Modern college basketball fans can be forgiven if they associate the hoops history of the University of Memphis (formerly Memphis State) with Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway or Derrick Rose instead of Larry Finch. But in the early 1970s, as Keith Wood explains in Memphis Hoops, Memphians saw Finch, a star player for the Tigers, as a hometown hero able to unite a racially divided community. White and Black fans alike cheered on Finch and his teammates as they advanced to the 1973 NCAA title game, where they lost to the powerhouse UCLA Bruins squad. This biracial coalition, however, was short-lived and could not be replicated by other local basketball teams in the 1970s or 1980s as city leaders struggled with issues of race.
Finch and the ’73 Tigers certainly merit their positions at the center of the story, but Memphis Hoops explores the city's basketball past through other avenues as...
