Paul Finebaum's Book Review of "All Guts and No Glory"

When the galley to All Guts and No Glory arrived in the mail in early spring, I shook my head, saying, "I know it sounds interesting, but I've been there and done that." How many more books can I handle set with the civil rights movement as the backdrop? A month later, with the tome gathering dust, I had inched no closer to cracking it open. Finally, knowing the deadline was knocking on the door, I took a shot and honestly couldn't put the book down. From the first page until the last, I was rivited by the words, dancing off the page, singing and humming and resonationg in a way I could not have imagined.

The book by Bill Elder, who has spent more than a quarter of a century as an athletic director and coach, has an eagle-eye approach to the early days of desegregation in Alabama. Brilliantly reported and exquisitely written, All Guts and No Glory should be a must reading for those interested in politics and religion as well as the sports audience.

Unlike many historical accounts of this dark era in American history, to say nothing of Alabama, Elder takes you there on the front line, or in his case the front row, as he painstakingly details his own experiences as the basketball coach at Northeast Alabama Junior College. He recruited the first black player to the school, and he talks about the cause and effect of his gut-wrenching and decisive decision.

Interestingly, it wasn't easy at first, not only because of the ground-breaking move but because black players didn't want to play there. Much of this had to do with the setting on Sand Mountain, just a stone's throw from Scottsboro, where one of the seminal moments in modern American history occurred-the famous case of the Scottsboro Boys.

Elder does a skillful job of weaving his profound faith into the ideas and ideals written in the book without being preachy. And in the end, the reader is treated to a wonderful personal journey through one of Alabama's darkest times.

It's also significant that Bill Elder's journey was not at a major school like Alabama or Auburn where the eyes of the nation were focused. His odyssey took place in the backwoods, which makes this book that much more enjoyable and heartfelt.

Finally, after reading the book, I had only one minor regret. I wish I had read it sooner.

Paul Finebaum is a sports columnist for the Mobile Press-Register and hosts a daily syndicated talk-radio show from Birmingham.

Chriss Doss's Endorsement of "All Guts and No Glory"

"Bill Elder is representative of many individual leaders in sensitive positions of surpervision who because of personal belief, were able to facilitate change that reflected and acknowledged genuine value and human worth regardless of skin color. All Guts and No Glory is a profound story of an era when our nation made significant strides at the grassroots, far beyond the court of sports." - Chriss Doss, attorney, Birmingham, Alabama

John Ed Mathison's Tribute to "All Guts and No Glory"

"Bill Elder coached during a time of high racial tensions, but knew what was right and proceeded to do what was right. He faced many adversities, but always sensed that God was with him." - John Ed Mathison, Senior Pastor, Frazer United Methodist Church, Montgomery, Alabama

Nancy Anderson's Compliments for "All Guts and No Glory"

"All Guts and No Glory is a painful story told with poignancy and candor. Such a narrative reminds us once again that we must remember our history so that we are not cursed to repeat it." - Nancy Anderson, Distinguished Teaching Associate, Professor of English and Philosophy, and Director, Actions Build Community, Auburn University Montgomery

Praise for "All Guts and No Glory" by Clifton Taulbert

"Through the lens of basketball, Bill Elder provides an honest look at the complicated and deep-seated issues of race while he was growing up and becoming a man (player and basketball coach) in pre-integrated Alabama." - Clifton L. Taulbert, Author of Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored

Praise for "All Guts and No Glory" by Wayne Flynt

"Bill Elder's memoir combines the three most powerful and sacred elements of Alabama folk culture: sports, religion, and race. Based on his experiences as basketball coach of Northeast State Junior College when he recrutied the school's first black student-athletes during the racially charged 1970s, Elder reminds us how harrowing those years were for racial iconoclasts in places such as Scottsboro and on Sand Mountain. His strength is recognizing paradox when he sees it: the evangelical religious values that provoked him to challenge segregation while different religious values caused his Southern Baptist brethren to ostracize him; college faculty and administrators who encouraged his martyrdom while running for cover themselves; sports offering opportunities for blacks that churches rejected. Memoirs like Elder's ...open entirely new vistas into the civil rights struggles after laws were changed but hearts stayed pretty much the same." - Wayne Flynt, Distinguised University Professor, Auburn University

Summary of "All Guts and No Glory"

Picture this: a white junior college on Sand Mountain, Alabama, in the early 1970s; a directive to integrate the basketball team; a faculty, staff and administration which, by and large, did not support this endeavor; and a community known for tis segregationist violence and KKK activity. This is the situation into which a young Bill Elder, a future inductee into the NAIA Basketball Coaches' Hall of Fame, cautiously brought several black players.

Things went well the first year; but unbeknownst to Elder, the community's white supremacist anger bubbled just under the surface. Soon, the team would face numerous threats, racial slurs and epithets, a mob attack on a team bus, a gang showing up at the college gym on a scheduled game night to "make things clear," and a house set to blow up upon entry-as well as anonymous phone calls suggesting Elder was on a "hit list." In the midst of all of this, Elder, with wisdom beyond his years-for which he credits God-led his team of young men unscathed through a two-year period of unbelievable obstacles intended to generate fear and intimidation. And they won on the court, too.

Elder's engaging, tell-it-like-it-is style makes All Guts and No Glory a memoir both thought-provoking and worth reading.

How I got started writing my first book

It is still hard for me to believe that I have written a book that has actually been published. I know that anyone who knew me "back in the day" is suprised as I was that a publisher would be interested in my work. I spent my entire professional career working in college athletics as a basketball coach and athletic director, never dreaming that I would some day be a published author.

While serving as the Athletic Director at Lindsey Wilson College (Kentucky), I was encouraged by a friend (an English professor at the college) to write about the experiences I had while recruiting the first black basketball players to play at a nearly all white junior college during the early 1970s. The school is located on Sand Mountain , one of the most racist areas in Alabama during that time. Taking into consideration that fact that I had no formal writing experience, I didn't really take my friend's encouragement too seriously. Sometime later, however, I decided to start spending an hour or two each night putting my thoughts on paper.

I quickly found out that writing a book is like running a marathon. I started out feeling positive about my initial progress, but before too long I felt as if I had run into brick wall. After many stops and starts, I completed a three-hundred plus page, single-spaced first draft that I was honestly ashamed for anyone to review. Secretly, I feared that anyone who read my work would either die laughing or think that I had finally lost my mind, thinking that a pubisher would be interested in my work.

After working up enough courage to present my manuscript to several publishers, I was pleasantly suprised that NewSouth Books thought that my work had enough merit to be published, if I made the changes that they recommended.