THEY CALL ME BIG HOUSE

Professional sports, the cliché goes, are plagued by spoiled superstars, billionaire owners and fans who feel priced out of the games they love. That's why Gaines's autobiography is so refreshing. The coach of little Winston-Salem State in North Carolina is a basketball legend, having racked up 828 wins while running his team between 1946 and 1993, putting him fifth on the all-time college win list. He's won national championships and mentored future NBA stars like Earl "The Pearl" Monroe. But his book's real engine is the social narrative that surrounds the basketball court. The story of being a black coach helming a team through years when colored bathrooms still existed and black and white teams were banned from competing against one another is fascinating. "Today's sports stars believe being welcomed into expensive restaurants and high-class hotels is just part of the benefits of being a good ballplayer," Gaines writes. "The young men I coached in the '40s, '50s, and '60s knew better." He meshes sporting memories with charming personal vignettes of growing up in Paducah, Ky., with a father who cooked for local hotels and a mother who ran the household of a white family. It's a weighty reminiscence, a bit sprawling and unfocused. And while the writing style is unadorned, it works. Like the book's subject, it's amiable, unpretentious—and winning. (Sept.)