Book Description Review An Amazon Best Book of the Month: Biographies & Memoirs“This story of [the] Evansville men’s basketball team’s rebirth after the 1977 plane crash is tragic and inspiring.” —Sports Illustrated“The best stories about sports are about life, too…Beaven, who grew up in Evansville, crafts a beautiful story.” —Washington Post“This is a story of community resilience and a tribute not only to those who were lost but those who carried on.” —Courier & Press“We Will Rise is a heartwarming story of the spirit of this team, its fans, and a resilient community.” —Brooklyn Digest“This story exemplifies the resilience of the American heartland, where God-fearing people bear unspeakable pain and tragedy with grace and depth most of us cannot comprehend. The heart of Evansville beats like a basketball on hardwood with every word. You can almost hear the squeaking of high-top sneakers on the floor, the ear-splitting chirp of whistles and the quiet, gut-wrenching sobs of those who grieve. We Will Rise joins the pantheon of great sports books for one simple reason: it has very little to do with sports.” —Steve Eubanks, New York Times bestselling author of All American: Two Young Men, the 2001 Army-Navy Game and the War They Fought in Iraq“Riveting and very personal…Steven Beaven has written the last word on the tragic crash of the University of Evansville basketball team. More, though, he celebrates the rebirth rise of the program after the devastating events of that winter day in 1977. A must-read.” —Bob Kravitz, senior staff writer for The Athletic and former columnist for The Indianapolis Star“We Will Rise is an ode to spirit, to hope, to somehow carrying on after the greatest of heartbreaks. Steve Beaven’s masterful work is a true must-read.” —Jeff Pearlman, New York Times bestselling author and former senior writer for Sports Illustrated“Growing up in Indiana, I heard the stories about the crash that destroyed the young team at the heart of We Will Rise. But I learned so much more reading this book. Steve Beaven honors the players and coaches who lost their lives and tells the stories of their families trying to move forward in the face of unthinkable grief. Here is the best of what sports can mean to a community.” —Brad Stevens, head coach of the Boston Celtics Read more About the Author Steve Beaven is an Evansville native and a former staff writer at the Oregonian. His work has appeared in the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife and two sons. Read more Customers Review: The author was born in 1967. Ten years later, the coach and basketball team at the local university were lost in a fiery plane crash. This book is his ode to the old team, the new team, and the small town that had to come to terms with and live through this disaster.BOTTOM LINE: Well written but so heavy on sports that in the end it’s really best suited for diehard sports fans.
This is not what I was expecting when I selected this title as my First Reads selection for December 2019. My expectations were to learn the manner in which Coach Walters inspired his team against all odds.Part I , for me even as a fan of basketball and former player, was too heavy on the history of Evansville, IN, and also on basketball, in general …I will admit, however,that reading about Larry Bird in his early years was educational.. There were some pictures between Part I and Part II that held my interest but seemed to be more ‘fillers’ than meat of the book.Part II covered the crash of Air Indiana Flight 216 on December 13, 1977, and the building of a completely new team of 16 basketball players. They were recruited from different states and started as a team in mid-October 1978 under the coaching of Dick Walters.I was expecting more, lots more, on the manner in which a coach builds a team from scratch…including motivation, playing together and in general, teamwork. To me, all of those attributes were mostly missing.One other thing is that the book ends at around the 80% mark and goes into the author’s acknowledgements.Disappointed with my Amazon First selection this month. I still recommend it as an OK read. Read it and decide for yourself.Recommended…long on basketball history but, for me, short on the team building aspect which I was searching for..
On December 13,1977 a plane crash near Evansville, Indiana killed all on board, including the players,coaches and managers of the Evansville University basketball team. The grieving by the school and city as well as their recovery from this tragedy is the topic of this excellent book by Evansville native Steve Beaven.He uses his first hand knowledge of the town and the Purple Aces history, along with information from over 150 interviews and many other stories to paint an excellent picture of the basketball program. From legendary coach Arad McCutcheon, who won multiple Division II titles in Evansville to the heartbreaking loss in the 1982 NCAA tourney to Marquette, Beavan’s account reads like a history lesson of Evansville University basketball. The most interesting part of this information is the six day coaching stint (no games,.practices, or recruiting) by Jerry Sloan, who abruptly resigned after making his alma mater excited about their most famous player coming to coach. Don’t feel.sorry for Sloan…he ended up with a long and successful career coaching in the NBA, most notably for the Utah Jazz more than 20 years.Of course, in the middle.of all this basketball history is the terrible night of December 13, 1977. Here, Beavan describes the night of the crash with great detail, especially with the delayed takeoff and resulting errors that led to the fatal.crash and the doctor who heard the crash, ran out of his house and tried to help any survivors. The reader will also know something about !many of the young men on the plane, such as prize recruit Mike Hoff and Kevin Kingston. Even the only player not on the plane, David Furr, couldn’t escape tragedy as he and his younger brother were killed in a car crash two weeks after David’s teammates perished.But this somber story is not the mood for the book, nor the school or its basketball team. There is great detail in how the Purple Aces, under coach Dock Walters, hired to replace the popular Bobby Watson after the crash, built the team.back to its winning just three years after the crash. While Meagan also is able to write about some of the surviving family members of the players and how they mourned, soles and moved on, their stories are not as.prominent in the book after the crash as the basketball is and that is the only minor flaw, in my opinion, in an otherwise very uplifting book.Fans of the story of the Marshall football team rebuilding after a plane crash, told in the movie “We Are Marshall”, will enjoy this similar tale of tragedy and resurrection after a very dark period. Especially recommended for college basketball fans who recall that tragic day.
The book seems to be thoroughly researched and meticulous about detail. But the reference to Serval’s conversion from refrigeration to “jet” parts in 1942 seems unlikely, especially if production focused on P-51s around page 36. Then on page 93, it refers to and describes the DC-3 as a jet. It definitely was not. It’s nickname was the “Goonie Bird”. It makes me wonder about the thoroughness of all the research.
It reads like an infinite number of old newspaper stories. No human interest, no story line, no emotion, no passion.The author seems not to care why should I.
An emotional read that is from what I can tell, extremely accurate. If you love sports, especially basketball, you love history, you love a come back then this book is for you! It will have you cheering in your living room, counting down the days until March Madness! I am afraid I drove everyone around me crazy talking about this book incessantly while reading. It is that good! Covers six decades, plus. Includes history of March Madness, automatic bids to NCAA, John Wooden, decades old match ups, historical under dogs, how many current NBA coaches got their start and much more… all with the back drop of a “We are Marshall” style story. This is a must read!
The plane crash that killed the University of Evansville basketball team in 1977 is one of the greatest tragedies in the history of American sports. Steve Beaven is the perfect person to do justice to the story as a native of the city and a professional journalist.He explains why basketball was so important to the southern Indiana community, its status as a small college power in the Sixties and early Seventies and how the program ultimately helped the city heal. Readers will get to know the victims of the unspeakable tragedy, including those who were not on the airplane, as well as the players and coaches who rebuilt the program. It is detailed and personal, and should hold the interest of fans and non-fans alike. |
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