Review of "Digger Phelps’ Tales From the Notre Dame Hardwood," by Digger Phelps and Tim Bourret

 Review of

Digger Phelps’ Tales From the Notre Dame Hardwood, by Digger Phelps and Tim Bourret ISBN 1582618275

Five out of five stars

Disjointed history of Phelps at Notre Dame

 Notre Dame was long known as an NCAA football powerhouse and an also-ran in basketball, that began to change in 1971. That was when Richard “Digger” Phelps was named the head basketball coach. What followed was twenty years of being a force in college basketball, including some dramatic wins over the mighty UCLA Bruins under coach John Wooden. This book is a temporally scattered recollection of the main games, people and events of those twenty years.

  The book is constructed of a series of short, largely independent segments with a title followed by an average of a page and a half of text. There are broad-based chapters where the segments within the chapter are related. For example, the first chapter is, “Coming to Notre Dame,” and it of course deals with the background of how Digger managed to be named the head coach of Notre Dame. Another chapter is called, “Odd But True,” and contains what the title implies. Unusual events in the life and career of Phelps in and out of his performance as a coach and pundit.

 Phelps and Bourret do an excellent job in presenting their points. At no time do they descend into the use of excess verbiage. This keeps the flow moving smoothly. Combined with the short segments, this is an entertaining book that can be read through or in brief segments. It is a valuable addition to the history of NCAA basketball in general and Notre Dame basketball in particular.

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