Players and Pretenders: The Basketball Team That Couldn't Shoot Straight

by Charley Rosen

Players and Pretenders tells the story of the flip side of basketball’s “March Madness,” where the game is played by average players for love, not for money. At the end of the 1970s at Bard College, where there was no pretense of institutional support, Charley Rosen gathered his hoops hopefuls and put together a basketball season whose impact reached far beyond the court.

 

Writing with a humorous touch, Rosen details the Running Red Devils’ season, simultaneously examining the lives of those who made it so memorable and providing a glimpse of how the team members existed off the courts as both players and pretenders. His book playfully depicts the 1979–80 basketball season at Bard College and the “sports for fun” side of the game.

326 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1981

About the author

Charles Elliot Rosen is an American author and former basketball player and basketball coach. Rosen has been selected for induction into the NYC Basketball Hall of Fame with the Class of 2024.

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book years ago. In the 80’s? I kept it on my shelf through a hundred book purges, even calling it, at times, my favorite nonfiction book. It stands up on second reading but not for the reasons I remember. The jacket promises zen basketball and that is overrated. It’s a diary of a year of basketball at Bard University. It describes the magic that is the team concept, the intersection of humans coming from different places. The depiction of 1979 into the dawn of the 80’s is the strength of reading this in 2020. No cell phones, kids with personality, college kids of age for bar stops with the coaches, misogynist, racist and homophobic humor. Different times for sure and for better and worse they come back to life in Charley Rosen’s hands. Some unforgettable characters, which are unforgettable because I knew them all by different names on the teams I played for during this time period. I’m not sure who I recommend this book to, but if you ever secured your local middle gym on a January Friday night for your fledgling church team and taped 8 C batteries into your boom box with electrical tape for pregame warm up music, you are probably good to go.

[Andrew Roberge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let’s go Raptors.
As a bard alum, was really cool to read! Only question— there is no historical record of any piece of Rosen’s background. For example, the college he said he attended never existed (?). This made the read a little distracting. But great storytelling and hit home as Bardian!