The Real Hoosiers: Crispus Attucks High School, Oscar Robertson, and the Hidden History of Hoops by Jack McCallum

The Real Hoosiers: Crispus Attucks High School, Oscar Robertson, and the Hidden History of Hoops Reviews

• 
  Susan King

  This was an excellent recount of the Crispus Attucks Tigers basketball team. Oscar Robertson and the Tigers broke ground when they won the Indiana State basketball championship in 1955. They were the first all black basketball team to win the state championship. The story and facts flowed well for a historical biography. The role of the Ku Klux Klan and racism of the time was prominent in the story and time period. Oscar Robertson and the Tigers were true underdogs as a result of the prejudices of the time. It was assumed that the truly good black basketball players of would join the Harlem Globetrotters, and I respected Robertson’s rejection of that idea. McCallum was able to navigate the sensitive topics and the points of view for all were well represented. This story has been swept under the rug for too long, and I’m glad that McCallum was able to write such a thorough retelling of this history.
• 
  Erin Cataldi

  For someone who doesn't get that into sports I freaking LOVE reading about them. The Real Hoosiers is magnificent, it's a breathtaking look at The Big O, Attucks, and basketball in Indiana. As a Hoosier, this content isn't brand new to me. I have read several other books on Hoosier basketball, and a young adult book on Attucks - however the framework of this book included so much background and depth that I learned a ton. This should be required reading. It talks in depth about how deep racism permeated in the Hoosier Heartland (on and off the court) and the hoops (see what I did there) that African American players faced just to play the game they love. I love Indiana and we've come a long way as a state - but boy... things were bad. It's amazing that we got such a great school and basketball team out of so much prejudice. Wonderful book, I loved all the footnotes and anecdotes!
• 
  Dana Kraft

  I gave up after 100 pages. I wanted to read about Oscar Robertson's HS basketball team with context from that time in Indiana, especially in contrast to the fictional story in Hoosiers. My expectations were that the book would be maybe 70% about basketball and 30% about related history, racism, social issues, Indiana, etc. It's actually the opposite of that, much more about the latter than the former. For me it felt like a fragmented collection of stories about explicit and institutional racism in midcentury America with some occasional basketball interludes.
  
  I did love this note on p. 21 about the origins of the word “Hoosier” - “One wades into the etymological quagmire of Hoosier with much trepidation. It is a maze with no exit. An entire wall at the Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis is devoted to the name, which shows up as early as 1855 as a term to describe Indianans. Do the research, but Madison says he's always liked James Whitcomb Riley's story that early settlers often had vicious brawls, after which a passerby would spot a dislodged organ on the floor and ask, "Whose ear?"
• 
  Matthew Werner

  If you've never read about Crispus Attucks High School's basketball history and you want to do so soon, this is a good option. It doesn't reveal anything that hasn't been covered in other books, documentaries, and articles, though. The upside is that it's a decent culmination of those other sources. The downside is that the story feels disjointed and awkward at times.
  
  He frequently wrote, "more on that later," which left me hanging awkwardly every time. Details regarding the racism in Indiana and Indianapolis, although very important, didn't flow well with the story as presented and began to feel gratuitous and took away from the story of Attucks' achievements. He criticized Oscar Robertson, sometimes harshly, throughout the book which also detracted from the Attucks story (Attucks had one of the most dominant runs in Indiana high school basketball history from 1951 - 1959). Robertson chose not to be interviewed for the book.
  
  If you want to learn a lot about Attucks history, I recommend Randy Roberts' book, "But They Can't Beat Us." If you have time, add James Madison's book, "The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland," Stanley Warren's "Crispus Attucks High School: Hail to the Green, Hail to the Gold," and the documentaries, "Attucks: The School That Opened A City" and "Something To Cheer About." If that's too much or copies are hard to find, read this book.
• 
  Jesse

  A slightly ramshackle (there's a lot of "we will get to this in chapter 17"-type reader advisories) but big-hearted voyage through midcentury Indiana, Crispus Attucks HS (a monument to 1920s segregation that attracted, for a time, a truly world-class faculty), the Indianapolis school that won three state titles in five years, lost one final, and lost in the semis to the team that lost to Milan, the real-life Hoosiers team. (Solid half-chapter on the problematic, and unsurprising, racial politics of that movie, along with a bunch of trivia after the analysis ends.) And sort of Oscar Robertson, the structuring absence of the book who never talked to McCallum--which in itself feels like a big deal, given his history as a basketball writer and how plugged-in he is, especially with older former NBA stars. Obviously, a tighter rein on the narrative would have been nice--there's a whole section on the Klan in 1920s Indiana, followed by the admission that it's not all that relevant for 1950s basketball--but I admire the author's eagerness to show us everything he read and learned (he digs into what sound like some epic Hoosier histories, appears to have read both Middletown and its sequel, and talks to several of the historians, who I bet loved the opportunity to talk about 1950s Indiana history and culture) and to wander around the city, trying to unearth the courts where Robertson learned to play (probably annexed by IUPUI, where I once almost interviewed for a job). So, yeah, a bit of a mess, and the narrative is...sporadic, let's say, interrupted as it is by explorations of other towns and the story of basketball and a bunch of other things. But ultimately it felt to me that the book effectively submerges the reader in the stream of regional history and the specific politics of this school and city--like, say, Playing Through the Whistle or Friday Night Lights or other sports anthropologies, it gives us a world in a game.
• 
  Tanner Olson

  The Real Hoosiers was an in depth look at the legendary Crispus Attucks basketball teams and the events leading up to their legendary run of seasons.
  
  I came into this book expecting it to be purely about basketball and Oscar Robertson. I was pleasantly surprised in the best way possible when I realized that I was also able to learn about the history of Crispus Attucks HS itself, along with the heartbreaking racial divide history of Indianapolis and Indiana as a whole.
  
  I found the book to be extremely informative and nice slow burn with great buildup to the discussion surrounding Oscar Robertsons high school career. I would definitely suggest this book to anyone that might have even a slight interest in basketball or history, as it provides a healthy dose of both aspects.
  
  This book was provided to me in exchange for a review but I would have purchased and read it regardless. I have enjoyed everything that I’ve read from Jack McCallum up to this point and will continue to seek out his work as I see new releases coming
• 
  Edward

  This is a non-fiction account of the success of the Crispus Attucks High School and its place in Indianapolis history as well as in the history of Indiana high school basketball. The book focuses on the two state championships won by Attucks in the mid-1950's. The team was led by one of the greatest basketball players of all time, Oscar Robertson. Indianapolis in the the mid-1950's was a completely segregated city. Attucks was an all-Black high school. It was an enormous achievement for the school to be the state champion of Indiana in 1955 and 1956. This success, according to the premise of the book, helped to open up Indianapolis. There were horrific racist stories related in the book, including a lynching in an Indiana town. The Ku Klux Klan was very significant in Indiana history, particularly during the time focused on in the book.
  There is a film documentary done in 2016 titled - "Attucks - a school that opened a city." I look forward to watching. It was done for PBS:
  https://www.pbs.org/video/wfyi-educat...
  
• 
  Kelsey

  As a life-long Hoosier who genuinely doesn't know a single thing about basketball or how it's played (and who, just 2 weeks ago at a MARCH family gathering responded with "I don't even know which sport is in season" when someone asked which teams were playing), this was very interesting!
  A few spots dragged a bit for me (mostly because I don't recognize any of the names, etc.), but I have of course seen the movie "Hoosiers" a few times over my 30+ years, and I'm fascinated with certain aspects of Indiana's history.
• 
  John

  Outstanding insights and reminders of how things were. Much more than a basketball book, It enters the psyche of the times and the area.