The history of Cincinnati Bearcats basketball did not begin with Oscar Robertson nor end with Danny Fortson. UC has spent more than 100 years playing the game, often rather well, and Bearcats! successfully illuminates fans about how the program grew to a position of prominence in the sport.
There is not much about Bearcats basketball that is excluded from this history. It is rich with detail from the earliest days of the program, when college athletics were not as publicized and well-chronicled as today - such as the disdain in 1902 of coach Anthony Chez for UC's home court in McMicken gymnasium.
There was a low ceiling, which was often struck with the ball by players who tried to throw long passes and loose plaster that often dusted the eyes of coaches and players.
There also is attention paid to Mr. Robertson's status as a pioneering African-American player at UC. And, though written by several university employees, the book offers an implied criticism of the school administration during the 1960s, which Mr. Robertson believed did not do enough to defend him from racial insults he endured on road trips through the South.
Greater emphasis is placed on that which has not been chronicled on television and through the daily papers with such vigor during the past decade.
The photos from coach Bob Huggins' era are the most vivid, with more color and more spectacular action, but the achievements of Mr. Huggins and Mr. Fortson are so familiar that they are worth including largely for the sake of completeness.
UC's 1997-98 season, which began with the Bearcats ranked No. 1, is covered in five paragraphs. This is for the best. The chapters that explain how UC got started in basketball are much fresher and more valuable.
One criticism regards the book's "in-the-beginning" opening. As in so many biographies that begin with the subject's birth, there is no sense of perspective presented about why all of this is important. The attitude seems to be that whoever bought the book ought to know.
Mr. Robertson's name does not appear in the text until page 30. There is no mention of UC's 1962 national championship before page 64. An important part of history is perspective, and rather than make a direct point about the Bearcats' place in college basketball, the authors have sprinkled it throughout.
The success of a book such as this, however, ultimately rests with the manner in which it is illustrated. That means not only the selection of interesting photographs, but their effective presentation.
Bearcats! is an attractive package, and each picture's importance to the story is made clear with expansive captions, some of which are thorough enough to serve as sidebars to the main text.
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