New book looks at Nolan Richardson's legacy

I just finished reading an excellent new book about former Razorback basketball coach Nolan Richardson. It's called Forty Minutes of Hell, named after Nolan's up-tempo style of play. (You can read the first chapter at amazon.com by clicking the link.)

Author Rus Bradburd says Nolan is the most important black coach in U.S. history. In this story to air Monday on KUAR, Bradburd compares Richardson's importance to that of boxer Muhammad Ali. They kicked down doors, he says, for more recent figures like Barack Obama, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.

The book alternates between telling the story of Nolan's upbringing as the only black kid in the Mexican neighborhoods of El Paso, Texas and the history of Arkansas's strained race relations, particularly Frank Broyles' excruciatingly slow integration of Razorback athletics. Broyles refused to talk with the author, and he comes off looking pretty bad. So does the state of Arkansas.

For Arkansans who have wondered why a UA coach making a million dollars a year would complain about his situation, the book clearly explains how Nolan's unique experiences in the Jim Crow south shaped his attitudes. Fascinating stuff.

Coach Richardson will be reading from the book and signing copies on the afternoon of Saturday, February 27 at Pyramid Books and Art on Wright Avenue in Little Rock.

Bradburd will appear in LR this April as part of the Arkansas Literary Festival.