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Role of a Lifetime: Larry Farmer and the UCLA Bruins - Hardcover | Diverse Reads

Role of a Lifetime: Larry Farmer and the UCLA Bruins

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Role of a Lifetime is the story of the crucial role Larry Farmer played on teams that won three NCAA titles for UCLA under Coach John Wooden. Farmer’s record at UCLA was 89–1, the greatest winning percentage in NCAA history. (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was 88–2.)

Role of a Lifetime also details how Farmer, a self-taught player from the playgrounds of Denver, managed to secure a full scholarship, make the varsity team as a sophomore, and ultimately become the head basketball coach at UCLA at the age of 30—the first black head coach for any sport at UCLA.

The book chronicles the reactions of black leaders to his role as the first black head coach, as well as the inside politics that led him to resign after three years as coach, just days after accepting a two-year extension. Farmer also shares new insights about UCLA athletic booster Sam Gilbert and his role in the team’s NCAA probation.

Farmer’s insider perspective during UCLA basketball’s most fabled period, combined with his natural ability to relate entertaining and informative anecdotes about legendary figures such as John Wooden, Bill Walton, Jamaal Wilkes, Reggie Miller, and many other famous players and coaches from throughout the world of college basketball, makes Role of a Lifetime a must-have for all Bruin fans and fans of basketball everywhere!

ISBN-13: 9781595801159

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: Santa Monica Press

Publication Date: 02-21-2023

Pages: 348

Product Dimensions: 6.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.30(d)

Larry Farmer served as the head basketball coach at the Universityof California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1981 to 1984, Weber State University from 1985 to 1988, and Loyola UniversityChicago from 1998 to 2004. He played college basketball at UCLA, where he was a member of three national championship-winning teams for the UCLA Bruins under Head Coach John Wooden in the early 1970s. In 2018, Farmer was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame. Tracy Dodds was the beat reporter covering UCLA basketball for the Los Angeles Times during Larry Farmer’s tenure as UCLA’s basketball coach. Tracy was a pioneer among women in sports journalism during a 30-year career that began days after she graduated from Indiana University’s School of Journalism in December of 1973. Tracy has covered both college and professional basketball, college football, the NHL, Olympic swimming and diving, boxing, and auto racing. She is the only woman in the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame. Bill Walton was NCAA player of the year at UCLA from 1972 to 1974, when UCLA set an NCAA record 88 consecutive-game winning streak. A former NBA champion and MVP, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame and selected as one of the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players ever. He has also had a successful award-winning broadcasting career with ABC, ESPN, NBC, MSNBC, CBS, Turner, and Fox, among others. He currently resides in his hometown of San Diego with his family. Visit him at BillWalton.com. Jamaal Wilkes was a two-time consensus first-team All-American at UCLA, where he won two NCAA championships under Coach John Wooden. After being drafted by the Golden State Warriors, Wilkes won Rookie of the Year and his first NBA championship. He would go on to win three more NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers, and have his number retired by both UCLA and the Lakers. He is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.