Andrew Kole

NO GUTS, NO GLORY!

In 1974, little Stancil College’s basketball program was about to fade into oblivion after years of failure, until assistant coach Charlie Nash came up with an idea how to put them back on the college basketball map.

“Guts!  That is the one quality every successful person has and every failure wishes he had.  Without guts, there can be no victory.  There can be no glory.  I sold them an idea.”

Nash sold them an idea that would make the Stancil Mustangs a contender for the NCAA title and finally make his life meaningful.

From 1964 to 1973 UCLA teams coached by John Wooden won 7 straight national titles from 1967 to 1973.   UCLA was the standard bearer for college basketball, with the NCAA going so far as to change the rules in 1967, outlawing dunking, because of Lew Alcindor (later to be known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).

But now it was Charlie Nash’s turn.  By putting the right pieces in place, not necessarily the five best players, but five players who together, as one finely tuned machine, could change the landscape of college basketball…

Nash’s Five:  
JOHN “K.C.” LINCOLN, forward, the best high school player in the country was from a poor family in Kansas City, Missouri.

WILLIAM CRAWFORD, guard—he possessed a deadly jumper, and an old Southern mentality when it came to race.  From a wealthy family in Macon, he was supposed to go to play at the University of Georgia.

CARTER HOWARD, forward, a blue-collar bull around the boards, from a working-class family in Boston, out of organized basketball three years.

JEROME TURNER, center, he was considered soft on the court.  He came from a poor family of sharecroppers in Texas.

JASON TATE, guard, grew up on the streets of Brooklyn, a hard driving playmaker.

…and do the impossible - win a National Title.

"Exciting story set in a small town in Missouri about coaches and kids working hard to beat the odds." -- Melinda B., online reviewer