By Mark Ambrogi
Mike Lupica has written a sports column for the New York Daily News since 1977, been a regular on ESPN’s long-running “The Sports Reporters” for years and has twice had his own radio show.
Yet what may be his chief legacy came by total accident. When his son got cut from a travel team because he was too small, Lupica’s friend, NBA TV analyst Jeff Van Gundy, said if this was Hollywood you get all the kids that were cut, form your own team and win the big game at the end. Lupica hired a coach and did just that, and their experiences gave him an idea for a story.
“They were terrible, they got good and I wrote a novel about it and the novel changed my life,” Lupica said. “Since ‘Travel Team’ came out in 2004, I’ve written about 20 books for young readers.”
Lupica visted Zionsville’s two middle schools on Nov. 9 and then made a book signing appearance at 4 Kids Books & Toys in Zionsville. Lupica was on a book tour for his latest novel, “Fast Break.”
“I tell them all the time there was no ESPN, internet, laptops, cell phones or Google when I was a kid, but we’re exactly the same; we still like a good story,” Lupica said. “The one great growth area of the book business is kids. Kids are reading in greater numbers than ever before. I’ve sort of become known as King of the Reluctant Readers. The book being about sports pulls them in. The stories keep them.”
Lupica coached his three sons in basketball, baseball and soccer, and his daughter, the youngest at 16, in soccer.
After he wrote “Travel Team,” his wife asked if he was going to be happy writing those young reader books from now on. He said he thought so.
“She said, ‘Good, because … the thing you are going to be remembered best for is getting kids to want to read,’” Lupica said. “Eleven years ago, I thought that was nuts. Now I think she might be right.”
Lupica said his books are about the kinds of things he read about when he was a boy.
“I read the Chip Hilton books, which are written by an old basketball coach named Clair Bee,” he said. “Bob Knight and I always shared a love for these books because he knew Bee. In fact, I had lost some of them and (Knight) sent me some to fill out my collection. I used to read those books to my boys when they were really little. They were about loyalty, friendship and teamwork.”
Lupica said he takes most pride in that he’s been able to keeping attract a new group of young readers.
“I have to keep reintroducing myself because my readers outgrow me,” he said.
Jack Knecht, Zionsville Middle School sixth-grader, had a few books signed and has read several.
“My favorite is ‘The Only Game.’ I think they are very interesting and can teach you a lot of things,” Knecht said.
