Memphis Hoops

This book considers the role of collegiate basketball in Memphis following the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Keith Brian Wood analyzes the racial dynamics in the city through the lens of one of the city's iconic sports figures, Larry Finch, a Memphis native and the first black player signed by Memphis State. Finch helped Memphis State make the NCAA championship game his senior year, but the team lost to UCLA. Finch was then drafted by the Lakers in 1973 but decided to stay home and play for the American Basketball Association's Memphis Tams. After two years of playing semi-professionally, Finch returned to the sidelines as a coach and would eventually become the head coach of Memphis State. Finch was championed as a symbol of the racial healing power of basketball that helped counteract the racial turbulence ongoing in the city, but for decades the city's racial strife continued off the basketball court--