The Last Amateurs

I bought the book because I'm a Lafayette alum, and wanted to read an account of the season that they ultimately won. While the partisan in me loved reading about Lafayette's trip to the NCAA tournament, I thoroughly enjoyed the information about each of the teams and the players at each school. Feinstein has a gift for finding the numerous stories inside the story - and The Last Amateurs is no exception. You'll get to know the students, their coaches, their challenges, and the numerous successes.The Last Amateurs detalis a league untainted by shoe contracts, agents, and TV money. It looks at true student athletes, most of whom will play their last basketball game when the Patriot League season ends their senior year.This was a fantastic book. Definitely worth a read.

According to LinkedIn, Chris Spitler is General Counsel and a Senior Vice-President at Nordea Bank. Pat Campolieta is an Advancement Officer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Steve Aylsworth is the CEO of JetLux Hotels. These men, now in their mid- and late-30’s, were featured in John Feinstein’s 2001 book, The Last Amateurs: Playing for Glory and Honor in Division I College Basketball,Feinstein is a prolific chronicler of the American sporting life, having authored well written and easy to read books on everything from the Army-Navy football game and the Baltimore Ravens to the PGA Tour and Bob Knight. If I were to attempt to read every one of Feinstein’s books, I might have to live to age 107.The organization of The Last Amateurs is familiar and easy to follow – Feinstein summarizes a Patriot League men’s college basketball season, highlighting the high and low points and crafting uncritical profiles of head coaches and players. Although a Season in Review concept is a common framework for a work of sports non-fiction, Feinstein’s literary talent sets The Last Amateurs apart from most jock/sportswriter diaries.Since the publication of The Last Amateurs, the Patriot League has expanded from seven to ten teams, adding Loyola (Maryland), American and Boston University. Athletic scholarships are now available to basketball players attending Patriot League colleges. But the qualities that set the Patriot League apart from the pack remain intact. Most Patriot League games were (and still are) played before crowds of less than 1,500. The ESPN cameras are at seemingly every game on the Division I schedule, except the ones involving Patriot League schools. And most of the players, genuine scholar-athletes, are majoring in substantive disciplines, courses of study that will lead to something beyond a ten-day contract with the Orlando Magic.For Spitler, Campolieta and Aylsworth, college basketball was a minor item on life’s resume, a stepping stone to what one hopes are rich and fulfilling lives.

Having grown up in Lewisburg and playing on all venues Bucknell, I can say that I loved watching games and sneaking in to practice against the Bison players as a high schooler at Davis Gym. I loved our High School football on the Bucknell stadium and of course I have taken my average golf game to Bucknell Golf Course more times than I should have.Thank you John Feinstein for bringing those wonderful memories.Go Bison and Go Patriot League!!!

A lot of reviews have focused on whether Feinstein has a bias that evident in the book. Not only do I believe that Feinstein is biased, I don't believe that he does anything to hide that bias. This lack of subtlety is best exemplified near the end of the book, when Feinstein declares, "The Patriot League schools all do things the right way in a college basketball world gone very wrong."Since Feinstein proudly wears his bias, the question becomes whether he has written about the subject in a way that justifies his feelings. Ultimately, I didn't feel that he did. While I did find the subject very interesting, I thought that Feinstein stretched the story too thin by looking at the entire league. Nowhere is this more apparent than in his depiction of the league's players and coaches. There are strong hints that there are some interesting stories among the league's personalities. However, the depiction that Feinstein gives them never seems to rise above a one-line blurb (Stefan Ciosici: top player trying to regain form after devastating injury. Chris Spitler: over-achiever than wins over the coach. Ralph Willard: coach trying to rebuild his career). He would have been better suited by focusing on one team in the league and examining the actions of that team's administrators, coaches, and players as the season developed in order to give an example of the struggles faced by participants in the league as a whole. Even centering the story on the league's new commissioner as she struggled to maintain the league's character in the face of external and internal challenges would have provided the reader with a better sense of the unique nature of this conference. Instead, Feinstein short-changes his subject by jumping from team to team.Feinstein does write in a journalistic style that makes for very easy, entertaining reading. Yet, I never felt that I got the full reason why Feinstein thought this league was so special (other than they lack many of the perks of other conferences and have brighter students). As it stands now, The Last Amateurs did not strike me as the definitive telling of the story of the Patriot League's uniqueness. It seemed to be only the framework from which that story could be written.

Read it due to its inclusion of my alma mater. Therefore I was aware of all the backstories regarding my alma mater. The book is a good read and accurate. True definition of scholar athlete.