"Maravich" authors Marshall Terrill and Wayne Federman
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Question and Answer Session with Maravich Authors
Filed under:
News
Commentary
— Chase Kuech (12:41 am)
Hey guys, I cannot tell you enough how great Marshall Terrill has been in helping me with the book he helped compose and getting it to me and having me read it and review it and being available for questions and comments and help throughout the entire process he has been fantastic and I cannot thank him enough. What follows the break is a question and answer session between him, Wayne Federman and I, after I had read through the book. I presented them with my questions and they answered me by the next day, they have been immensely helpful. I hope you get a chance to go read their book, and I hope you enjoy the Q and A, I think if you’re considering reading the book it will definitely persuade you some to go check it out.
Q and A with Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill, authors of “Maravich”
Q: What made you guys decide to write a book about Pete Maravich?
MT: I’ve been writing books for years and you develop a roster of people you know you want to write about. I know, for example, that one day I’ll write about the Beatles or John Lennon and comedian Sam Kinison. Pete Maravich has been on my roster for years and it was just a matter of when. When he was honored in 1996 for the NBA’s Top 50, it got my juices going and then in 1998 when there was an article on the ten-year anniversary of his death, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. After almost 10 months of thinking about whether I should do it or not, I pulled the trigger in October 1998 when I tossed and turned all night thinking about Pete. I and turned to my wife and said, “I need to write about Pete Maravich.” She gave me her blessing because she understands what it is to write a book – it consumes your whole life. In this case, it consumed mine and Wayne Federman’s life for seven years.
WF: It was such a great story. The story had never been fully told with the family’s cooperation. Pistol Pete was record-setting, transcendent athlete who brought artistry to the game. One journalist described him this way: “So talented he could make you gasp, so tortured he could make you cringe.” That dichotomy really interested me. And also I thought it would make a great movie.
Q: Did you approach his widow, Jackie, or did she approach you?
MT: I initially approached Jackie in 1998 through the mail. I sent her a couple of my books and a letter telling her what I wanted to do. I never got a reply, so I took that as a “no” and kept interviewing people for the book, hoping that one day she might change her mind. It wasn’t until Wayne came on board that Jackie reconsidered in 2000 and said yes. I’ll let him tell you how he was able to contact her.
WF: When we did approach her and, at first, she was hesitant. Jackie Maravich hadn’t spoken about Pete in almost twenty years. But I guess she thought the timing was right so she gave us the OK. Plus she loved Marshall’s biography of Steve McQueen. She is the main reason this project exists.
Q: How much did you use his autobiography and how much was this an effort to be completely new?
MT: We used Pete’s book as a blueprint for our book and I even befriended his co-writer, Darrel Campbell, who was so kind to us by giving us interviews and by telling us how they approached writing the book. The thing to remember with an autobiography is that the subject (Pete) really couldn't brag on his achievements. Pete’s accomplishments were so monumental, but he really couldn’t say that in his book without sounding arrogant. We most certainly could.
WF: To answer the second part of that question, how much was this an effort to be completely new? You have to remember that a lot has been written on Pete before and our challenge was to find out what was true and what was not. There’s so much Pete Maravich lore out there and our task was to separate fact from fiction. We interviewed approximately 300 people for this book and a lot of new information came from them. For example, we interviewed a person by the name of Colonel James May, who was an ROTC instructor at LSU. He told us a chilling story about when Pete was a junior at LSU was going to be drafted into the Army. May told us Pete was declared 4-F because he had a heart condition.
Q: With all the quotes and information, it seems like it would have required a lot of work.
WF. Yes, it was a monster task. Of course a lot of time was spent conducting and then transcribing the 300-plus interviews. Then finding all the newspaper articles from the 1970s. It’s easy to say something great about Pete after he died, but we went to great lengths to document what was being said, and written about him, while he was playing. Also we embarked on an exciting treasure hunt tracking down his box scores.
Q: How did you go about finding the right quotes to use and contacting people to interview Pete?
MT: Obviously when you look for quotes, you’re looking for ones that will help you support your story. Even that was a challenge given the mountain of information we had to sift through. Contacting people wasn’t a problem because what usually happens is that one person will give you contact numbers for three or four people, and then that just has a snowball effect. We probably could have interviewed a thousand people, but you just have to cut it off at a certain point.
WF: Actually our big problem was deciding what quotes NOT to use. We could easily fill another book.
Q: Was it mostly historical type of research or did you have to track people down?
WF: It was both. We must have thousands of articles written on Pete, but we also interviewed 300 people. Marshall spent the first two years of this book just transcribing interviews! In addition to that, we had at our disposal yearbooks, diaries, videotape, audiotape, letters, newsletters, scrapbooks, you name it, we examined it. It was an incredible experience to have such unfettered access to everything, and that’s because of Jackie’s involvement.
WF: This was a combination project. As I said earlier, the newspapers and magazines of the day were tracked down. I spent over $65 in dimes, making copies of microfilm, at the Fulton Public Library in Atlanta. Then we conducted contemporary interviews. Unfortunately several people have passed on since we spoke with them – most notably Red Auerbach, Herm Gilliam, Cotton Fitzsimmons, and Al McGuire.
Q: How willing were people to talk about Pete?
MT: Very willing. We only ran into three people who said they wouldn’t talk to us without Jackie’s express approval. But once we had Jackie on board, it was a breeze.
WF: Once Jackie Maravich gave the project her blessing, it opened a lot of doors. But most everyone we contacted WANTED to talk about Pete. As we said in the acknowledgments, it was another testament to how he lived.
Q: One of the biggest surprises of the book was why Pete kept it a secret about going to Southwood College in 1965.
MT: It is interesting though that in Pete’s own autobiography, he said attended Edwards Military Academy. I don’t think it was a secret he attended at the time he went to school there. Remember, his father was the coach at N.C. State at the time and there was an anticipation Press would play for him there. Pete even garnered some press at Southwood, especially when he scored 50 points for the first time. I will say this, and Wayne can answer this better than I could, I believe Press tried to shave off a year on his age for whatever reasons. Press was known to fudge his age at times, too.
WF: This is just a guess, but I think Press didn’t want to confuse people about Pete’s college eligibility. Although it was clearly a prep school, it was still called Southwood College.
Q: Did you ever get the chance to meet Pete?
MT: No, never met him personally, but I did see him play several times growing up in Washington D.C. at the Capital Centre. Basketball back then isn’t the phenomenon that it is today and as sad as this is to say, it wasn’t hard to get Jazz tickets. In a way, it’s good as a biographer not to meet the subject because you don’t formulate a strong opinion. It’s best to rely on the people who knew him to paint a picture for you in order to write objectively.
WF: I never met him either, but I saw him on TV play a few times when I was a kid. My interest in his life began in 1987 when he released his Homework Basketball series. You could see, in these tapes, a young boy who invested thousands of hours, obsessively practicing alone in gymnasium in Clemson, South Carolina. The more I learned about him, the more I knew this was an amazing story.
Question and Answer Session with Maravich Authors
Filed under:
News
Commentary
— Chase Kuech (12:41 am)
Hey guys, I cannot tell you enough how great Marshall Terrill has been in helping me with the book he helped compose and getting it to me and having me read it and review it and being available for questions and comments and help throughout the entire process he has been fantastic and I cannot thank him enough. What follows the break is a question and answer session between him, Wayne Federman and I, after I had read through the book. I presented them with my questions and they answered me by the next day, they have been immensely helpful. I hope you get a chance to go read their book, and I hope you enjoy the Q and A, I think if you’re considering reading the book it will definitely persuade you some to go check it out.
Q and A with Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill, authors of “Maravich”
Q: What made you guys decide to write a book about Pete Maravich?
MT: I’ve been writing books for years and you develop a roster of people you know you want to write about. I know, for example, that one day I’ll write about the Beatles or John Lennon and comedian Sam Kinison. Pete Maravich has been on my roster for years and it was just a matter of when. When he was honored in 1996 for the NBA’s Top 50, it got my juices going and then in 1998 when there was an article on the ten-year anniversary of his death, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. After almost 10 months of thinking about whether I should do it or not, I pulled the trigger in October 1998 when I tossed and turned all night thinking about Pete. I and turned to my wife and said, “I need to write about Pete Maravich.” She gave me her blessing because she understands what it is to write a book – it consumes your whole life. In this case, it consumed mine and Wayne Federman’s life for seven years.
WF: It was such a great story. The story had never been fully told with the family’s cooperation. Pistol Pete was record-setting, transcendent athlete who brought artistry to the game. One journalist described him this way: “So talented he could make you gasp, so tortured he could make you cringe.” That dichotomy really interested me. And also I thought it would make a great movie.
Q: Did you approach his widow, Jackie, or did she approach you?
MT: I initially approached Jackie in 1998 through the mail. I sent her a couple of my books and a letter telling her what I wanted to do. I never got a reply, so I took that as a “no” and kept interviewing people for the book, hoping that one day she might change her mind. It wasn’t until Wayne came on board that Jackie reconsidered in 2000 and said yes. I’ll let him tell you how he was able to contact her.
WF: When we did approach her and, at first, she was hesitant. Jackie Maravich hadn’t spoken about Pete in almost twenty years. But I guess she thought the timing was right so she gave us the OK. Plus she loved Marshall’s biography of Steve McQueen. She is the main reason this project exists.
Q: How much did you use his autobiography and how much was this an effort to be completely new?
MT: We used Pete’s book as a blueprint for our book and I even befriended his co-writer, Darrel Campbell, who was so kind to us by giving us interviews and by telling us how they approached writing the book. The thing to remember with an autobiography is that the subject (Pete) really couldn't brag on his achievements. Pete’s accomplishments were so monumental, but he really couldn’t say that in his book without sounding arrogant. We most certainly could.
WF: To answer the second part of that question, how much was this an effort to be completely new? You have to remember that a lot has been written on Pete before and our challenge was to find out what was true and what was not. There’s so much Pete Maravich lore out there and our task was to separate fact from fiction. We interviewed approximately 300 people for this book and a lot of new information came from them. For example, we interviewed a person by the name of Colonel James May, who was an ROTC instructor at LSU. He told us a chilling story about when Pete was a junior at LSU was going to be drafted into the Army. May told us Pete was declared 4-F because he had a heart condition.
Q: With all the quotes and information, it seems like it would have required a lot of work.
WF. Yes, it was a monster task. Of course a lot of time was spent conducting and then transcribing the 300-plus interviews. Then finding all the newspaper articles from the 1970s. It’s easy to say something great about Pete after he died, but we went to great lengths to document what was being said, and written about him, while he was playing. Also we embarked on an exciting treasure hunt tracking down his box scores.
Q: How did you go about finding the right quotes to use and contacting people to interview Pete?
MT: Obviously when you look for quotes, you’re looking for ones that will help you support your story. Even that was a challenge given the mountain of information we had to sift through. Contacting people wasn’t a problem because what usually happens is that one person will give you contact numbers for three or four people, and then that just has a snowball effect. We probably could have interviewed a thousand people, but you just have to cut it off at a certain point.
WF: Actually our big problem was deciding what quotes NOT to use. We could easily fill another book.
Q: Was it mostly historical type of research or did you have to track people down?
WF: It was both. We must have thousands of articles written on Pete, but we also interviewed 300 people. Marshall spent the first two years of this book just transcribing interviews! In addition to that, we had at our disposal yearbooks, diaries, videotape, audiotape, letters, newsletters, scrapbooks, you name it, we examined it. It was an incredible experience to have such unfettered access to everything, and that’s because of Jackie’s involvement.
WF: This was a combination project. As I said earlier, the newspapers and magazines of the day were tracked down. I spent over $65 in dimes, making copies of microfilm, at the Fulton Public Library in Atlanta. Then we conducted contemporary interviews. Unfortunately several people have passed on since we spoke with them – most notably Red Auerbach, Herm Gilliam, Cotton Fitzsimmons, and Al McGuire.
Q: How willing were people to talk about Pete?
MT: Very willing. We only ran into three people who said they wouldn’t talk to us without Jackie’s express approval. But once we had Jackie on board, it was a breeze.
WF: Once Jackie Maravich gave the project her blessing, it opened a lot of doors. But most everyone we contacted WANTED to talk about Pete. As we said in the acknowledgments, it was another testament to how he lived.
Q: One of the biggest surprises of the book was why Pete kept it a secret about going to Southwood College in 1965.
MT: It is interesting though that in Pete’s own autobiography, he said attended Edwards Military Academy. I don’t think it was a secret he attended at the time he went to school there. Remember, his father was the coach at N.C. State at the time and there was an anticipation Press would play for him there. Pete even garnered some press at Southwood, especially when he scored 50 points for the first time. I will say this, and Wayne can answer this better than I could, I believe Press tried to shave off a year on his age for whatever reasons. Press was known to fudge his age at times, too.
WF: This is just a guess, but I think Press didn’t want to confuse people about Pete’s college eligibility. Although it was clearly a prep school, it was still called Southwood College.
Q: Did you ever get the chance to meet Pete?
MT: No, never met him personally, but I did see him play several times growing up in Washington D.C. at the Capital Centre. Basketball back then isn’t the phenomenon that it is today and as sad as this is to say, it wasn’t hard to get Jazz tickets. In a way, it’s good as a biographer not to meet the subject because you don’t formulate a strong opinion. It’s best to rely on the people who knew him to paint a picture for you in order to write objectively.
WF: I never met him either, but I saw him on TV play a few times when I was a kid. My interest in his life began in 1987 when he released his Homework Basketball series. You could see, in these tapes, a young boy who invested thousands of hours, obsessively practicing alone in gymnasium in Clemson, South Carolina. The more I learned about him, the more I knew this was an amazing story.
posted by Cie | 1/18/2007 08:36:00 AM
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