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We Will Rise: A True Story of Tragedy and Resurrection in the American Heartland

Steve Beaven

3.71 · Rating details · 1,195 ratings · 144 reviews

The inspiring true story of the tragic loss and triumphant resurrection of a basketball team and its coach at the heart of a small Indiana town.

By 1977 the University of Evansville’s Purple Aces basketball team had won five small-college national championships. With a charismatic young coach and a freshman phenom, this small Indiana city hoped to see its team shine in the ...more

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Paperback, 272 pages

Published January 1st 2020 by Little A

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Feb 28, 2020 Vonda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A wonderful telling of the entire team that went down on a plane in 1977, all dying including the young high energy coach that had driven them to 5 championships,working on a 6th. The story tells the grief the entire town experienced, how a sport brought a town together. It tells about each families grief and how this town and families came together to conquer their grief and rebuilt another winning small college basketball team. So much grief and so much love and respect. A story that you will ...more

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May 01, 2020 Diane S ☔ rated it really liked it

Shelves: nfr-2020

Thoughts soon.

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Dec 16, 2019 Wendy rated it did not like it

To be honest I did not read this entire book. I relegated it to my "will-not-be-finishing-this-one" bookshelf. Way too many details on every coach, player, anyone involved with a coach or player (family & friends) for me to stay interested. Sports nuts interested in decades old high school basketball in a small town will love this! ...more

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Dec 08, 2019 Lance rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: blog, nf-books-read-2019, own-a-copy, arc, basketball, history, sports

Excellent book on a sports tragedy

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 Excellent book on a sports tragedy

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. ...more

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Dec 14, 2019 Richard Propes rated it liked it · review of another edition

I eagerly anticipated reading Steve Beaven's "We Will Rise: A True Story of Tragedy and Resurrection in the American Heartland," a book that remembers the December 13, 1977 plane crash that took the lives of the entire University of Evansville basketball team along with coaches, boosters, and everyone else on the plane. In fact, the lone player to not be on that plane would actually die a mere two weeks later in a car crash.

It was and remains a tragedy that has a permanent place in the Indiana I eagerly anticipated reading Steve Beaven's "We Will Rise: A True Story of Tragedy and Resurrection in the American Heartland," a book that remembers the December 13, 1977 plane crash that took the lives of the entire University of Evansville basketball team along with coaches, boosters, and everyone else on the plane. In fact, the lone player to not be on that plane would actually die a mere two weeks later in a car crash.

It was and remains a tragedy that has a permanent place in the Indiana consciousness, especially for those of us, myself included, who had any connection at all to that particular basketball team.

While I did not have a direct connection to the tragedy, my indirect connection was strong as I was in the same class as UE basketball player Mark Siegel. Additionally, Siegel's father, Ed Siegel, was a beloved Pike High School teacher and basketball coach. I would graduate from Pike in 1983. As was true for most Pike students, we felt this tragedy in our bones.

Beaven's book is a competent, though often quite scattered, account of the tragedy though the book devotes surprisingly little time to the tragedy itself. A good amount of the early part of the book is devoted to the years leading up to the tragedy, while Beaven does serve up quite a bit of information about the Dick Walters years that followed and began, I believe, in late 1978.

In terms of the tragedy itself, it seems like Beaven did what most sportsbooks do - he devoted most of the material to the team's stars while offering very little information about the bit players. There's a sliver of a chapter about Mark Siegel, mostly an accurate accounting of the impact on Mark's death on his father. However, it's a surprisingly abrupt chapter lacking anything resembling nuance.

I also found Beaven's back-and-forth approach to the stories distracting. "We Will Rise" often lacks a cohesiveness that allows you to emotionally invest in a story that absolutely should lead to your emotional investment. While the direct chapters around the plane crash are involving, most of the closing chapters aren't much more than your usual sports reporting. At times, it actually feels rather disrespectful.

I wanted to truly love "We Will Rise," but I simply had trouble engaging with the book and can't help but feel like it's a missed opportunity to create a truly gripping tale of a tremendous tragedy that many people don't even know about or know very little about. Beaven has crafted a competent account, but it's a disappointingly uneven one that never quite connects as much as it should. ...more

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Dec 18, 2019 William Gary Narron rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Boring and meaningless

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.

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Jan 09, 2020 Barbara rated it really liked it

I am a resident of Evansville, Indiana, the city featured in this book. We were all impacted greatly by the airplane tragedy, and the author did an excellent job of explaining the degree of basketball importance in our city. Some readers are saying there are too many insignificant statistics and details, but true Aces fans appreciate every bit of it. It’s a matter of having the right reading audience.

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Apr 13, 2020 Mandi Grasmeyer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: kindle

4.5 - only occasionally did I get confused about who was who, but wow, was this captivating! I think you have to be a bit of a sports enthusiast to love it, but it was so great. I cried way too many times. 😭

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Nov 13, 2019 Steve Eubanks rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

As exceptional story of a college and community overcoming devastation and rebuilding a basketball program that was the heart of the town. Beaven lets the story unfold in all its heartache and triumph without any unnecessary theatrics.

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Jan 09, 2020 Michelle Tuite rated it liked it

Reading 2020
Book 2: We Will Rise: A True Story of Tragedy and Resurrection in the American Heartland by Steve Beaven

Found amazon First Reads through Katie Colcomb Augustine AKA Pink Katie, and tried my first book from that service. You get books that are not published yet. I chose a nonfiction since I had not read one in awhile.

The story is of the 1977 University of Evansville Purple Aces basketball team. One foggy evening they take off late on their flight to their next game, the plane crashes ...more

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Feb 02, 2020 Brandon McGuire rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I really loved this book. It’s far from perfect and won’t be winning any awards, but it’s a wonderful tale of heartbreak and redemption in a struggling town. I’m a sucker for sports books and will generally go out of my way to read whichever one catches my eye.

I had very little knowledge or background of the tragedy surrounding the Evansville basketball team, so I went into this book with an open mind. I liked that the author went out of his way to explain the backgrounds and motivations of the ...more

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Jan 29, 2020 Mandi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Surprisingly good read for an only occasional basketball fan

This book is not my genre of choice but I saw it and it made me think of my father-in-law, a sports fan from Indiana. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. I thought the writing was great and the story was compelling. There were great details and historical background and I loved how the city itself was treated almost as its own character with it’s own personality and biography.

I did get a little confused and bogged down by the very l ...more

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Jan 16, 2020 Lisa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I can't count the number of times I walked through Memorial Plaza, passing these words--"Out of the agony of this hour, we will rise."--without really thinking about the tragedy of the 1977 men's basketball plane crash as anything except a historical event.

This book is heavy to start, introducing us to the players and the promise of their futures even as we know what's going to happen. I have learned so much about the city of Evansville's history and the school's history and it makes me apprecia ...more

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Mar 03, 2020 Denise Levendoski rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: electronic, won-on-goodreads-2020-thank-you

Thank you to Steve Beaven and Goodreads.com I won this book in a Giveaway.

Perfect Timing ! My daughter just committed to UE and we while touring the school, not much was said about the memorial. This was a great way to find out about it and what these students and the team and basketball means to Evansville. It was quite moving and really explained where those students came from and how Evansville as a town rallied (sometimes not) around this tragic event. We both know alot more about the people ...more

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Feb 27, 2020 Dave rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I eagerly read this book because having spent 8 years of my life near in that area-- I remember well the day it happened. The University of Evansville Aces were on the way to a game in Tennessee when the plane crashed and there were no survivors. It was full of memories for me.

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Dec 30, 2019 Jen rated it it was amazing

The writing is strong and details vivid. I enjoyed the book despite not being a huge sports fan.

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Dec 15, 2019 Jill rated it liked it

On December 13, 1977, the entire University of Evansville basketball team, their coaching staff, and radio announcer were killed in a plane crash while en route to a game. This novel introduces the players and coaches and explains how they each ended up at UE and how their families, and the town, rebuilt the basketball program after their tragic deaths.

The story is a little scattered, with narratives bouncing between various families, geographies and points of view....but as a lover of NCAA bask ...more

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Jan 21, 2020 CYIReadBooks (Claire) rated it it was ok

Shelves: owned-ebooks, 2020-motley-reading-challenge

Full disclosure. I'm not a basketball fan, so reading this book was a bit of a challenge for me. However, it was interesting enough for me to finish.

We Will Rise, written by Steve Beaven, is a story of the University of Evansville basketball team that perished in a plane crash on 12/13/77. It is a non fiction book, so expect a lot of statistics, player and coach backgrounds -- before and after the plane crash. You don't read about the plane crash until midway through the book, and it is just a s ...more

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Feb 01, 2020 Scott J Pearson rated it really liked it

Shelves: sports

This new release seeks to tell the tale of basketball at the University of Evansville, a small Division I school in Indiana. Like many areas in the American midwest, the community surrounding the school is tight-knit and obsessed with basketball. Before moving into Division I, the program even won several national championships at the Division II level.

There’s a wrinkle in the true story that makes its telling especially emotional. In 1977, the entire basketball team died in a plane crash. A new This new release seeks to tell the tale of basketball at the University of Evansville, a small Division I school in Indiana. Like many areas in the American midwest, the community surrounding the school is tight-knit and obsessed with basketball. Before moving into Division I, the program even won several national championships at the Division II level.

There’s a wrinkle in the true story that makes its telling especially emotional. In 1977, the entire basketball team died in a plane crash. A new basketball coach and a new team were brought in to complete the season. Within a few years, they miraculously qualified for their first Division I basketball tournament (i.e., the NCAAs or “March Madness”). Obviously, this brought deep joy and pride – dare I say, redemption – in the Evansville community.

As the afterword suggests, this story is based on an abundant amount of research. It’s almost as if you can hear the words of the first-hand witnesses in the tale. The story presents as an anthology of short, personal anecdotes masterfully weaved together into a coherent narrative. Although probably not difficult to an Evansville fan, the cast of characters is so wide that it is tough to keep the names straight. Still, as the author sometimes deliberately slips into the first person, one hears genuine excitement through the narrative. The author thus portrays his personal connection to the story.

Why do we need another sports story? The movie We Are Marshall details the loss of the Marshall University football program in a 1970 plane crash. This tale has similar resonance. I’m composing this review days after Laker great Kobe Bryant died with his daughter in a helicopter crash. As evident by the national outpouring of grief in the Bryants’ deaths, these stories tend to define American culture. Sports make us feel as if we know the players, as if they are part of our circle of friends. The players’ untimely deaths, therefore, profoundly affects us – our hopes, our dreams, our perspective of life. In modern society, sports stories convey our humanity in a way that national politics, religion, and other unifying forces do not and cannot. We use these stories to show who we are in our hearts. As such, Beaven in We Will Rise uses the Evansville saga to remind us more of what it is to be human, to be alive, to be American, and to believe.

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Mar 01, 2020 Pat rated it it was amazing

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 17, 2020 TM rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2020

A story of tragedy and resurgence. On December 13, 1977 Indiana Flight 216 would send shockwaves across Evansville. All 29 members on board were killed, ending what was just starting to become the rise of a small school among the basketball ranks. Prior to the crash, the Aces won 5 championships during their stint in division II. Young rising stars like Mike Duff, would never fulfill their potential and the expectations that was expected. Although a tragedy felt like a long lost of progress, Eva ...more

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Jan 04, 2020 Trevor W. rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Well-Written and Compelling Story (Finished a Few Months Too Soon)

No doubt the author wishes he could end the book with hometown son / new coach Walter McCarty taking the Aces into hallowed Rupp Arena against then-number-one-ranked Kentucky and winning in late 2019. I'm a basketball guy, and learned to hate Evansville in the early 90s when they were the conference hegemon who perennially seemed to end my Butler Bulldogs' season and steal the conference's NCAA bid. Damn you, Parrish Casebier! But ...more

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Jan 05, 2020 Tracy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Well written; details the impact of a tragedy on a community

I was a 15 year old southern Indiana teen when the crash happened. I remember crying when I heard the news.

This is a factual account of the meaning of basketball on small town Indiana. The story of a communitys grief and the struggles to move forward. If you're expecting a happily ever after due to a single hero, this isn't it.
Mr Beaven does a nice job of telling the history of the town so the reader understands how something like ba ...more

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Mar 02, 2020 Daniel Serrao rated it really liked it

A very good telling of a basketball team rising from the ashes to make a huge comeback following the tragic loss of the entire team in a plane crash. It was a team lead by a new young coach in his first year trying to fill the shoes of a legendary coach who had won five national small college championships. Only four games into their season under this new coach all lives were lost in the plane crash.

Enter a new young coach from a tiny unknown school in Chicago to lead this small college in India ...more

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Jan 09, 2020 Bernadette rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Very compassionate, well researched, inspirational telling of the tragic story of the University of Evansville's basketball team, whose members all died in a plane crash, devastating the university and the city of Evansville & surrounding areas. The triumphant rebuilding of the team in subsequent seasons did much to revitalize & help the university & town come to terms with the loss of such promising young men.
Though this is a work of tragic historical non-fiction, it reads almost like a novel, ...more

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Mar 30, 2020 Terry Koressel rated it liked it

First...full disclosure. My father was raised in Evansville and I still wear his Purple Aces sweatshirt to this day. I read this book because of my Evansville roots. We Will Rise details the successful history of Evansville's proud small-college basketball tradition, the shocking 1977 crash of the chartered plane carrying the team to a game and, most importantly, the emotional revival of Evansville basketball in the years following the crash. For those of us Hoosier senior citizens who lived thr ...more

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Jan 01, 2020 Rusty Mason rated it really liked it

Well done Steve Beaven. As a 9-year old boy on December 13, 1977, I remember that night vividly. My mother and I ran out our front door after hearing sirens blaring some 4+ miles in the distance, wondering what was going on. We went back inside and my mom turned on the tv to see a tearful David James choking out the horrific news. Having attended Aces games with my parents prior to that fateful night, I was overcome with sadness.

This book brought back so many memories of those magical and emotio ...more

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Jan 02, 2020 Joanne rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-challenge

This book is about a small midwest college town with a big basketball tradition that lost its entire team and coaches in an airplane crash in 1977. Yes, a very "We Are Marshall" situation. Normally I enjoy this type of nonfiction book, but this one is extremely basketball minutia heavy, with a seeming cast of thousands. One reads about the details of both players' and coaches' high school sports careers, about coaches and players prior to and after the doomed Purple Aces, and even a few local ra ...more

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Jan 09, 2020 Mr. V rated it liked it

I very descriptive read that read almost like a history text book. The author does a good job of describing Evansville and the area in a historical context and does a an excellent job of introducing you to the players, coaches and other people connected to Evansville basketball. Where he falls short is connecting you with the emotions that these families and friends suffered. The grief these families had to indoor had to be great and the way it would of spread into the campus and into the commun ...more

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Jan 11, 2020 Tim Oberholzer rated it liked it · review of another edition

A fair account

We Will Rise favors the personal side of the Evansville Aces in and through the 1977 plane crash. The story is a good read that does not overwhelm with history or basketball Xs and Os. Two subtle points came up several times in the book that wore on me. First, the author kept referring to the "jet" that crashed. A DC-3 is not a jet. A Douglas DC-3 is a propellered aircraft. The NTSB account of the crash refers to the propellers. It might seem trivial but it made me question whether ...more

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