Heartland a forgotten place, an impossible dream, and the miracle of Larry Bird

"In the fall 1974, Larry Bird, one of the greatest players to ever pick up a basketball, was lost, and in danger of slipping away. He had dropped out of Indiana University, spurning legendary Hoosiers head coach Bobby Knight. He returned home to French Lick, a tiny town in the second poorest county...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: O'Brien, Keith, 1973- (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language:English
Published: New York : Atria Books, 2026.
Edition:First Atria Books hardcover edition.
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Summary:"In the fall 1974, Larry Bird, one of the greatest players to ever pick up a basketball, was lost, and in danger of slipping away. He had dropped out of Indiana University, spurning legendary Hoosiers head coach Bobby Knight. He returned home to French Lick, a tiny town in the second poorest county in Indiana, and he got a job hauling trash. It could have ended right there for Bird, were it not for two men: Bob King, an old coach with bad knees, and Bill Hodges, a man who knew what it was like to be poor and overlooked. In the spring of 1975, during one of the darkest chapters of Bird's life, King and Hodges convinced Bird to leave French Lick and play basketball at Indiana State University, a college that could not even fill its arena, much less compete with Bobby Knight. Then, while no one was watching, King and Hodges built a team of players around Bird who were just like him: they were castoffs and leftovers, ready to work"--
Physical Description:369 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (pages 349-352) and index.
ISBN:9781668211700
166821170X
Author Notes:Keith O'Brien is the New York Times bestselling author of Charlie Hustle , Paradise Falls , Fly Girls , and Outside Shot. He has won the 2025 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld award for biography; has been a finalist for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports writing; and has written for The New York Times , The Washington Post , The Boston Globe , The Atlantic , Rolling Stone , NPR, and This American Life . A native of Ohio, he lives in New Hampshire.