Sticky Notes

I'm Back

2007-09-19T20:12:00.000-04:00

After a few months hiatus, I am back to the sticky notes. Stay tuned.

Pee Wee Day: Maravich book brings back memories of showtime

2007-02-22T13:04:00.000-05:00

Livingston Parish News

Pee Wee Day: Maravich book brings back memories of showtime

PETE'S PALACE - This time forty years ago on a football farm in Tigertown, a basketball seed suddenly sprouted out of the turf.

Back then, freshmen were not eligible to participate on the varsity squad, so all eyes were focused on the LSU Baby Bengals basketball team.

Actually, all eyes were zeroed in on one particular player, a skinny 6-foot-5 mop-top phenomenon, who was about to change basketball forever at LSU.

Pete Maravich took Louisiana by storm during the 1966-67 season and proceeded to cultivate a new fan base that spread far beyond Baton Rouge.

Four decades later and 19 years following his untimely death at age 40, the "Pistol" remains firmly planted in the hearts of his fans, whom he inspired both on and off the court.

Bringing "Showtime" to a cow barn, which laid down a hardwood on top of the dirt floor to house basketball for four months a year, Pistol Pete dazzled the crowds with an array of basketball skills that one could only see before when the Harlem Globetrotters came to town.

Three years later, Maravich had become the NCAA all-time leading scorer, while at the same time, leading the Tigers to their first post-season action in 15 years.

Far from a fluke, Maravich went on to have a very successful professional basketball career, where he was a multiple All-Star selection and scoring leader. Following his retirement in 1980, Maravich was named one of the "NBA's 50 Greatest Players" of all time. He was also enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Many books have been written on Maravich, beginning with a pair while he was still at LSU. Maravich himself joined in with an autobiography entitled "Heir to a Dream," which paralleled his entire of life in basketball with his father Peter "Press" Maravich, who was also his coach during his tenure at LSU.

But none of the books come close to documenting his incredible story of trials and tribulations like the current "Maravich," written by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill. What even authenticates the book to the utmost, is the fact it's the first book written with collaboration of Maravich's widow, Jackie.

Not to be confused with yet another current book on the racks, "Pistol," by Mark Kreiegel, the 400-plus page "Maravich" is practically a play-by-play of his life. Not only is the book packed with incredible detail and statistics, but the eight-year project by the authors unveil some stunning facts that even a diehard Pistol Pete fan like myself never knew, including one mystery never revealed before.

Even though they interviewed some 300 people who, in some way or another, crossed paths with Maravich, I'm living proof that the number of lives Maravich actually touched, is countless.

I was fortunate enough to be at the ideal age, 11-13-years-old during his playing days at LSU. I stood in line for hours to buy one of those "standing-room-only" general admission tickets for the student section. I was fortunate enough to have mid-court tickets for the night he broke Oscar Robertson's all-time scoring record and I can still watch myself on the highlight reel dashing on the court with a friend moments after he made the milestone bucket.

But I must confess, I also snuck into the sold-out home finale his senior year against Kentucky. But well-worth the risk.

Although I still treasure the autographs and memorabilia I've collected over his entire career, the memories of watching Maravich play are still etched in my mind to this day.

"Pete would always make the comment, 'when you die, they forget about you. You're last week's news,'" said Jackie Maravich McLachian.

How wrong he was.

Pete's "Homework Basketball" video series, which he filmed at the Albany High School gym in four days back in the late 1980's is still widely sold to help youngsters learn the fundamentals of the game.

And Pete's basketball camp at Clearwater Christian College in Florida is thriving as well.

Or just type "Pete Maravich" into the ebay search engine and one will finds trading cards, replica jerseys and various other memorabilia up for auction day-in and day-out ... and garnering top dollars.

Fans won't need a computer to get a signed copy of "Maravich," however, as Jackie, her and Pete's two sons, Jaeson and Josh, along with author Marshall Terrill, will all be on hand at none other than the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Saturday afternoon to sign copies of the book prior to and at halftime of the LSU-Florida game.

Both Jaeson and Josh played roundball at St. Paul's in their hometown of Covington, with both trying their hand at college basketball as well. Josh followed in his father's footsteps as a member of the Tiger squad from 2002-2005.

The two were just eight and five years old when their father died of a heart condition while playing a pickup game of basketball at the First Church of Nazarene in Pasadena, Calif.

Although the average fan may have known of Maravich's struggles on the court, battling both injuries and acceptance as a pro player, those were overshadowed by his many off-the-court struggles in life.

Just days before the beginning of his first season with the New Orleans Jazz, Maravich had to deal with the suicide of his mother.

Maravich gave his life to the Lord a little more than five years prior to his death and proceeded to coach his father into reborn Christianity. Press Maravich died of cancer just months prior to Pete's death.

"What was surprising was that as fun as he was to watch, there was the dichotomy that he was tortured and unhappy in his personal life because of so many factors," said co-author Terrill. "He was the highest paid player in pro sports, but he didn't get respect by his teammates. He was an all-star, but he never played on a winning team. He was so expressive on the court, but was a very private person.

"I think any baby boomer who loved basketball gravitated to the 'Pistol,'" said Terrill. His game was not only innovative, but fun to watch. Every kid on the playground wanted to be "Pistol Pete."

Me included.

(P.S. - If you're not able to attend the LSU-Florida game on Saturday to obtain an autograph copy of "Maravich", Jackie Maravich is finalizing dates to sign books at various Livingston Parish libraries in March.)

Sam Muffoletto is a sportswriter for the News and long-time newspaper and radio figure on sports in the Baton Rouge area.

A look at Pistol Pete and more

2007-02-21T10:54:00.000-05:00

Kevin Hench / Special to FOXSports.com

Hanging out at the free carbs media brunch at the MGM Grand on Sunday morning, I caught up with Wayne Federman, the world's foremost Pete Maravich biographer/comedian.
After a week of slaying 'em at Harrah's, Federman, co-author of Maravich, fielded questions about Vegas, All-Star weekend and his favorite NBA subject, Pistol Pete.
1. The big question surrounding this weekend's festivities is should the NBA make a permanent home in Las Vegas. What do you think?

I don't know if this is such a great idea. Every time a guy goes 3-for-17 you'll wonder if he's shaving points. They'll be surrounded by strippers, hookers, pimps, gamblers and gangsters — and that's just at the buffet line at Treasure Island — but the players will still have a dress code. No jeans! And now that they all have at least a semester of college under their belt, the NBA doesn't have to worry if they're mature enough to handle Vegas. I mean, how could a 19-year-old millionaire get into trouble here? Impossible.

If the NBA has a team in Vegas, the so-called "fifth quarter" will be extended to three overtimes. And there will be a whole bunch of new proposition bets. You'll be able to bet the over-under on positive paternity tests or get odds on Tim Hardaway and Elton John co-hosting a charity event.

2. If Bird and Magic through Jordan was basketball's Golden Age, where do you see the league right now?

I think the league is in great shape. The globalization of the game is incredible. I mean, just 10 years ago could you imagine that the two best players in the league would be Canadian and German? Not after the Leo Rautins and Uwe Blab flameouts. Like any era, there are only about eight teams you care about, but that's to be expected. I mean, does anybody really want to watch the Milwaukee Bucks? Or did they fold? Are they still in the league?

3. It's the 30th anniversary of Pete Maravich leading the NBA in scoring and the 10th anniversary of his being named to the Top 50 all-time team. Where do you see the Pistol's influence?

Well, Pete only had the moustache for a couple of years, the ancient mariner look, but it's great to see young Adam Morrison picking up the mantle. It just gives you that moment of hesitation, is that a basketball player or an arms dealer?

You see Pete's influence everywhere in the league. Steve Nash goes between his legs three times just bringing the ball up the court. What is common now was extraordinary when Pete was doing it. Nobody was making behind the back passes. Pete used to say that there was a method behind throwing a behind the back pass, that it gave another option for the defender to think about. Pete was all about misdirection, like a great close-up magician. Not like David Copperfield who makes entire airplanes disappear.

4. Bird won three MVPs and Nash has won two, but there hasn't been a white scoring champ since Maravich. Do you root for Pete to maintain this legacy?

Wow, I hadn't thought about that. I guess I'm just color blind when it comes to the NBA. I just see ballplayers. But now that you mention it, I guess Pete was white.

5. A young Dick Bavetta made a dubious charge call that led to Maravich fouling out of his career-high 68-point game in 1977. Do you feel a measure of satisfaction with Bavetta's loss to Charles Barkley on Saturday?

Bavetta still can't keep up with the speed of the league, even if the league is a 44-year-old, 300-pound, hungover TV commentator. Tom McMillan still hasn't gotten set on the one charge call where Bavetta waved off a Maravich basket. The bucket should have counted and Pete should have gone to the line. That would have been 71 right there.

Pete Maravich probably would have felt right at home in the modern era of the NBA All-Star game. (Dick Raphael / NBA / Getty Images)

6. Pete must have loved the All-Star game, the one game every year where nobody else played any defense either.

He was playing zone defense when the rest of the league was playing man-to-man. It's just another example of his artistry. Of course there are a couple of people, including Pat Riley, who had their career highs against Pete.

7. Doesn't the All-Star skills competition look like something right out of a Maravich instructional video?

It's almost like it was designed by his dad Press Maravich, except he would make Pete do it blindfolded hanging out a moving car.

8. Wouldn't Pete have owned the 3-point contest?

He loved the idea of the 3-point shot. Anything that made the game more exciting to the fans, he liked. Pete said, "The game is entertainment for the fans. It's not for the coaches, it's not for the players, it's for the fans. If you don't have the product that's marketed right, that's out there, that's entertaining, nobody will show up." In his one NBA season with the 3-pointer Pete went 10-for-15 from behind the arc as a part-time player for the Celtics, so the mind boggles at what might have been had he had the 3-pointer for his whole career.

9. Is it just me or has the All-Star game lost a little of its luster?

It's just you, you've lost a little of your luster. Pete had an idea for the All-Star game. Instead of teams of 12, he wanted to go five-on-five for the whole game. That's a game you wouldn't forget. There's always a point in the second quarter of the All-Star game where the subs come in and the game loses some juice. Pete's idea would have solved that. Not sure what his contingency plan was for guys getting hurt.

10. What can the hoop world learn about Pete Maravich that it doesn't already know by reading your book?

Well, one thing people don't know is that Pete's teams won 82 percent of the games in which he scored 40 or more points. What that tells me is Pete should have shot more. Also, Pete is the only player in NBA history to score 50 points on Super Bowl Sunday, which he did in 1972 against the Sixers. But you probably knew that.

Benefit raises $250,000

2007-02-21T10:53:00.000-05:00

Barbara McQueen takes the stage for mesothelioma research.

By BARBARA POTTER
Orange County Register
Twenty-six years ago actor and Hollywood legend Steve McQueen died from exposure to asbestos.

Each year up to 3,000 patients in the United States are diagnosed with the same form of aggressive cancer – mesothelioma. This slow growing cancer is linked to asbestos, a natural fiber that was once used in manufacturing industrial and household products. Medical studies show that men in their mid-60s are most often affected, but women have also been diagnosed with the disease.

For McQueen, it was contracted from his years stripping asbestos off hot pipes on U.S. Navy ships and from the flame retardant race car driver suits that he wore.

To raise funds for research for this rare cancer, Roger and Ann Worthington held an asbestos cancer benefit featuring Grammy-award winner and jazz musician Chris Botti. The event was held at the Worthington's beautiful Capistrano Beach home on Feb. 10. Barbara McQueen, wife of Steve McQueen, also made an appearance and autographed copies of her book, "Steve McQueen: The Last Mile," a publication of never before seen photos she took of Steve more than 25 years ago.

Roger Worthington, Barbara McQueen and Chris Botti also have in common that all three are from the same small community of Corvallis, Oregon.

Also gracing the stage was Jordan Zevon, a singer and songwriter, and Floyd Landis, winner of the 2006 Tour de France, who raised his voice for the need to end asbestos-related cancer.

"It was a smashing success. People had a whole lot of fun and it was great to have some of the best jazz artists performing in our front yard," Roger Worthington said.

By Monday evening, he said he had received many "hugs and kisses" via e-mail, thanking the couple for a wonderful evening.

More than $250,000 was raised at the event, which will go to the Punch Worthington Research Lab at the Pacific Heart, Lung and Blood Institute for research projects in finding a cure for mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases.

Roger Worthington's father, David "Punch" Worthington died from asbestos poisoning on Aug. 25, 2006. In August 2002, Warren Zevon, an acclaimed folk musician and father of Jordan Zevon, also died of the disease. Jordan, sang his father's classic song, "Werewolves of London," at the benefit. Chris Botti's drummer Billy Kilson also performed – his mother recently died from mesothelioma.

For the past 18 years Roger Worthington, an attorney, has taken on his clients' cause. In 1999, he founded The Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation to advance funding and research toward finding a cure.

"A lot of passion comes from personal experience," he said.

Worthington has helped more than 400 clients over the years in asbestos-related cases.

"We're very aggressive and we get the highest settlements," he said.

The Veterans Administration does not have a program to treat its patients diagnosed with mesothelioma.

"The government has not taken this (mesothelioma) seriously," Worthington said.

Jessica Like, executive director of Pacific Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in Los Angeles, said the evening was a wonderful outpouring from the more than 350 people who attended the fundraiser.

"People connected with other mesothelioma patients, survivors and their families. Doctors also got to speak with each other and with patients, too. It was a great networking experience, a total success," she said.

Also among the guests was Sandy Hazen, whose husband Tom also died of the disease in 2000. She was instrumental in organizing the fundraiser, Worthington said.

"For eight months, my husband battled mesothelioma," she said.

"It isn't a blue collar disease. It doesn't respect job titles – judges, accountants, doctors, inventors, housewives, school children have had it – it's not a ship yard disease," Worthington said.

Funds raised included $15,000 from the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers Union, $60,000 from the estate of David "Punch" Worthington, $50,000 from the law firm of Simon, Eddins and Greenstone, $25,000 from Roger Worthington, $10,000 from John Markovich, $10,000 from the law firm of Simmons Cooper and $5,000 from Owens-Illinois. Auction items also raised $9,000, from sculptures by Eric Peltzer and Alex Pavlenko, paintings by local artist Rick Delanty and Thomas Schmidt and photographs of Steve McQueen and limited edition copies of Barbara McQueen's book.

Mesothelioma can take 20-40 years to develop tumors. Possible signs include shortness of breath, pain under the rib cage, pain or swelling in the abdomen, lumps in the abdomen and weight loss for no known reason. There is no cure, and treatments are limited. Until recently mesothelioma patients have lived only months after diagnosis, but advancements in research have extended some patients' lives by three to five years.

Vanity Fair recommends "The Last Mile"

2007-02-21T10:51:00.000-05:00

Hot Type

A monthly overview of great new books.

by Elissa Schappell March 2007

What is the key to an artist's creative success? Joan Acocella's rich and brilliantly wrought trove of essays, Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints (Pantheon), proves it's "patience, courage, and the ability to survive disappointment."

Hold on to your helmet: In Leni (Knopf), Steven Bach unspools the dark truth about Nazi-friendly filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, proving her to be anything but apolitical. Conservative, patriotic soldier Joshua Key's allegiance to the U.S. government was decimated by the atrocities he witnessed in Iraq, and with the help of Lawrence Hill he tells The Deserter's Tale (Grove). In her harrowing memoir, Infidel (Free Press), Ayaan Hirsi Ali once again tempts the fury of fundamentalists. Senator Chuck Schumer comes out swinging for the middle class in Positively American (Rodale). Bambi vs. Godzilla (Pantheon) sees David Mamet spitting, growling, and batting his eyes at the business of making movies. Kevin Sessums's memoir is a portrait of the writer as a Mississippi Sissy (St. Martin's). Makeup maven Bobbi Brown (now 50 herself) shares midlife sleights of hand to achieve Living Beauty (Springboard).

L'amour! L'amour! L'amour! Daniel Jones, editor of the eponymous New York Times column, presents its loveliest and thorniest tales of "desire, deceit, and devotion" in Modern Love (Three Rivers). In Sally Wofford-Girand and Andrea Chapin's anthology, The Honeymoon's Over (Warner), writers such as Jane Smiley and Terry McMillan dish about why they split or stayed. From Dietrich to Streisand to Cher, Bronwyn Cosgrave shows how fashion and Oscar were always Made for Each Other (Bloomsbury). Life online goes off the hook in Walter Kirn's The Unbinding (Anchor). Forty years in the making, Clive James's Cultural Amnesia (Norton) recalls seminal moments in history and the arts. By Alec Wilkinson's account, Poppa Neutrino, a builder and sailor of trash rafts fit for one cross-Atlantic jaunt, is The Happiest Man in the World (Random House).

In short: Sara Davidson's advice for baby-boomers, Leap (Random House); Charlotte Chandler's Bergman bio, Ingrid (Simon & Schuster); Steidl's Martin Munkacsi; Charlie LeDuff's US Guys (Penguin Press); Barbara McQueen's Steve McQueen, The Last Mile (Dalton Watson); photographer Tierney Gearon's meditation on motherhood, Daddy, Where Are You? (Steidl); André Schiffrin's intellectual autobiography, A Political Education (Melville House); Lucinda Franks's memoir, My Father's Secret War (Miramax); Larry Brown's posthumous (sadly) novel, A Miracle of Catfish (Shannon Ravenel); Tara Ison's psycho-comic novel, The List (Scribner).

The insane, compassionate, balls-out genius William T. Vollmann traversed the globe asking Poor People (Ecco) the question, "Why are you poor?" And the answer is …

Elissa Schappell, author of the novel Use Me (Perennial) and editor-at-large of the literary magazine Tin House, has written Vanity Fair's Hot Type column for nearly a decade.

Comic chronicles the tragic showman, 'Pistol' Pete Maravich

2007-02-21T10:41:00.000-05:00

By Jerry Fink
Las Vegas Sun

(appearance info deleted as it is out of date)

Book: "Maravich" by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill with Jackie Maravich (SportClassic Books, 2006)

Unless you're a Harlem Globetrotter fan, basketball and comedy usually don't mix.

It's odd then, that a stand-up comedian would co-author a biography of Hall of Famer "Pistol" Pete Maravich, sometimes a clown on the college and pro basketball courts, but a tragic figure in life.

Wayne Federman, 47, is a comedian and actor who has appeared onstage in Los Angeles at places such as the Improv and the Laugh Factory; on television in such series as "The Larry Sander s Show" and such movies as "Jack Frost" in 1998 and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" in 2005.

He and co-author Marshall Terrill have written perhaps the definitive book on Maravich, who died of a heart attack in 1988 at the age of 40. Aiding in the book were Maravich's widow, Jackie, and sons Jaeson and Joshua.

During a recent telephone interview with the Sun from his home in Los Angeles, Federman discussed the remarkable book about the remarkable Maravich.

I'm a basketball fan. When I was a kid I was a Dr. J fan - that was sort of my era. In 1987 Pete Maravich released these instructional videotapes on basketball and they were just fascinating. Ever since then, I became more and more interested in the guy and I started researching him, especially his NBA career. Then Marshall Terrill, who had started writing the book, took me on as a co-author.

How did the two of you hook up?

He contacted me through the Internet. I had put up this little site because I had started collecting Pete Maravich videos and I had a couple of basketball games he wanted.

All of this collecting you were doing, was it with the intent of writing a book?

No. It was totally a hobby, but I have a knack for research and I started speaking to this guy, and the next thing I know he tells me I know more about Pete Maravich than anyone he has spoken to and he's been writing this book for half a year and would I like to be his co-author. I go, no, I'm trying to get an audition for "Mad About You" or something. But my girlfriend convinced me and so I say, "OK, let's give this a try."

I wrote it with the idea of making it into a movie. I just thought it would always make a great sports movie in a nontraditional way. It's not like "Hoosiers," where at the last second they win the game; it's a much more nuanced and sad and thrilling story. There's just a lot to the story.

Do you still have hopes of turning it into a movie?

Yes. Definitely. Very much so. I've been contacted by several producers. We are putting together something right now, and, let's just keep our fingers crossed, but it's looking very positive.

How exciting would that be to see your book come to life?

It's such a compelling story. Tragic. Thrilling. All the things I like in a movie. I don't know if you know this, but when Pete died, an autopsy was performed because he dropped dead of a heart attack at 40, after setting all these records that still stand till this day - and they find out he never had a left coronary artery and shouldn't have lived to the age of 20 and shouldn't have been allowed to play any sport, not even badminton; maybe he could have been on the chess team.

Was he aware of this?

No. He knew something was wrong with his heart. It kept him out of Vietnam, which we uncovered in the book. He had no idea it was lethal. No idea. I talked to team doctors from the Hawks and the Jazz and the Celtics, all the team doctors, and I asked, "Did you give him stress tests?" and they're like, "Yeah. He passed with no problem." I go like, "Wow, that's pretty amazing." I talked to a cardiologist who said you don't know you have this condition till it's too late. Now, they inject dye into your vein and take a better picture of your heart. If they had the technology back then, they said it could have been detected - but with just the stethoscope and EKG, no. He was a pro basketball player. It's ridiculous.

When did you first get interested in Maravich?

Like I said, in '87. He died the very next year. My interest was further piqued in '96, when he was selected one of the NBA's 50 great players. I wondered why. He never won a championship. I thought his pro career was a bit of a washout compared to his college career, where he averaged over 44 points a game. So then I looked into his pro career and it was pretty spectacular, but like everything involved with Pete Maravich, there's always a sadness or a touch of tragedy to it. His mom ended up killing herself just after he got traded to New Orleans. He blew out his knee just as the team is about to make the playoffs. Every step of the way - at times it was hard to write, you just feel bad for him, yet all anyone remembers of him are these fantastic Globetrotter moves in a real game; it's like this ultimate showman and the price that was paid for that.

Jackie Maravich remained silent about the tragedy for 20 years. Why did she now decide to talk about it and help you with the book?

First of all the kids were too young. She didn't want to have that all around them when they were trying to grow up. And two, Jackie Maravich is a very private person.

Why was the timing right for this book?

Three things. The kids were older, going to college, and she thought they could handle it. Second, an unauthorized book written several years earlier, she didn't like. And three, she was looking for an author who would write a comprehensive, fair and balanced book about his life. I stepped in at the right time.

How has the book been doing since its December release?

If possible, it's doing too well. The first printing of 10,000 sold out in 3 1/2 weeks. Since Christmas it's been nearly impossible to buy the book. The second printing should be hitting the stores about now.

Why did you choose to write this book?

Pete was such a unique guy in the history of the game. He was not really accepted by the team when he went to the Hawks - don't forget, there was a bidding war for him between the NBA and ABA, before the leagues merged. He got like five times as much money as the highest paid veteran player on the team. They resented the heck out of him immediately. And on top of that he started getting endorsement deals with Vitalis, Pro-Keds and basketballs; and all those endorsement deals were worth more than anyone else's contract on the team.

A lot of jealousy?

And for good reason. They say, "Hey, we built up the Hawks, we have had to struggle to get an extra $10,000 a year and this kid comes in and gets $250,000." At the time he signed a five-year, $1.8 million contract, which was the highest in any sport at the time.

Are there more books in your future or are you going to stick to comedy?

I don't know. I can't imagine what it would be. The amount of work I put into this - I was in way beyond what I thought I was capable of. There's nothing on the horizon, but then I never thought I would write a book in the first place.

Jerry Fink can be reached at 259-4058 or at jerry@lasvegassun.com.

NY Times Sunday Book Review-"Maravich"

2007-02-12T17:52:00.000-05:00

MARAVICH
By Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill in collaboration with Jackie
Maravich.
Illustrated. 422 pp. Sport Classic Books. $24.95.

PISTOL
The Life of Pete Maravich.
By Mark Kriegel.
Illustrated. 381 pp. Free Press. $27.

By JAY JENNINGS
Published: February 11, 2007

On May 3, 1989, I popped a VHS tape into my machine and recorded an
entire game of the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan to save for
posterity. It was an ordinary first-round playoff game against the
Cleveland Cavaliers, admittedly a team Jordan often torched, but I had
no idea what would happen. Jordan ended with 44 points and delivered a
few signature moments — a steal and a breakaway dunk, a series of
fadeaway jumpers, an end-to-end rebound, sprint and layup. In an ESPN
world of quick-cut highlights where a player’s dunk dissolves into the
next clip before he hits the ground, I wanted to preserve what
snippet-sports often denies us: context. While the most sensational
exploits of our athlete gods become as luminescent in public
consciousness as stained glass (Julius Erving’s behind-the-backboard
layup, Willie Mays’s over-the-shoulder catch), the proof of greatness
often lies in their ability to amaze every day. Arguably, no basketball
player, not even Jordan, met that test as regularly as Pete Maravich,
whose between-the-legs assists and next-ZIP-code jumpers still defy
belief. Too bad he played mostly pre-VCR.

Even a casual fan may know of Maravich’s trademark floppy socks and
hair and his college scoring average of 44.2 points per game during his
three years at Louisiana State University, a record as seemingly
unassailable as Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. The more ardent
will know Maravichiana like his idiosyncratic ball-handling drills, an
obsessive practice ethic that found him sitting in aisle seats at movie
theaters so he could dribble while he watched, and a checkered pro
career marked by injury, coaching turmoil, frequent drinking and, most
of all, losing. After retiring from the pros, he embraced evangelical
Christianity and died unexpectedly in 1988 at the age of 40, owing to a
genetic heart ailment.

A pair of recent biographies — one by Mark Kriegel, the author of
“Namath,” and the other a team effort from the actor and comedian Wayne
Federman and the journalist Marshall Terrill, with an assist from
Maravich’s widow, Jackie Maravich — cover this material baseline to
baseline, with admirable thoroughness. In “Maravich,” Federman et al.
assay a more exhaustive (and occasionally exhausting) approach,
dutifully summarizing statistics in parentheses, front-loading each
chapter with not one but two epigraphs and stacking up repetitive
encomiums. Once you’ve had the Hall of Famer and onetime Maravich coach
Elgin Baylor say, “Pete is the best I’ve ever seen,” do we really need
to hear the same from a dozen others? But its labor-of-love enthusiasm
is infectious, and it’s essential for Maravich completists, especially
for the reassessment of his pro career and for anecdotal feats of
basketball wizardry, like his delivering on a boast to hit 100 jumpers
from beyond 25 feet without missing two in a row. It also contains the
single most convincing statistical refutation of the charge that
Maravich was a selfish gunner: in the N.B.A., when he scored more than
40 points, his team won 82 percent of its games, compared with Jordan’s
69 percent and Allen Iverson’s 68.

Kriegel’s prose is flashier but often errant. A young Maravich is
described as having “a big head mounted on a wispy frame, dense as a
wafer”; the Maravich-as-Elvis theme is hammered ad nauseam; and one
chapter in “Pistol” has the truly awful title “The Unbearable Whiteness
of Being Pete.” But Kriegel does uncover some nuggets otherwise lost to
history, as when he traces one inspiration for Maravich’s dribbling
drills to a ball-handling sensation named Ah Chew Goo, whom Pete’s
father, Press, had seen when stationed in Hawaii in the service.

Kriegel also tries to situate Maravich in his times, particularly in
relation to the era’s racial dynamics. Despite the precedent of Bob
Cousy’s legerdemain, Maravich’s crowd-pleasing style was identified
with that of the urban playground and its black stars. Marvin Turner, a
black player from Baton Rouge who competed against Maravich in the
summer, tells Kriegel, “There had never been a white guy who played
like that — he had a soul game.” The growing National Basketball
Association was beginning to be dominated by African-Americans, and the
mantle of “great white hope” thrust upon Maravich, along with the
accompanying rich contract, didn’t help his transition to the league;
when he joined the Atlanta Hawks, black veterans like Lou Hudson and
Joe Caldwell, who’d toiled for years for a fraction of the money
Maravich commanded, were understandably annoyed. In time, the tempest
blew over, but over a 10-year career that saw enough success for him to
be named one of the N.B.A.’s 50 greatest players, a complementarity of
teammates and coach failed to materialize, and he never came close to
showcasing his skills in the service of a championship.

Over the 800 pages in these books, despite tales of drinking,
vegetarianism and interest in extraterrestrials, Pete Maravich the man
remains something of a mystery. Perhaps that’s because he was a mystery
to himself, constantly searching before his post-career embrace of
Christianity. His innate basketball talent was manifest so early in
life — he once said, “There isn’t anything I did at L.S.U. or in the
N.B.A. I couldn’t do at 13” — that the young man was the sum of his
basketball feats, which he all but admitted late in life when he
described that earlier self as “a basketball android.”

What may be a revelation here is the portrait that emerges of Press
Maravich, who might stereotypically be viewed as merely riding his
son’s remarkable skills to the L.S.U. head coaching job. Kriegel is
particularly good at offering a corrective, and the most successful
part of his book describes the elder Maravich’s hardscrabble upbringing
in the Serbian immigrant enclave of Aliquippa, Pa., a company town
where nearly everyone worked for the steel producer Jones & Laughlin.
These vivid pages follow Press as he masters basketball in a church
gym, stars in college and in the fledgling pro game, serves as a Navy
flier, and works his way up the high school and college coaching ranks
by forming teams of players as hard-nosed and hardheaded as he was.
“Press didn’t recruit ability,” Kriegel writes. “He recruited desire.
He wanted guys who loved the game as much as he did, who shared his
confusion of basketball with salvation.”

At basketball backwaters like Davis and Elkins College in West Virginia
and the football powerhouse Clemson, his undersize teams became so well
drilled in his theories of tenacious defense and meticulous execution
that the legendary U.C.L.A. coach John Wooden often sought him out for
advice. “They were an odd couple,” Kriegel writes, “Wooden measured and
modest while Press was loud and profane.” In both books, Press emerges
as a full, flawed but appealing man, driven and tender, boastful and
loving. “Press was one of the greatest, most entertaining guys I’ve
ever met,” an L.S.U. administrator says in “Maravich.” But Press’s
formidable basketball mind became mush when his son was involved. “He
had ... become obsessed with Pete’s numbers,” a former assistant coach
says in “Pistol.” “He had gone from being one of the greatest coaches
in the game to the coach of the greatest player in the game.”

In the end, reading about Maravich the son is like reading about Gale
Sayers, the incomparable Chicago Bears running back: it mostly makes
you want to watch those precious old films, to witness with your own
eyes the impossible moves. That’s why the most exciting part of either
of these books for me was in an appendix to “Maravich” under the
“Selected References” section, titled “Video”: “Games: 1967 L.S.U. at
Tennessee; 1968 L.S.U. at Georgia,” and so on. Out there somewhere is
Maravich in context.

Jay Jennings, a former college basketball reporter for Sports
Illustrated, is a frequent contributor to the Book Review.

Check out Book Soup today!

2007-02-09T12:05:00.000-05:00

Book Soup to host Barbara McQueen and Marshall Terrill today. Here's the particulars, first posted January 11. Drop on by today and meet the authors.

Barbara McQueen and Marshall Terrill are "going Hollywood" in February when they appear at a world famous book store on the Sunset Strip to promote "Steve McQueen: The Last Mile."

The signing will take place 7 p.m. Friday, February 9, 2007 at Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.

"Book Soup is the coolest bookstore in the world," said Barbara McQueen. "I used to shop there all the time when I lived in Los Angeles. I'm absolutely thrilled they are hosting a signing for us."

The event, which is billed as "McQueen for a Day," will be more than just a book signing promises co-author Marshall Terrill.

"I've had assurances from several McQueen friends and associates that they will show up and say something in tribute to Steve," Terrill said. "The signing will be a gathering of friends, associates and Steve McQueen fans. I guarantee this will be a once-in-a-lifetime event. Who knows, you might even bump into a celebrity or two."

Barbara McQueen and Terrill will read a few of their favorite passages from "Steve McQueen: The Last Mile," talk about how they wrote the book and why McQueen hasn't spoken publicly about her famous husband in more than 25 years. They will also take questions from the audience at the end of their presentation.

The 240-page book contains approximately 150 pictures documenting Barbara McQueen's three-and-a-half year relationship with the movie icon, which includes candid shots from 1977 to 1980 – McQueen's years out of the spotlight. It also chronicles Barbara's early history and modeling career; her years with McQueen at Trancas Beach and Santa Paula as well as behind-the-scene photos on the sets of "Tom Horn" and "The Hunter."

Book Soup will offer both the $95 special limited edition as well as a new $49.95 hardback version of the book.

The store will also have on hand the 2005 version of Terrill's "Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel" to sign.

The cost to attend the signing is free, but an RSVP is required to guarantee admittance. Contact Tyson Cornell at (310) 659-3684 or e-mail him at tyson@booksoup.com to RSVP.

For those who can't attend the event, Book Soup will broadcast the presentation on its website at www.booksoup.com

Publisher Dalton Watson will also take orders from buyers around the world who want to purchase a special limited edition with an inscription from Barbara McQueen and Marshall Terrill. Orders must be in placed by February 1, 2007. For more information, go to www.daltonwatson.com

"Pistol Pete's" Rectal Exam

2007-02-02T16:41:00.000-05:00

"Pistol Pete" Maravich nixed the Sixers when Doc gave him the finger. Read on...

2007-01-24T00:24:00.001-05:00

The official, authorized highlight video (2007) of the Pete Maravich Basketball Camp from Clearwater Christian College in Florida. Rare and well-known clips from Pistol Pete while at LSU, or in the NBA (Hawks, Jazz, and Celtics).

Brought to you by: www.MaravichBook.com

Reward issued for missing Purdue University student, Wade Steffey, 19

2007-01-23T22:21:00.000-05:00

Please click on the above link for the police fact sheet.

"Maravich" authors Marshall Terrill and Wayne Federman

2007-01-18T08:36:00.000-05:00

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.

"Steve McQueen Days"

2007-01-15T22:42:00.000-05:00

Slater, Missouri is throwing a special birthday party for Steve McQueen this spring.

The actor, box-office champion and icon of cool will be honored by civic and business officials from his hometown with a special weekend festival to celebrate his life and commemorate what would have been his 77th birthday.

McQueen was born on March 24, 1930 in Beech Grove, Indiana but moved to Slater when he was an infant and remained there for most of the next decade.

The Slater Chamber of Commerce and the City of Slater, Missouri will host the 2007 Steve McQueen Days on March 24 and 25 with a slate of events honoring the town's most famous resident.

"The city of Slater decided it was time to recognize the amazing accomplishments of a man who spent his early years in our community and had a lasting impact on the history of film and popular culture,” said Mayor Steve Allegri.

Events are still in the planning stages, but organizers say the festival will include a film retrospective, a motorcycle ride, an antique car show, a panel discussion and a visit of McQueen's old haunts, including his boyhood home and the one-room schoolhouse where he was educated. Barbara McQueen, the superstar's widow, will also take part in a special sign unveiling and as well as sign copies of her new book, Steve McQueen: The Last Mile.

McQueen, who was a worldwide box-office champion in the '60s and '70s, starred in blockbuster films such as The Great Escape, Bullit, The Thomas Crown Affair, Papillon and The Sand Pebbles, which garnered him an Academy Award nomination for best actor. McQueen was the highest paid actor in the world at the time of his death in November 1980.

McQueen's film legacy as “The King of Cool” as well as his passion for motor sports and aviation, have elevated him to the same status of other fallen screen idols such as James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. The McQueen name is magic to both baby boomers and to a new generation of hipsters young enough to be his grandchildren.

The actor's “anti-hero” persona and hell-bent-for-leather take on life has been the subject of approximately 20 books and 10 documentaries. Even posthumously, McQueen remains one of the highest paid iconic stars. His image and likeness has been used by more than 30 companies to sell various products such as cars, motorcycles, vodka, blue jeans, watches, jackets, T-shirts, sunglasses and video games.

Founded in 1878, Slater is located in central Missouri in Saline County and has approximately 2,100 residents.

For more information about the 2007 Steve McQueen Days, call Dan Viets at (573) 819-2669 or go to www.cityofslater.com or e-mail info@cityofslater.com.

"Say What You Mean" Online Convention

2007-01-13T21:50:00.000-05:00

The second annual ‘Say What You Mean’ virtual convention focuses on defending the faith.

Join host JoJo Tabares, of Art of Eloquence, along with co-host Cindy Powers, independent representative of Bright Minds: The Critical Thinking Company ~ At Home, for the second annual online convention February 1 - 3, 2007. "The Lord spoke to my heart two years ago and asked me to make these fun educational seminars and workshops available to all for free. It is my honor to bring communication training to the Christian community in a unique and fun way!" says Mrs. Tabares. This free three day virtual event can be attended from the comfort of your own home and will focus on defending the faith.

On Thursday, February 1st the convention focuses on parents and will feature a variety of audio seminars. Guest speaker Mrs. Gena Suarez, publisher of the Old School House Magazine, will present ‘Faith and the History of Public School’, while featured speakers Mrs. JoJo Tabares will discuss marital communication skills and Mrs. Powers will be discussing the importance of critical thinking as part of homeschool teaching. Question and answer teleseminars, interactive online chat workshops, and contests for parents and small business owners will also be featured.

Day two of the convention on Friday, February 2nd is for the kids. Guest speaker Mrs. Jeannie Fulbright, Apologia Elementary Science text author, will talk about ‘The Science of the Bible’. Afterwards featured speaker JoJo Tabares will challenge children by asking them if they are setting a good Christian example during her audio seminar. Kids’ Day will also include fun internet games, contests, workshops, a question and answer chat, and prizes.

Saturday, February 3rd is the final day of the virtual convention and is entitled ‘Faith Day’. Attendees will be in for a special treat when they hear guest speaker Dr. Jay Wile, founder and author of ‘Apologia Science’, speak live on the topic of evolution vs. creation. Later in the day JoJo Tabares will teach on communication skills and Cindy Powers will deliver a lesson on critical thinking in an entertaining way via an audio seminar teaching on faith, question and answer teleseminars, interactive workshops and prayer chats, contests, prizes and more.

This event is hosted by Art of Eloquence and Independent Representative Cindy Powers of Bright Minds: The Critical Thinking Company ~ At Home, and is coordinated by Marie Ynami of MommyFest. Attendees will also enjoy the music of guest singer Jade Sholty. To pre-register free for the second annual Say What You Mean Convention February 1-3, 2007, visit www.saywhatyoumeanconvention.com and complete the registration form at the top of the page now. The first 50 registrants will receive a CD-rom with samples, freebies, coupons and free articles from the event sponsors.

USA Today hails "Maravich" as one of the best sports books of 2006

2007-01-12T22:13:00.000-05:00

USA Today columnist David DuPree has hailed "Maravich" as one of the best sports books of 2006.

In his Jan. 3, 2006 web column, DuPree recommended the 432-page biography to his readers, calling it one of the best sports books released in the past year.

The book, authored by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill, is considered by many sportswriters across the country as the definitive biography of "Pistol" Pete Maravich.

In addition to countless hours spent with Maravich's widow Jackie and her sons, Jaeson and Joshua, the authors also interviewed more than 300 teammates, opponents, journalists, coaches, detractors, fans and extended family to bring back the vivid life story of a transcendent athlete who thrilled millions.

The mop-topped, floppy-socked prodigy was a legend at LSU, averaging a staggering 44.2 points per game - the highest in NCAA history.

Then a brilliant career with the Hawks, Jazz and Celtics led to enshrinement in the Hall of Fame and selection as one of the top 50 players in NBA history.

For more information, go to www.maravichbook.com.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Maravich Review

2007-01-11T12:36:00.000-05:00

Pistol dazzled here

By Bob Wolfey
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Jan. 9, 2007
A new biography about Pete Maravich recounts a few of the marvelous basketball games he played in Milwaukee, once as a collegian for LSU and once as pro for the Atlanta Hawks.

In "Maravich" by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill, the authors revisit the 1967-'68 season when the Tigers played against Wisconsin in the first round of the Milwaukee Classic at the Milwaukee Arena. That season was Maravich's sophomore year and his first playing varsity.

The Badgers dominated the game until 8:30 left to play, when LSU reduced a 13-point deficit to one. But Maravich fouled out with 2:09 to play and the Badgers held on to win, 96-94. Maravich scored 42 points in his fourth game as a varsity player.

"I know he's already had the buildup but take a long, long look," Marquette coach Al McGuire said after seeing Maravich play. "This boy will be a three-time All-American."

LSU lost to Florida State with Dave Cowens in the next game. Maravich scored 42 points and had nine assists.

In his rookie season with the Hawks, 1970-'71, Maravich made his pro debut against the Bucks. But he played only 22 minutes in a home loss and scored only seven points.

But a season later, on Jan. 23, 1972 at the Arena, Maravich had one of the best games of his career against the Bucks. Even though he was 18 pounds underweight because he was recovering from mononucleosis, Maravich scored 35 points and had 14 assists against Milwaukee.

Call SportsDay at (414) 223-5531 or send e-mail to bwolfley@journalsentinel.com

"McQueen for a Day"

2007-01-11T12:34:00.000-05:00

Book Soup to host Barbara McQueen and Marshall Terrill in February

Barbara McQueen and Marshall Terrill are "going Hollywood" in February when they appear at a world famous book store on the Sunset Strip to promote "Steve McQueen: The Last Mile."

The signing will take place 7 p.m. Friday, February 9, 2007 at Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.

"Book Soup is the coolest bookstore in the world," said Barbara McQueen. "I used to shop there all the time when I lived in Los Angeles. I'm absolutely thrilled they are hosting a signing for us."

The event, which is billed as "McQueen for a Day," will be more than just a book signing promises co-author Marshall Terrill.

"I've had assurances from several McQueen friends and associates that they will show up and say something in tribute to Steve," Terrill said. "The signing will be a gathering of friends, associates and Steve McQueen fans. I guarantee this will be a once-in-a-lifetime event. Who knows, you might even bump into a celebrity or two."

Barbara McQueen and Terrill will read a few of their favorite passages from "Steve McQueen: The Last Mile," talk about how they wrote the book and why McQueen hasn't spoken publicly about her famous husband in more than 25 years. They will also take questions from the audience at the end of their presentation.

The 240-page book contains approximately 150 pictures documenting Barbara McQueen's three-and-a-half year relationship with the movie icon, which includes candid shots from 1977 to 1980 – McQueen's years out of the spotlight. It also chronicles Barbara's early history and modeling career; her years with McQueen at Trancas Beach and Santa Paula as well as behind-the-scene photos on the sets of "Tom Horn" and "The Hunter."

Book Soup will offer both the $95 special limited edition as well as a new $49.95 hardback version of the book.

The store will also have on hand the 2005 version of Terrill's "Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel" to sign.

The cost to attend the signing is free, but an RSVP is required to guarantee admittance. Contact Tyson Cornell at (310) 659-3684 or e-mail him at tyson@booksoup.com to RSVP.

For those who can't attend the event, Book Soup will broadcast the presentation on its website at www.booksoup.com

Publisher Dalton Watson will also take orders from buyers around the world who want to purchase a special limited edition with an inscription from Barbara McQueen and Marshall Terrill. Orders must be in placed by February 1, 2007. For more information, go to www.daltonwatson.com

More "Pistol Pete" Maravich reviews

2007-01-11T12:32:00.000-05:00

Pistol Pete Connection - Times and Democrat

Orangeburg man plays key role in new biography of legendary player

By TRAVIS BOLAND, T&D Sports Writer
Saturday, December 16, 2006

He played for Pistol Pete's father. He coached the basketball phenom in high school in South Carolina. He's been close to the Maravich family ever since.

Now Don Carver of Orangeburg has played an integral role in creating a new biography about one of basketball's most prolific scorers.

The book is "Maravich," the story of "Pistol'' Pete Maravich. It is written by Marshall Terrill, a sportswriter in Arizona, and Wayne Federman, in cooperation with Maravich's widow, Jackie Maravich

"Marshall got in touch with me in 2000," Carver said. "He asked if I could give him some contacts at Clemson who could help him with the book. He asked me about my experiences, and we formed a friendship. We talked over the next seven years, and he would send me chapters he finished to let me read."

Terrill said Carver had a big part in creation of the new book.

"He provided great insights into the Maravich family, put me in touch with several people in Clemson, read the manuscript for accuracy and gave me a lot of perspective about the flavor of basketball in the ACC at the time," Terrill said. "Basically he was an unofficial adviser. He's also a very loyal friend and it's easy to see why the Maravichs trusted him."

Carver's path first crossed with the Maravichs in 1956 when Pete's father Press Maravich took over the head coaching duties at then-Clemson College. Carver had just graduated from Elkins High School in Elkins, W.Va., and Maravich was looking to recruit him.

"He had just taken the position at Clemson," Carver said. "He told me he heard about my selection to West Virginia's all-state team and asked me to meet him."

At the meeting, Maravich invited Carver to fly down to Clemson to check out the school.

"I was 18 years old, straight out of high school, and had never been on a plane before. In fact I had never heard of Clemson College."

Carver had signed a letter of intent to West Virginia Institute of Technology and was set to be the top guy as soon as he stepped on campus.

"Tech led the nation in scoring in 1956, averaging 110 points per game," Carver said. "They had the number one scorer in the nation who was graduating, and I was promised to have his spot the next year."

Carver spent two weeks at Clemson playing pick-up games and checking out the campus. He would later accept a full basketball scholarship from Clemson. That's the first time he met Pete Maravich, then just 9 years old.

"Pete would be at some of the practices at Clemson," Carver said. "I continued to see Pete for the next four years. He was kind of a nuisance during shoot-around because he was usually in the way."

Carver would play three years for Press Maravich before opportunity started knocking again. One month before his graduation, Carver was approached by Pete Carlisle, head basketball coach at Daniel High School. Carlisle wanted Carver to take over the head coaching duties at Daniel. Carver put in an application and became the head coach in 1961.

"I loved coaching and teaching at Daniel High School," Carver said. "In 1961 we had two lettermen returning. One was junior Jim Sutherland and the other was ninth-grader Pete Maravich. We finished the season 9-9."

Carver would return his entire starting five from the '61 team, including Sutherland, now a senior, and 10th-grader Pete Maravich.

"1962 we finished the year 23-3," Carver said. "Jim averaged 27.5 points per game. Pete averaged 20.5 points per game, but if Jim were not on that Daniel team he would have averaged a lot more."

Carver remembers Maravich waiting for him after he finished coaching the JV football team.

"When he was in ninth grade he would wait for me and we would play one-on-one," Carver said. "Some nights I would win, some nights he would win. If I tried to block his shot, he would drive around me. If I tried to stay back, he would hit the outside shot. Even though I had him when he was very young, I knew there was something special about him. But I never envisioned him being what he became."

T&D Sports Writer Travis Boland can be reached at tboland@timesanddemocrat.com and 803-533-5522.

'Maravich' a proper piece on Pistol Pete

Maravich's former coach says book has player's life in correct perspective
By BOB GILLESPIE
bgillespie@thestate.com

ORANGEBURG — Don Carver places the book gently, almost reverently, on his dining room table. Occasionally he reaches over to touch it, turning pages, handling the volume the way a proud parent might caress a newborn.

Carver, 68, did not write the book, but the reasons for his proprietary affection soon become apparent.

"Maravich" is a recently released, 400-page-plus biography of "Pistol Pete" Maravich by co-authors Marshall Terrill and Wayne Federman. Eight years in the making, it claims to be "the definitive biography" on the late basketball legend, and Carver agrees.

"It's the best I've read," he said. "It has more insight into Pete because (his widow) Jackie is a part of it."

Carver paused, then added, "It's very satisfying to have (the book) in hand."

Nearly 45 years ago, Maravich was a skinny, baby-faced 15-year-old guard who loved basketball with an almost unearthly obsession. That inner fire would drive him to become the greatest offensive player, pound-for-pound, in the game's history: a rail-thin 6-foot-5, floppy-haired phenom who averaged more than 40 points a game at LSU, was named to the NBA Hall of Fame and selected as one of the 50 greatest players.

In 1962-63, Carver was Maravich's coach at Clemson's Daniel High School. He watched the 5-8, 150-pound youngster who, growing up, wasn't strong enough to shoot jumpers and had to heave the ball from his hip — the origin of his "Pistol Pete" moniker.

"Basketball was Pete's total life," Carver said. "That's all he thought about, 365 days a year."

The coach understood that passion for basketball better than anyone outside the Maravich family — because, in a way, he had shared it.

Carver, who played three seasons at Clemson for Pete's father, Press Maravich, grew up in the mountains of West Virginia, where "the only way out was sports. If not for sports, you were a nobody.

"(Pete Maravich) probably could say the same thing."

Now, nearly a half-century removed from his brush with basketball greatness, Carver has another connection to Maravich. He didn't write the new book, but he helped make it a reality.

Terrill, an Arizona-based reporter and author of 10 books on actor Steve McQueen, basketball star David Thompson and others, says he grew up with three heroes: McQueen, Elvis Presley and Maravich. In 1998, when Maravich was named to the all-time top 50, the time seemed ripe to write his life story.

"People are still very sentimental about Pete," Terrill said. "He was one of a kind, something we'll never see again."

Terrill's research led him in 2000 to Carver, with whom he struck up an "e-mail friendship." As the book slowly took form, the writer sent chapters on Maravich's early years to Carver's home for evaluation, insights and corrections.

"It was burning up my printer," Carver said.

But work on the book was therapy for Carver, who had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. "It was winter, and I was staying inside anyway," he said. "Doing that helped me emotionally, made me feel better."

When he learned about Carver's illness, "that floored me," Terrill said. "We've become fast friends. He's a loyal guy."

The book project finally took off the past two years when Jackie Maravich agreed to open up her late husband's archives. The volume of material from those, plus some 300 interviews, was substantial. Terrill said the original manuscript was 1,000 pages before publisher Sport Media Publishing Inc. twice ordered it trimmed.

A 10,000-book first edition has sold well, and a second printing is set for early 2007.

"It took a lot of time, but it was very rewarding that Marshall would ask my opinion" on his work, Carver said. He said he was approached by other authors working on Maravich books but declined to get involved.

"(Terrill and Federman's book) is a positive book, more family-oriented," Carver said. "There were a lot of negatives in other books."

Indeed, Pistol Pete's life was often touched by tragedy, and "Maravich" pulls few punches. Press Maravich died of prostate cancer, and Pete's mother, Helen, battled alcoholism and finally committed suicide. Pete also faced his mother's two demons during his career before finding peace in Christianity later in life.

Then in 1988, at age 40, Maravich collapsed and died during a pickup game at his church. The cause, a congenital heart defect, is perhaps the most amazing part of the story, Terrill said.

"He should never have lived past his teens," he said. The book tells how an ROTC physical at the end of his LSU career indicated the problem. Another exam while he was in the NBA also was a warning, but Maravich never followed up after retiring.

Carver knows Maravich's life was a mixture of joy and pain, a life that ended too soon. But he mostly remembers good times when young Pete was first learning what wondrous things he could and would do in basketball.

"The Pete I knew was an excellent young man," Carver said.

Readers of "Maravich," he said, will get a chance to know that Pistol Pete, too.

Reach Senior Writer Bob Gillespie at (803) 771-8304.

ABOUT THE BOOK

AUTHORS: Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill

PUBLISHER: Sport Media Publishing Inc., August 2006

LENGTH: 422 pages

COST: $24.95 (includes Maravich's LSU and NBA statistics, game-by-game scoring at LSU and "The Pistol's Top 25 Games" as selected by the authors)

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Wayne Federman is an actor, comedian and writer who has acted in more than a dozen films, including "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Fifty First Dates" and "Legally Blonde." He appears on The Comedy Channel and wrote and co-produced the film "Max and Josh" for the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.

Marshall Terrill is a reporter for the Chandler (Ariz.) Connection. He has written 10 books, including "Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel" and co-authored books with David Thompson and boxers Ernie Shavers and Ken Norton. He recently finished "Elvis: Still Taking Care of Business," which will be published in 2007.

Maravich Reviews

2007-01-11T12:21:00.000-05:00

Dry Ribs by Ron Higgins
Memphis Commercial Appeal
Jan. 7, 2007

Read up on 'Pistol Pete'

And speaking of firing away (wow, even my segues are amazing me), if you want a good read on a cold winter day, I suggest you pick up a copy of "Maravich," an astonishingly detailed book from authors Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill on the late "Pistol" Pete Maravich, college basketball's all-time leading scorer who averaged 44.2 points from 1967-70 at LSU.

Anyone who ever saw Maravich play would agree he was far ahead of his time as a ballhandler and passer. Before there was Magic Johnson and then Steve Nash, there was Pete Maravich. Magic and Nash couldn't touch Maravich in that category.

Maravich's passing wasn't just your standard behind-the-back stuff. Maravich would practice creating new passes that no one had ever seen.

One night in an NBA game playing for the Jazz, he took a hard dribble at the end of a fast break, waved his left hand under the ball and slapped it with his right hand to a teammate on his right. An official called Maravich for walking. He told the ref, "How can you call walking on something you've never seen before?"

There have been many other books on Maravich, but this one guns 'em down like 'Pistol Pete' on his 69-point afternoon at Alabama. The authors obtained the cooperation of Maravich's widow, Jackie, and that help has provided a personal and balanced glimpse into someone who was a tortured soul coping with the pressure, fame and expectations of living up to the basketball monster he and his father Press (who coached Pete at LSU) created.

The amount of people interviewed (including Griz president and Hall of Famer Jerry West) for this book is staggering. Lots of legwork was done, and it shows in the 422 pages.

Pistol Pete's widow writes about legend's life
By GEORGE MORRIS
Advocate sportswriter
Published: Jan 3, 2007

When Pete Maravich played basketball — and nobody ever played like him — it brought thrills to everyone except, it seemed, Maravich himself.

During a career that led him to the Basketball Hall of Fame, his wife, Jackie, said she waited long after games ended because he stayed in the locker room until the arena was as empty as he felt.

"Obviously, he knew what he could do with a basketball, but I think in a way he was uncomfortable," she said. "He loved the game of basketball, but I think everything that went with it didn't bring him happiness, the material things and whatever."

That dramatically changed before his unexpected death in 1988 at age 40, which sparked renewed interest in his life. Books and movies were produced. None had Jackie's input, though not for a lack of requests.

That changed six years ago when Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill approached her. This time, she said yes.

"I could see where they were coming from, their sincerity and their love for Pete and the type of book they were going to write," she said. "I thought it was time."

The result is "Maravich," a biography that received input from Jackie and her sons, Jaeson and Joshua, and gave her editing rights. The book covers Pistol Pete's life, including his early years, his spectacular playing days and his off-court attempts to find meaning in life, a quest that led to his accepting Christ in 1982.

Jackie had a front-row seat to most of this after Maravich noticed her in 1968. By this time he'd already played one season for LSU and was the city's biggest sports celebrity. Maravich didn't approach Jackie Elliser right away.

"The friend I was with, he called me up and said, 'Pete Maravich wants your phone number,' and I said, 'Who's Pete Maravich?' I was born and raised in Baton Rouge, but I didn't follow sports. I said, 'I don't think so. I don't really go out on blind dates.'"

Her friend persuaded Jackie to give him a chance, and he took her to the season's first football game.

"He came to the door, and my dad said, 'What are you doing with that tall, skinny guy?'" she said.

"The thing that really attracted me to Pete after that first date was his sense of humor. He was a real, real, real funny guy. That was it after that. We kept dating on and off, and the rest is history."

That sense of humor remained. On Jan. 5, 1988, Maravich was playing basketball at a church in Pasadena, Calif. During a break in the game, Maravich told the church's pastor, the Rev. James Dobson that he felt really good — then collapsed to the floor. Those present thought he was joking, but Maravich had suffered a massive heart attack resulting from an undiscovered congenital defect.

Doctors said it was miraculous that he lived through his teens, much less that he became major college basketball's most prolific scorer, averaging 44.2 points per game — a fraction of what he might have scored had there been a three-point line to reward his long-range shots.

But points only began to describe Maravich's skills. His ball-handling and passing skills were so extraordinary that many of his passes hit unprepared teammates in the face rather than the hands. Those skills had been honed over years of almost obsessive practice and through the instruction of his father, Press, his coach at LSU.

The National Basketball Association seemed perfect for Maravich, and the Atlanta Hawks rewarded him with the richest contract ever given to a college player of that time. But his teammates clearly resented him, Jackie said.
"I think it was a star thing — the salary and the attention," she said.

Maravich scored 15,948 points (24.2 per game) in the NBA. His 68 points for the New Orleans Jazz against the New York Knicks in 1977 is the 12th-highest point game in NBA history. He scored more than 50 points in 28 games, a record.

Yet, he was unfulfilled, especially after retiring in 1980.

"He was searching and trying to learn what life really means," Jackie said.

That search has been chronicled and often exaggerated. Though he was interested in the possibility of extraterrestrial life, Pete did not paint anything on the roof of his house inviting UFOs to come there, Jackie said. He did not dabble in Hinduism. He did not build a bomb shelter at their home. He did become extremely focused on nutrition.

"He also got into fasting," she said. "He would cook us dinner. He would fast for, like, a week, and I never would get over the discipline he had cooking food for us and just drinking carrot juice and different type things.

"When he told me that he had accepted Christ into his life, I said, 'Oh, well, maybe it's another phase he's going through.' But I could see the happiness in him and just the zest for life and changes in him. I wanted what he had, so I was baptized in 1984. And when I was baptized, they said all he did was cry the whole time when I went up. I guess he wanted me to have what he had."

Maravich approached Christianity with the same dedication he'd given to basketball. At Thanksgiving, Jackie said, he would fill his car with turkeys and drive around giving them to people he didn't know. He spoke about Christ to any group or individual that would listen, she said.

Now, through this biography, he still speaks, Jackie said.

"I remember him always saying this to me: 'When you die, people forget you.' He will never be forgotten," she said. "Here he is, more alive today than ever."

DEFINITIVE PETE
'Maravich' as good as it gets
By: Michael D. McClellan

"Pistol" Pete Maravich was an amalgamated talent, breathtaking to watch and utterly spellbinding in ways that force us to suspend our sense of what is real and what is humanly possible. He was unbridled flair, the ultimate showman. Take the best of the best AND1 Streetball wannabe, multiply it by a factor of ten, double the level of difficulty, and you begin to get the sense of what Maravich considered a routine night on the court. He was Bob Cousy and Magic Johnson. He was Larry Bird and Steve Nash. Maravich was all of this and more, a virtuoso performer the likes of which we may never see again. Now, thanks to a sublime effort by authors Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill, the story of "Pistol" Pete Maravich is offered up to a whole new generation of basketball fans. It is, simply, the definitive work on one of the greatest players the sport has ever known.

"Maravich," published by Sport Classic Books, is a masterpiece. It takes a near mythical figure and makes him real all over again, and in the process makes us care about the man whose talents were alternately -- some would say simultaneously -- a gift and a curse.

Brette Sember-Your Plus Size Pregnancy

2007-01-01T21:21:00.000-05:00

I was interviewed for Brette's book, Your Plus Size Pregnancy. Check it out.

December 27, 2006, newspaper column

2007-01-01T21:14:00.000-05:00

by Pat Smith, longtime columnist of the Greensburg (IN) Daily News

Maravich

2006-12-10T08:41:00.000-05:00

Book excerpt

by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill, in collaboration with Jackie Maravich
November 15, 2006

When the Hawks announced, on April 11, 1972, that they’d signed Julius Erving, Atlanta fans rejoiced and began to entertain fantasies of an NBA championship. With an offense featuring the high-flying Dr. J and the magical Pistol Pete, the Hawks, they figured, would be unstoppable. The team stoked the enthusiasm with a fresh marketing slogan, “It’s a Whole New Ballgame in Atlanta.” A dark cloud loomed, though, because the validity of Erving’s agreement with the Hawks was in doubt.

The issue was not the generous contract – $1.4 million over five years, along with a $250,000 bonus, a new Jaguar, and an apartment – but whether or not Atlanta had the right to sign Erving. The Hawks signed Dr. J two days before the 1972 NBA draft. In that draft Milwaukee picked Erving and immediately filed a complaint with the league’s Board of Governors, claiming they, not Atlanta, held the star's NBA rights.

The dispute remained unresolved when training camp opened in early September in Savannah, Georgia. Erving, fresh from playing summer hoops in Harlem’s Rucker League, was jazzed to be Pistol Pete’s running mate.

“It really was one of the joys of my life to play with Pete and to be in training camp with him,” Erving told Basketball Digest’s David Friedman. “We used to stay after practice and play one-on-one. We would play for dinner. I did the same thing with George Gervin, once he became my teammate. I pretty much learned that from Pete. If this guy’s going to be your teammate, you really need to stay after practice and get to understand his game, and know his likes and his dislikes – where he likes the ball, and that kind of stuff. The best way to do that is to just play.”

Mike McKenzie, the new beat reporter for the Atlanta Journal, recalled the immediate rapport.

“The most memorable part of it was just the raw talent on the court. Everyone just stopped what they were doing to watch. Great veteran players watching Maravich and Erving do their shtick. Together, they were unstoppable.”

Ten days into camp, Erving’s case was finally adjudicated. The Board of Governors ruled that Erving’s rights belonged to Milwaukee and charged Atlanta with a violation of the league’s by-laws. Commissioner Walter Kennedy banned the Hawks from using Erving in practice and exhibition games. Atlanta ignored his edict and even profiled Dr. J in its 1972-73 media guide.

Erving played his first Hawks exhibition game, against the ABA’s Kentucky Colonels, on September 23, 1972, in Frankfort, Kentucky. Wearing No. 54 and high-top Converse All Stars, Erving was stellar, contributing 28 points and 18 rebounds in the 112-109 victory. Maravich pitched in 17 points. It was also the debut of the new Hawks head coach, Lowell “Cotton” Fitzsimmons. (Fitzsimmons stood just 5-8 and Pete used to joke that he could “sleep in a pillow case.”)

The next day 4,824 fans crammed into tiny Alexander Memorial Coliseum to see a return match. Erving’s Atlanta debut was eagerly anticipated.

“The Hawks never drew that many people to an exhibition in their lives at home,” observed Atlanta Journal sports editor Furman Bisher. Some older Hawk fans, feeling nostalgic, may have showed up because this would be Atlanta’s last game in the cozy college arena.

In a nod to the Colonels, the first half was played under ABA rules, with a red, white, and blue ball. A temporary three-point line was painted on the floor with white shoe polish. NBA rules applied in the second half. The Hawks dominated early, at one point leading by twenty-four, but the Colonels fought back and squeaked out a 104-103 win. Erving collected 23 points and 14 rebounds, while Pete added 12 points and nine assists.

NBA Commissioner Walter Kennedy fined the Hawks a record $25,000 for the two games Erving had played and promised to mete out escalating penalties. Even NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle weighed in. “The action by the Hawks is considered a threat to all professional sports’ common player drafts,” Rozelle told the Atlanta Journal’s Mike McKenzie. The Hawks countered with a two million dollar anti-trust suit.

The Hawks defied the league a third time, on September 30, when Erving suited up to play the ABA’s Carolina Cougars in Raleigh, North Carolina. Future basketball legend David Thompson, entering his sophomore year at N.C. State, was in the bleachers at Reynolds Coliseum and looked on in amazement.

“Man, it was insane. Those two just played like they had been teammates forever,” Thompson recalled. “Pete was awesome. He was everything I had read about and more. He was 6-5 but could handle the ball and was quick, and could jump. People don’t realize how high he could jump. He could shoot anywhere from across the half court line.”

Maravich’s deft passing was particularly impressive to Thompson. He remembered Maravich dribbling hard on a fast break, flanked by Erving and Hudson. At the top of the key, Maravich head faked the Carolina defender, locked both elbows as he looked right but threw left – a perfect bounce pass to Erving. Pete’s old “wrist-pass” was still effective.

Erving explained to Friedman, “I would just grab a rebound, throw it out to Pete, and get on the wing. Pete would always find you. He got his points, but he loved to pass the ball. He could hit you in full stride in a place where you could do something with the ball. That was a measure of his greatness.”

Marty Bell, in his 1975 book, The Legend of Dr. J, also marveled at the artistry of the duo.

“It was like Fred Astaire and Gene Kelley dancing together. Maravich had the most moves of any guard in the league. And Julius had the most moves of any forward.”

Erving scored 32 points (14-15) in a 120-106 rout of the Cougars and Maravich had 19 assists, including an array of brilliant passes. Erving and Maravich looked like a sensational fit. Dr. J provided bushels of points and Pete seemed content to feed him passes. Hawk fans couldn’t wait for the season to start.

Then their hopes were dashed.

Commissioner Kennedy told the Hawks' new president Bill Putnam that if Erving continued to play the fines would be deducted from Atlanta’s cut of its national television revenue. Putnam caved. After just three games, the Dr. J and Pistol Pete show closed.

“Julius was the most creative player that I’ve ever played with,” Pete said in 1987. “It was so easy to play with him. I think during that time my average was about 14 or 15 assists per game. I’d just come down the court and his eyes would see mine – and I knew that he was going to the hoop. I’d just throw a little rainbow up there and it’d be history because nobody could get up like Dr. J.”

In 2000, Erving called Maravich “a basketball genius.”

Dr. J reluctantly returned to Virginia. He wished it had turned out differently.

“I would have been a Hawk for the rest of my career,” Erving said in a 2005 radio interview.

Richie Guerin, Atlanta’s general manager, believed the situation was avoidable.

“The only time I ever disagreed with [Hawks president] Bill Putnam my entire time in Atlanta was over the handling of the Julius Erving situation,” he said in 2003. “Through a series of negotiations and conversations and meetings with Irwin Weiner [Erving’s agent], they finally worked out a contract. Now, Irwin Weiner said to Bill Putnam, ‘Bill, I have one request from Julius – don’t announce this until after his playoffs.’ Erving didn’t want to let his [Virginia Squires] teammates or the city down during that crucial time. I disagreed with that. My reasoning was that the NBA was going to have their draft in a few weeks. He’d been out of college already and was playing professional basketball. Therefore, he was not eligible for the college draft in our opinion. We should have just announced that we signed Julius Erving, sent his contract into the league office, and if that meant we had to forfeit our No. 1 draft pick for that year, we’d be more than willing to do it.”

When Erving retired from the NBA in 1987, Fitzsimmons reminisced to a Miami Herald reporter about Dr. J.’s brief Hawks tenure.

“I was the coach, I saw an excitement, even in just those exhibitions, that he was able to bring like no one else. I saw us as one of the great teams.” Fitzsimmons added, “I think we could have won a championship.”

Wayne Federman is an actor, comedian and writer. He has appeared in more than a dozen movies, including The 40-Year-Old Virgin. He has his own stand-up special on Comedy Central and is a regular on the Tonight Show.

Marshall Terrill is a veteran reporter for The Chandler Connection and is the author of 10 books.

See bio on Marshall Terrill below.

Meet best-selling biographer Marshall Terrill

2006-12-09T21:29:00.001-05:00

Writer Marshall Terrill resides in Tempe, Arizona, with his wife Zoe. He is a reporter for Tribune Newspapers as well as the author of eight books, including the best-selling biography, “Steve McQueen: Portrait of An American Rebel” (Donald I. Fine, 1993). His more recent works include “Sergeant Presley” (ECW Press, 2002) and “Skywalker” (Sports Publishing Inc., 2003). Terrill recently finished the definitive biography of basketball legend “Pistol” Pete Maravich, which will be published in 2006 by Sport Classic Books.

His books have been reviewed in People, Cosmopolitan, Playboy, Entertainment Weekly, Elle, Sports Illustrated, USA Today, New York Times, New York Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Arizona Republic, Hollywood Reporter, Readers Digest, The Star and Kirkus Reviews.

Writer Marshall Terrill resides in Tempe, Arizona, with his wife Zoe. He is a reporter for Tribune Newspapers as well as the author of eight books, including the best-selling biography, “Steve McQueen: Portrait of An American Rebel” (Donald I. Fine, 1993). His more recent works include “Sergeant Presley” (ECW Press, 2002) and “Skywalker” (Sports Publishing Inc., 2003). Terrill recently finished the definitive biography of basketball legend “Pistol” Pete Maravich, which will be published in April 2005 by Sport Classic Books and "Elvis: Still Taking Care of Business," with Sonny West.

His books have been reviewed in People, Cosmopolitan, Playboy, Entertainment Weekly, Elle, Sports Illustrated, USA Today, New York Times, New York Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Arizona Republic, Hollywood Reporter, Readers Digest, The Star and Kirkus Reviews.