Chapters (41)
- Cover
- Dedication
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Also by Mike Lupica
There was Bethany College in West Virginia. Bucknell in Pennsylvania. A university called Harding. Howard. North Dakota State. Oklahoma Baptist. Lucas didn’t know if they all had basketball teams, but assumed they did, because just about all colleges did.
Did one of them, the guy on the left, look a little like his dad?
Lucas couldn’t ever remember seeing a picture of Gramps at that age. But because of the date on the back of the picture, if the guy on the left did look like Michael Winston, it could have been Sam Winston in 1961.
But it didn’t mean that it was. Lucas’s mom would show him pictures of her from college, when she had a lot more hair than she did now, and even though he knew it was her, he wasn’t sure if he would have been able to pick her out of a class picture.
10/15/61.
Joe and Tommy.
Number 14 and number 24.
If they were college players, that meant the season was about to start in October, if the calendar for college hoops was the same then as it was now. Gramps would have played his college ball about that time.
But these guys were named Joe and Tommy.
If one of them wasn’t Gramps, why in the world had his dad held on to a picture of them? Maybe Gramps had stuck the picture in there a long time ago, even though Lucas couldn’t imagine why. Maybe these guys had been teammates of his, on a team called the Bisons.
Maybe, Lucas thought, he should just take the picture back up to the attic and put it back in the book and do exactly what his mom had suggested he do. Just move on. Leave this alone. Leave Gramps with his own memories, both good and bad. Maybe he should focus his energy on basketball and his journal and his paper on Mr. Collins, and do something else his mom had suggested he do and respect his grandfather’s wishes.
As confusing as everything had become, he didn’t want one school paper to come between him and Gramps. What was the point of that? He knew how special their relationship had always been. He knew how important that relationship was to him, and to Gramps, too. He didn’t know if Gramps would even want to keep coaching after this season. Lucas could see him slowing down, as enthusiastic as he still was about teaching. So if this was going to be their last season together, Lucas knew that his real energy—and his positive energy—ought to go into making it as special as possible.