Thanks also to the folks at the Golf Channel and at Comcast SportsNet who have actually made television fun the last couple of years: Tom Stathakes, Joe Riley, Dave Taylor, Kristi Setaro, Matt Hegarty, Eric Rutledge, Jon Steele, Scott Rude, Jeremy Davis, Tim Rosaforte, Frank Nobilo, Brandel Chamblee, Rich Lerner, Gary Williams, Eric Kuselias, Kelly Tilghman, Todd Lewis, Whit Watson, and Kraig Kann at the Golf Channel. And at Comcast: Joe Yasharoff, Larry Duvall, Manda Gross, Ivan Carter, Russ Thaler, Chick Hernandez, Julie Donaldson, and Brian Mitchell.
Also, the usual suspects in different sports. At the USGA: David Fay (ex-exec director), Mike Davis, Mike Butz, Mary Lopuszynski, Pete Kowalski, Amy Watters, and Craig Smith (still). Frank and Jaymie Bussey get their own category. At the PGA Tour: Marty Caffey, Henry Hughes (still), Sid Wilson, Joel Schuchmann, Todd Budnick, Dave Senko, Doug Milne, Chris Reimer, Colin Murray, John Bush, Chris Smith, Laura Hill, James Cramer, Joe Chemyz (pronounced Krzyzewski), and Phil Stambaugh. Thanks also to Dave Lancer and Ward Clayton for years of friendship, and special thanks as always to Denise Taylor and Guy Scheipers. At the PGA of America: Joe Steranka, Bob Denney, and Julius Mason.
And, of course, the rules guys: Mark Russell (and my favorite Republicans, Alex and Laura Russell), Jon Brendle, Steve Rintoul, Slugger White (not my favorite Republican), Robbie Ware, and Mike Shea. Special thanks to John Paramour, my wife’s biggest fan.
Basketball people: David Stern, Tim Frank, Rick Barnes, Mike Brey, Jeff Jones, Lefty Driesell, Brad and Seth Greenberg, Fran Dunphy, Karl Hobbs, Jim Calhoun, Jim Boeheim, Brad Stevens, Billy Donovan, Larry Shyatt, Tom Brennan, Tommy Amaker, Dave Odom, Jim Larranaga, Mack McCarthy, Pat Flannery, Ralph Willard, Emmett Davis, Billy Lange, Fran O’Hanlon, (last coach standing), Zack Spiker, Dave Paulsen, Milan Brown, and Brett Reed. Frank Sullivan will always get his own sentence.
I can’t forget my various medics—although sometimes I wish I could: Eddie McDevitt, Dean Taylor (I’m happier to remember Ann), Bob Arciero, and Gus Mazzocca, not to mention Tim Kelly, Steve Boyce (who, no offense, I hope to never see again), and Joe Vassallo.
Two guys who fit no category because they are unique: Howard Garfinkel and Tom Konchalski—yes, still the only honest man in the gym, as we learn firsthand more and more with each passing year and scandal.
The swimming knuckleheads: Jason Crist (aka the newlywed), Clay F. Britt, Paul Doremus, Danny Pick, Erik Osborne, John Craig, Doug Chestnut, Peter Ward, Penny Bates, Carole Kammel, Mary Dowling, Margot Pettijohn, Tom Denes, A. J. Block, Peter Lawler, and the still-missed Mike Fell. One other note: the two best moments of 2010 for me were the birth of my daughter and my wedding. Third on the list was swimming a relay with new dad Jeff Roddin, Mark Pugliese, and Wally Dicks. Each of us had undergone some kind of major surgery in the recent past. We swam the year’s fastest 200-meter long course medley relay in our age group in the country. Yes, I’m bragging. Pretty good for a bunch of broken-down old men.
The China Doll/Shanghai Village Gang lives on: Aubre Jones, Rob Ades, Jack Kvancz, Chris Wallace, Arnie “The Horse” Heft, Stanley Copeland, Reid Collins, Harry Huang, George Solomon, Geoff Kaplan, Jeff Gemunder, and Murray Lieberman. Pete Dowling, Bob Campbell, Joe McKeown, Morgan Wootten, Ric McPherson, and Joe Greenberg remain members in absentia and make occasional cameos. Absent friends: Zang, Hymie, and, of course, Red. We now have a horse named for the group (thanks to Arnie): Red’s Roundtable, who has won six of seven as this is written. You go, girl.
The Rio Gang celebrated in 2010, not so much in 2011, but what the heck: Tate Armstrong, Mark Alarie, Clay Buckley, and Terry Chili, better known these days as Alex’s dad.
The Feinstein Advisory Board: Drummer, Frank Mastrandrea, Wes Seeley, and Dave Kindred. The loss of my friend and mentor Bill Brill leaves a void that cannot be filled.
Last, never least, my family—which grew in 2010: Bobby, Jennifer, Matthew, and Brian; Margaret, David, Ethan, and Ben; Marlynn and Cheryl. Those who deserve more credit than anyone are Christine, Danny, and Brigid, who are now joined by Jane Blythe Feinstein—born October 26, 2010—seventy years and one day after Bob Knight. Thank God for that one day.
The mentor and me.… Were we really ever that young? (John Terhune)
Bob Knight with my former babysittee, Patrick Knight, during their days at Texas Tech. (Texas Tech Athletics)
Damon Bailey did everything ever asked of him. Problem was, in spite of what Knight said in 1986, he wasn’t superhuman, just very good. (IU Athletics)
Dean Smith (with Michael Jordan and Charles Scott). His story is the book I wish I’d gotten to write. (Hugh Morton/UNC Athletics)
Mike Krzyzewski has come a long way from the Denny’s. (Duke Athletics)
Steve Kerr was a lot more talented than he ever gave himself credit for. I still think his life story is a movie. If Rudy’s life was a movie, Kerr’s is definitely a movie. (Courtesy Steve Kerr)
Kevin Houston played only one season with the three-point shot. If he’d played four, he might be the all-time leading scorer in NCAA history. (Army Athletic Communications)
Ivan Lendl. Who would have thought he’d become one of my favorite people in sports? (MSG Sports)
Mary Carillo was always one of my favorite people in sports. She’s a reporter at heart—which is why she had to leave ESPN. (Courtesy of Nat Welch/HBO)
Andrew Thompson and me shortly after the 1995 Army-Navy game. This is still the only photo in my office of me with an athlete. (Phil Hoffmann)
David Duval is the only golfer I’ve ever heard quote Tennessee Williams and Ayn Rand. (Sam Greenwood)
Paul Goydos has brought a lot of sunshine into my life over the past eighteen years. (Sam Greenwood)
About the Author
John Feinstein is the author of many bestselling books on sports. He writes for the Washington Post, Washingtonpost.com, Golf Digest, and Golf World, and is a regular contributor to the Golf Channel. He lives in Maryland.
feinsteinonthebrink.com
ALSO BY JOHN FEINSTEIN
Moment of Glory
Are You Kidding Me?
Living on the Black
Tales from Q School
Last Dance
Next Man Up
Let Me Tell You a Story
Caddy for Life
Open
The Punch
The Last Amateurs
The Majors
A March to Madness
A Civil War
A Good Walk Spoiled
Play Ball
Hard Courts
Forever’s Team
A Season Inside
A Season on the Brink
Last Shot (A Final Four Mystery)
The Rivalry: Mystery at the World Series
Vanishing Act: Mystery at the U.S. Open
Cover-up: Mystery at the Super Bowl
Change-up: Mystery at the World Series
Running Mates (A Mystery)
Winter Games (A Mystery)
Praise for John Feinstein’s
ONE ON ONE
“Renowned sportswriter John Feinstein returns to the subjects of his early books and shares his stories of running after athletes for interviews and trying to get access to locker rooms…. In his trademark lively prose, Feinstein offers an insider’s glimpse of what it’s like to cover sports ranging from golf (including Tiger Woods) to college basketball to the Army-Navy football game.”
—Molly Driscoll, Christian Science Monitor
“Feinstein’s gift is his ability to talk to people and to get them to talk to him. He long ago reached celebrity author status, but even before, Feinstein understood how to approach people and, even if they stood on opposite sides of a subject, he could volley with them…. It’s a book about Feinstein, who is himself a collection of colorful stories…. He does what few writers can do—take readers to places they couldn’t otherwise go. It’s a fun trip.”
—Ron Green Jr., Charlotte Observer
“Some of the most talented and temperamental athl
etes and coaches in the world have opened up to John Feinstein…. The acclaimed sportswriter’s latest book details his conversations over the years with notoriously difficult coaches like Bobby Knight and star athletes like Tiger Woods and John McEnroe.”
—NPR’s Fresh Air
“Feinstein has a rare ability to take his readers inside the intense emotions of his subjects, sharing their hopes, dreams, and tragedies.”
—Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun-Times
“Feinstein’s beat, as it turns out, isn’t sports; it’s human nature.”
—Alex Tresniowski, People
“John Feinstein has become sportswriting’s John Grisham.”
—David Kindred, Sporting News
“Stripped down, One on One is a reporter’s road trip, an engaging journey full of elite athletes and coaches John Feinstein encountered while transforming himself from Washington Post political reporter to bestselling sports author…. With his deft, dialogue-driven narrative and knack for describing an interview’s atmospherics, Feinstein describes the genesis of each of his year-in-the-life books and the role the ‘greats’ played in them…. What to a lesser writer could become a boring exercise in point A to point B literary geometry is instead a revealing look beyond the limelight’s glare.”
—Ross Hemphill, Winnipeg Free Press
“Reading Feinstein is to read far more than sports. Great sports books capture the spirit of an era and of a public enamored with the game. Great writers capture the essence of where sports fit in the life-size mural that is life…. Feinstein has succeeded as a sport journalist by going behind the scenes of great athletes and coaches…. Now he has granted readers the type of access he has been afforded. By holding a mirror to his work, he has made his own writing even better.”
—Stuart Shiffman, Bookreporter
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Contents
Welcome
Dedication
Introduction
1: How It Began
2: No, No, No, No… and No
3: Next Stop, Bloomington
4: Back Home Again… Sort Of
5: The Honeymoon
6: Moving On… and Not Moving On
7: Book Two
8: Starting All Over
9: V. and Other Characters
10: Junior and Friends
11: Hard Times and Hard Courts
12: Around the World and Beyond
13: Dream Season
14: Mark Twain Was Wrong
15: A Good Walk Not Spoiled
16: Tiger
17: More Walks
18: Special Kids and Brick Walls
19: Really Special Kids
20: “Can’t You Just Write a Magazine Story?”
21: Back to the Future
22: Tennis, We Hardly Knew Ya
23: The Existentialist and the Buddhist
24: Hoopsters
25: The Indiana Boys
Epilogue: The Best and the Brightest
Acknowledgments
Photos
About the Author
Also by John Feinstein
Praise for John Feinstein’s One on One
Newsletters
Copyright
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 by John Feinstein
Cover design by Allison J. Warner. Cover photographs: helmet © Guy Crittenden/Gerry Images; basketball and benches © Image Source/Getty Images; golf club © Stockbyte/Getty Images; baseball © Thomas Northcut/Getty Images; tennis ball © Roger T. Schmidt/Getty Images
Cover copyright © 2012 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Little, Brown and Company
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First e-book edition: December 2011
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ISBN 978-0-316-19219-4
One on One Page 52