Digger Phelps's Tales From The Notre Dame Hardwood

by Digger Phelps

ESPN basketball commentator Digger Phelps is regarded as one of the most charismatic and opinionated analysts in the profession. And he was the same personality during his 20 years as the head coach at the University of Notre Dame. Digger Phelps’s Tales from the Notre Dame Hardwood recalls the most successful period in Notre Dame basketball history. In his 20 seasons, 17 of Phelps’s teams advanced to postseason play, including 14 NCAA Tournament teams. In the book, Phelps recalls his initial expression of interest in Notre Dame through a 1965 letter he wrote to football coach Ara Parseghian. It recounts the scenes of his seven wins over number one-ranked teams, including the landmark game in 1974 when the Irish ended UCLA’s 88-game winning streak. Two chapters concentrate on the coach’s former Notre Dame players, concluding with the selection of his All-Digger teams. He also recalls the 20 Hall of Fame coaches he competed against, including Bobby Knight, Al McGuire, Ray Meyer, and John Wooden. Digger Phelps’s Tales from the Notre Dame Hardwood concludes with a chapter entitled "Domers," which documents Phelps’s relationships with Notre Dame coaches, administrators, and student-athletes, including Father Theodore Hesburgh, the man who made Notre Dame what it is today.

Genres: Sports

247 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2004

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.