Check out this story today in the Chicago Tribune titled "Net loss: Where is the Hemingway of hoops?"Some quotes:
Two years ago, Sports Illustrated published a list of what its editors dubbed "Top 100 Sports Books of All Time." Of the hundred, only 17 were fiction; and of those 17 novels, none was about basketball. (The breakdown among fictional subjects: football, six; baseball, five; boxing, three; soccer, fishing and golf, one each.) "I can't think of a single great basketball novel," declared John Rossi, history professor at LaSalle University, who has taught the history of sports for more than four decades.High school football was the topic of the classic non-fiction "Friday Night Lights," by H. G. Bissinger, published in 1990. Now it is being made into a movie. See this NY Times report from March 30 that begins:
ODESSA, Tex. — When "Friday Night Lights" was published in 1990, many people in this scruffy West Texas oil town were so outraged by its portrayal of their outsized enthusiasm for high school football — like chartered jets to fly the team to games while the English teacher scrounged for books — that, on the advice of his publisher, the author opted out of a local book-signing.Posted by Marcia Oddi at April 2, 2004 07:35 AM