 1991, when the Knight Commission released its report, every analyst has said that university presidents are the ones who must solve the problems of intercollegiate athletics," says Smith. "My book, more than any available, carefully analyzes what presidents [such as former UM Chancellor John Slaughter] have to work with, and what they are up against." Reliance on the presidents, Smith concludes, "is illusory and unrealistic."
In Lenny, Lefty, and the Chancellor, Smith gets at the central issues through three main characters—each of them extraordinary and compelling. "Clearly, Len Bias captured the imagination of the sporting world," says Smith. "People still remember where they were when they heard the seemingly impossible news that Bias, just drafted the day before by the Boston Celtics, had died. Lefty Driesell, though now at James Madison University and thus somewhat out of the national spotlight, is vividly remembered by college basketball followers nationwide as a uniquely charismatic and successful coach. Chancellor John Slaughter, a black college president, is less well-known but just as interesting. His core experience as UM chancellor was built around a dead basketball superstar and a problem-plagued college basketball program, but his story is important well beyond that, because it delves into such important areas as race relations in America today."
Fully-textured and crisply written, sober yet gripping, Lenny, Lefty, and the Chancellor is a "people and issue" book that brings the problems of big-time college basketball down to the understandable level of the individual. "That," says Smith, "is something you can't get from a year's worth of reading dry texts and graduation statistics."
Though the book offers an insider's look at the University of Maryland, and at Maryland politics, it fits snugly into a larger and timely framework. With the Knight Commission refocusing attention on big-time basketball, the NCAA enacting new reforms pioneered at UM, and NCAA teams headed into another season, the lessons of the Len Bias tragedy at Maryland are important at the national level as well. "University basketball," says Smith, "permeates the American culture."
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781610880015 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Bancroft Press |
| Publication date: | 01/15/1992 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 342 |
| File size: | 654 KB |
About the Author
C. Fraser Smith was born February 1, 1938, in Rochester, New York, the son of Colin McKenzie Smith, a law book salesman originally from Georgia, and Mary Paddon Smith, a native Canadian. To be closer to his father's sales territory--the Carolinas--the family moved to Pinehurst, North Carolina in 1946. In 1956, he enrolled at the University of North Carolina, where he graduated with a B.A. in English. From 1960-1963, he served in the U.S. Air Force as a supply and logistics officer, and was based in Amarillo, Texas; Boston, Massachusetts; and Japan.
In 1963, upon his return to the U.S., Smith began his reportorial career with the Jersey Journal, a daily newspaper in Jersey City, New Jersey. In 1965, he moved to the Providence Journal in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1969, Smith won a prestigious American Political Science Association Public Affairs Fellowship, which enabled him to devote a year to graduate study at Yale University. In 1977, Smith was hired away by The Baltimore Sun. A year later, his beat became Mayor William Donald Schaefer and Baltimore's City Hall. In 1981, Smith moved to the newspaper's Washington bureau, where his chief focus was policy problems and their everyday effect on Marylanders. In 1983, Smith became the Sun's chief political reporter, and since then has covered the governor, the legislature, presidential races, and everything in-between.
During his 28-year career as a reporter, Smith was the recipient of numerous journalism awards: from UPI New England in 1973, from AP New England in 1974 and 1975, from Roy W. Howard in 1975, from Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association in 1981, and from Sigma Delta Chi in 1986. His Sun series on lead paint poisoning, which he wrote with his wife, Eileen Canzian, won first place and best of show honors in 1987 from the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association. Since approximately 1999, he has served as an editorial writer and columnist for the Sun.
Smith has lived in Baltimore since coming to the Sun. Since 1982, he has been married to Eileen Canzian, an editor (and former reporter) for The Baltimore Sun. They twin daughters, Anna and Emily. Smith has three children from a previous marriage: Jennifer, Alexandra, and Jake. Smith remains a devoted basketball fan.
In 1963, upon his return to the U.S., Smith began his reportorial career with the Jersey Journal, a daily newspaper in Jersey City, New Jersey. In 1965, he moved to the Providence Journal in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1969, Smith won a prestigious American Political Science Association Public Affairs Fellowship, which enabled him to devote a year to graduate study at Yale University. In 1977, Smith was hired away by The Baltimore Sun. A year later, his beat became Mayor William Donald Schaefer and Baltimore's City Hall. In 1981, Smith moved to the newspaper's Washington bureau, where his chief focus was policy problems and their everyday effect on Marylanders. In 1983, Smith became the Sun's chief political reporter, and since then has covered the governor, the legislature, presidential races, and everything in-between.
During his 28-year career as a reporter, Smith was the recipient of numerous journalism awards: from UPI New England in 1973, from AP New England in 1974 and 1975, from Roy W. Howard in 1975, from Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association in 1981, and from Sigma Delta Chi in 1986. His Sun series on lead paint poisoning, which he wrote with his wife, Eileen Canzian, won first place and best of show honors in 1987 from the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association. Since approximately 1999, he has served as an editorial writer and columnist for the Sun.
Smith has lived in Baltimore since coming to the Sun. Since 1982, he has been married to Eileen Canzian, an editor (and former reporter) for The Baltimore Sun. They twin daughters, Anna and Emily. Smith has three children from a previous marriage: Jennifer, Alexandra, and Jake. Smith remains a devoted basketball fan.
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