 A Legend on Hardwood, August 7, 2008 Buy this book and own a timeless portrait of a legend.
There was Lombardi in icy Lambeau Field, Auerbach in the Garden in Boston, Stengel pacing the dugout in pinstripes, the man with the houndstooth hat on the sidelines in Tuscaloosa and other legendary coaches.
None were greater men, greater coaches or better leaders of men than Coach Beryl Shipley at The University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette.
Had Shipley coached in a media center like Boston or New York, or headed a marquee program like Alabama football, he would have come alive in major daily sports pages the way he dominates the pages of this book – – his legend would have been established long ago.
One has the sense the if Beryl Shipley had been in the military, he would have refused any commission that would have taken him from his men on the battlefield.
His greatness looms large in this text, larger than the legends referenced above for his actions in intergrating a college basketball program in the deep south evidenced uncommon courage.
The exhaustively documented text details the pervasive racism that surrounded Shipley both in his own university and in the state athletic commission. Worse yet, were the incompetent, overzealous actions of the NCAA that brought about the death of Shipley’s program, his dream, and the dreams of deserving young men, members of his team.
But there were those times . . . all those times when Shipley led his integrated charges onto the hardwood . . . at home in a cow palace packed to the rafters . . . on the road before angry jeering crowds . . . and into the highest echelons of the sport in NCAA playoff games played in far away venues.
Ron Gomez, the author, not only has known Shipley well since the coach’s first day on the job, but he was also a close witness to the things he reports in this book. Though he was close, he manages to present an objective view of the debacle and a restrained view of this great man who is his friend.
It is all interesting reading, but the portrait of Coach Beryl Shipley is riveting for he is a man who was right and was punished for being right, yet maintained his personal dignity throughout.
You get the feeling that the Coach might have cussed some in private, but in public he remained composed, kept his head when those all around him were losing theirs.
Every great man deserves to have the record set straight, deserves a monument to himself, and in these pages both of those things are accomplished for Coach Shipley.
At times in reading this, you wish you had been a few inches taller, possessed more athletic skills, and had been fortunate enough to have your life touched by this great man.
Ray Mouton
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