A few things become immediately obvious after the first glance at this book.
It's small. While it checks in at 145 listed pages, the actual type essentially ends at page 75. That's not much bang for the buck, even for those reading the paperback edition instead of the hard-cover version. Along those lines, it's about the only book I've seen where the odd-numbered pages are on the left side.
It's about the only autobiography you'll ever read that is written in the third person. There are no quotes anywhere. Some of the type that goes with the photos in the back half require a microscope instead of reading glasses.
As you might have guessed already, this is self-published - so some of this is understandable. The standards are a little different.
More importantly, it's a little sad. Author Sam Stith has a good story to tell here, as he and his brother Tom turned out to be pioneers in a sense, that's not fully told.
The Stith family grew up relatively poor in Emporia, North Carolina. Sam and Tom (born 18 months apart) had strike one thrown at them when they were infants when their father died. While the cause of death of listed as drowning, let's just say there's a good chance that a cause of the death in the early 1940s in the South might not be accidental. Sam's mother and grandmother did the best they could raising four children (there were two older girls in the family).
Eventually, the mother decided that the Old South was no place for a single parent, and everyone headed to New York City. There the brothers found time to pick up basketball, and discovered they were good at it. By junior high they were good enough to attract some attention, which helped them receive a scholarship at a private high school in Brooklyn. They integrated the school's basketball team in the process, and were all-New York City selections. Along the way, the mother and grandmother also died. The kids somehow banded together to get through each day.
Sam and Tom were standouts at St. Francis Prep, and they both appreciated the help of the Franciscan order. When it came time to pick a college, they decided to pick another school run by the Franciscans. It was an odd choice in a sense. St. Bonaventure, in relatively tiny Olean south of Buffalo, was about as different a place from New York City as could be imagined. But the small school had a basketball tradition - although it was an all-white one at the time - and they signed up.
It worked out well. Tom Stith was a two-time consensus All-American for Bona, and brother Sam was quite good too. It was one of the great basketball eras in school history. Whenever the history of St. Bonaventure basketball comes up, Tom and Sam are mentioned.
The brothers' basketball connections came to a rather abrupt end. Tom was the second overall pick by the New York Knicks in 1961, but came down with tuberculosis shortly after starting his career. Oddly, he never got much of a chance to play after recovering, even though Eddie Donovan, his college coach, had moved on to the same job with the Knicks. Sam was a late-round draft choice by Cincinnati in 1960, eventually floated to the Knicks for a brief time, and joined Tom in a minor league. Donovan acted in an enigmatic way toward Sam, just like he did toward Tom. He rarely even talked to them after they were done with Bona basketball. Sam still is looking for an explanation.
Sam and Tom moved on from basketball, and both seemed to have good lives with happy families and good jobs. Tom died in 2010, but Sam is still around - with his own YouTube channel, of all things.
That's the first half of the book in a nutshell. The rest of the publication has some photos and clippings, and some carry captions. But the pictures are really small in many cases, with unused white space surrounding them, and accompanying words have some serious typos.
As you could guess at this point, there's a good story of persistence and triumph to be told here. "The Stith Brothers" doesn't really tell it fully. A good short biography written by a professional is in order here. Buying the book is merely a nice gesture toward a pioneer of the game who deserves better.
Two stars
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