Attucks!: Oscar Robertson and the Basketball Team that Awakened a City by Phillip Hoose (2018), 212 pages
Anyone connected to Indiana knows that basketball is a huge deal here. Many famous players have come out of the state, and the state high school tournament even inspired the classic basketball movie Hoosiers (1986). Teens or adults can read about another notable team to win the Indiana state high school basketball tournament in the book Attucks!: Oscar Robertson and the Basketball Team that Awakened a City by Phillip Hoose (a Hoosier native from Speedway, Indiana). The book tells the history of the Crispus Attucks High School boy’s basketball team out of Indianapolis, who in 1955 became the first all-black team in the country to win a state championship. Beyond that, though, this book also tells the history of African Americans in Indiana, especially beginning with the Great Migration in the early 20th century. One of the boys whose families moved to Indianapolis from the South is Oscar Robertson, who would go on to success and fame as one of the greatest basketball players ever. Ride along as this once-in-a-generation player and his record-breaking team make history and win the hearts of Indianapolis.
If you enjoy this book, you may also enjoy:
“But They Can’t Beat Us!”: Oscar Robertson and the Crispus Attucks Tigers by Randy Roberts (1999), 219 pages (in Adult Nonfiction)
Basketball Stats and the Stories Behind Them: What Every Fan Needs to Know by Eric Braun (2016), 48 pages
Sprawlball: A Visual Tour of the New Era of the NBA by Kirk Patrick Goldsberry (2019), 245 pages
Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team by Steve Sheinkin (2017), 280 pages (also available in eAudio)
Happy reading!
-Teresa Moulton, Public Service Leader
