Lapchick: The Life of a Legendary Player and Coach in the Glory Days of Basketball

This is a biography of Joe Lapchick, the long time and legendary basketball coach of the New York Knickerbockers and Saint John's University. JL was also a member of the original barnstorming Celtics team. The author was one of the Coach's players on the Johnnies in the late 1950s. The strength of "Lapchick" is its' sheer breadth. There is much basketball history here, ranging from early pro basketball in the hardscrabble Celtics days, the college scene prior to WW2, the early National Basketball Association, the integration of the NBA, the college scandals of the 50s to the final glory years at St. John's. The Johnnies won the Holiday Festival and NIT tournaments in JL's final season of 1964-'65 when doing so really meant something. There is also some nice reminiscing about the basketball schoolyards at Far Rockaway, Queens, intramural infighting with Madison Square Garden management and JL's fraternal relations with the New York media. He even plants the seed that the great Al McGuire was not the mellowest of guys back in the day, an eternity ago. Readers already familiar with the historical backdrop-or who could locate Far Rockaway on a map- will enjoy "L" more. (It's at the end of the "A" train, beyond JFK Airport). This reader liked being reminded about organist Gladys Gooding. There was a time at the Garden when, during the playing of the National Anthem, a fan would be turned on Old Glory as it wove to GG's strains. Given the length and breadth of the text, some mistakes are inevitable: Author Alfieri's story is plainly too long, it cries out for that eponymous editor with a sharp blue pencil to thin out the text. A fact checker/proof reader might have caught such statements as the NCAA tournament being in its' "infancy" in 1959 or the Johnnies having a "commanding" 75-72 lead vs. Michigan late in that '64 Holiday Festival final. "L' has the feel of being rushed to print to be ready for the Xmas shopping season. A final rating on "L" is a hard call. This native New Yorker is 60 and right on the cusp of the age group who remember JL's final years. Younger readers-or those far from New York-might not have much interest. Older readers may wish to pounce. Given those limitations, 4 stars appear to be a fair if slightly generous final call. The author deserves to take a bow for the sheer volume of basketball lore both college and pro, encompassed in 300 pages.

I spent a good many winter nights in my formative years sitting courtside at what was then known as Alumni Hall, along with my sister, a St. John's graduate, and my Dad, a lifelong college hoops fan whose fascination with the Redmen went back to the days of the Wonder Five. My wife, herself an alum of St. John's, bought me a copy of "Lapchick" as a Christmas present. I couldn't put the book down. I came of age during the Lou Carnesecca years. Like many younger fans, my only knowledge of Joe Lapchick was from the tournament that bore his name. My father often spoke fondly of the former coach, but I had no idea what a tremendous impact he had on the game, from his time playing for the Original Celtics to his coaching career with the Knicks and Redmen. I knew nothing of his role in helping to integrate the NBA, the agony he must have felt when he unknowingly walked into what turned out to be a point shaving scandal, or the way the campus, the press and pretty much all of New York rallied around him during the final season before his forced retirement. The fact that Alfieri tell a portion of the story from his perspective as a player gives it a personal touch few biographers can hope to achieve. I'd recommend this book to anyone I know who loves basketball, has some connection with St. John's, or would just appreciate an uplifting account of a life well lived.

This is just a great book. It is about the life of Joe Lapchick, a basketball life that takes one from the Original Celtics to St. John's, to the Knicks and back to St. John's. It covers the development of basketball from Dr. Naismith and his arbitrary hanging of peach baskets at 10 feet through its development, including the opening of the peach baskets in 1912 and the elimination of the jump ball after every basket in 1937. The author writes of Tex Rickard's Garden and its operation by Ned Irish, who clashed heads with Lapchick and fired him. Alfieri describes in detail the many early characters of basketball, including Sweetwater Clifton, one of the three first black basketball players in the NBA. The book is a testament to the class of Lapchick. Yet the book does show Lapchick's vulnerabilities, and his failure to take a greater stand against two players on the St. John's team who were part of a fixing scandal. While Lapchick knew the scandal was hard to prove he did not take the extra steps to investigate further. Lapchick impacted many lives, fans, the news media, but especially the players who played for him and wanted to show him what they learned.