Until I was nine or ten, everyone called me Joe or Joe Hall. Then one day, my grandmother, for reasons known only to her, pulled me aside, telling me my name was "too short and too plain." She said, "Let's add your middle initial to make it more interesting. From now on, you say your name is Joe B., not just Joe. It's Joe B. Hall." Joe B. Hall is one of only three men to both play on an NCAA championship team (1949, Kentucky) and coach an NCAA championship team (1978, Kentucky), and the only one to do so for the same school. In this riveting memoir, Hall presents intimate details about his remarkable life on and off the court. He reveals never-before-heard stories about memorable players, coaches, and friends and expresses the joys and fulfillments of his rewarding life and career. During his thirteen years as head coach at the University of Kentucky, from 1972 to 1985, Joe B. Hall led the team to 297 victories. The most memorable of these is the 1978 NCAA Men's Division Basketball Championship. This legendary coach followed in the colossal footsteps of Adolph Rupp to chart his own path to success and become one of college basketball's all-time greats and winningest coaches.

Until I was nine or ten, everyone called me Joe or Joe Hall. Then one day, my grandmother, for reasons known only to her, pulled me aside, telling me my name was "too short and too plain." She said, "Let's add your middle initial to make it more interesting. From now on, you say your name is Joe B., not just Joe. It's Joe B. Hall." Joe B. Hall is one of only three men to both play on an NCAA championship team (1949, Kentucky) and coach an NCAA championship team (1978, Kentucky), and the only one to do so for the same school. In this riveting memoir, Hall presents intimate details about his remarkable life on and off the court. He reveals never-before-heard stories about memorable players, coaches, and friends and expresses the joys and fulfillments of his rewarding life and career. During his thirteen years as head coach at the University of Kentucky, from 1972 to 1985, Joe B. Hall led the team to 297 victories. The most memorable of these is the 1978 NCAA Men's Division Basketball Championship. This legendary coach followed in the colossal footsteps of Adolph Rupp to chart his own path to success and become one of college basketball's all-time greats and winningest coaches.

In 1952, just one year after Coach Adolph Rupp's University of Kentucky Wildcats won their third national championship in four years, an unlikely high school basketball team from rural Graves County, Kentucky, stole the spotlight and the media's attention. Inspired by young coach Jack Story and by the Harlem Globetrotters, the Cuba Cubs grabbed headlines when they rose from relative obscurity to defeat the big-city favorite and win the state championship. A classic underdog tale, The Graves County Boys chronicles how five boys from a tiny high school in southwestern Kentucky captured the hearts of basketball fans nationwide. Marianne Walker weaves together details about the players, their coach, and their relationships in a page-turning account of triumph over adversity. This inspiring David and Goliath story takes the reader on a journey from the team's heartbreaking defeat in the 1951 state championship to their triumphant victory over Louisville Manual the next year. More than just a basketball narrative, the book explores a period in American life when indoor plumbing and electricity were still luxuries in some areas of the country and when hardship was a way of life. With no funded school programs or bus system, the Cubs's success was a testament to the sacrifices of family and neighbors who believed in their team. Featuring new photographs, a foreword by University of Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall, and a new epilogue detailing where the players are now, The Graves County Boys is an unforgettable story of how a community pulled together to make a dream come true.