About The Book
About The Book
titles for our town
Titles for our Town began as a book about tiny Fountain Hill High, a small public school near Bethlehem, Pa., that went to three-straight state finals, winning two. No other Lehigh Valley public school boys team has matched that in three-quarters of a century. As I researched further, I discovered that Fountain Hill lost to similar small-school basketball dynasty Wampum High in the 1955 state final. I expanded the book to include the Indians, another steel-town power. Wampum was led by coach’s son Don Hennon and the talented Allen brothers. Coach L. Butler Hennon used training techniques that would be replicated as far away as Russia.
As I researched further, I discovered that rural Kutztown High won three state titles in Class B in the 1950s behind an authoritarian coach from western Pennsylvania.
Titles for our Town captures how these hamlets became havens for basketball greatness behind expert coaches, committed players, and a community that showered support on its boys. In modern times, small public schools struggle to reach any state final while trying to compete with private schools, charter schools, and open-boundary schools that dominate the state brackets.
But there was a time when teenage boys from public schools could lift their coach and their neighbors to the highest perch in Pennsylvania.
For all the high school coaches seeking the secret sauce for how to win a state championship, Titles provides the stories and strategies for how three unlikely places accomplished the unthinkable back when basketball was king.
See how Pennsylvania in this era launched some of the biggest names in the history of Dr. Naismith’s sport, from Kane’s Chuck Daly to Bethlehem’s Pete Carril to Trafford’s Sonny Vaccaro.
Understand how Duke’s famed Cameron Indoor Stadium can trace its roots to Irwin, Pa. Discover why the famed Penn Palestra stopped hosting state championship basketball games. And learn how Pennsylvania hoopsters—directly or indirectly—became connected to the controversial point-shaving scandals of that era.
Relive the Golden Era of high school basketball in the Keystone state when it inspired hordes of locals to line up down the block for tickets on game night, when authors like John Updike felt inspired enough to write his breakthrough novel about a basketball hero named “Rabbit.” Go back to a simpler time when Norman Rockwell communities rallied around their sports heroes.
