Best Game Ever How Frank Mcguire's '57 Tar Heels Beat Wilt And Revolutionized College Basketball

by Lucas, Adam; Williams, Roy

• ISBN13: 9780762774272
• ISBN10: 0762774274
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-10-18
• Publisher: Lyons Press

Summary

The Best Game Everis a revealing look at the University of North Carolina Tar Heels' 1956-57 season, one of the most storied in college basketball history. From the first day of practice, when forward Lennie Rosenbluth predicted a winning season, to the final game, a triple-overtime victory over Wilt Chamberlain's legendary Kansas team, the season developed into what many sports historians believe was the start of college basketball hysteria not only on Tobacco Road, but nationwide. The 1956-57 Tar Heels finished a perfect 32-0. The only previous team in Carolina history to achieve perfection was the 1924 team, years before the NCAA Tournament was created.

Author Biography

Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly, America’s most widely read magazine devoted to University of North Carolina athletics. He is a featured columnist on TarHeelBlue.com and the author or coauthor of six books on North Carolina basketball, including the program’s official chronicle of its first 100 years, Carolina Basketball: A Century of Excellence. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Roy Williams	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xii
Prologue	p. xvii
A Basketball Coach for a Football School	p. 1
Underground Railroad	p. 13
Tobacco Road Tradition	p. 31
Being Rip Kaplinsky	p. 45
The Journey Begins	p. 67
A Christmas Ritual	p. 83
Inside the Smoking Car	p. 90
"Carolina Is About to Get Beat!"	p. 101
Road Tested	p. 124
The Foul That Saved a Season	p. 132
Cops, Robbers, and the Garden	p. 141
Thirty and One	p. 148
"The Dream College Game of Our Time"	p. 159
The Epic Conclusion	p. 181
The Homecoming	p. 204
The Aftermath	p. 219
Epilogue	p. 227
1956-57 North Carolina Tar Heels Final Roster	p. 229
1956-57 North Carolina Tar Heels Results	p. 230
Index	p. 232
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