David Wolf

[Gold]

Sirs, Madames,

Remarkably he became a boxing manager: Boom Boom Mancini his best fighter. I dealt with him when he managed Donny Lalonde. I wanted to shake him by the lapels and say, "Why are you managing this one-armed stiff when you write a book like Foul?" Foul is great -- I re-read a big chunk of it the other day, the stuff with Connie Hawkins being bullied by the feds and landing with the Rens. By accounts of the subject's academic performance, it sounds like Wolf--and I don't mean this to be unkind--didn't have a lot to fear by letting Hawk read the ms. Hard to imagine anyone so naive.

I don't know if he's still alive or not. He wore a hairpiece that looked like John Daly's worst divot at a US Open: Six inches that stood straight up like bamboo or something.

YHS, etc

Foul was a great book.
It was not, not an autobiography. In the introduction, David Wolf made that clear. As far as Connie Hawkins being able to read, the book tells the story about how Hawkins worked hard to try to learn before he went to college. The book also helped to clear the name of an innocent person, Connie Hawkins. Jack Molinas, who was a mastermind of the fix and an interesting rogue, said Hawkins was innocent.
The book and the lawsuit against the NBA went on around the same time. Hawkins got a big settlement.
Hawkins was an incredible sight on the basketball court.

 

[BillyT]

I'm halfway through Foul, the Connie Hawkins story. It's a compelling read. Does anybody know what became of David Wolf, the author?

I don't know, but that was one of the most influential books I read as a kid.

Just superb.

 

[Starman]

Sirs, Madames,

Remarkably he became a boxing manager: Boom Boom Mancini his best fighter. I dealt with him when he managed Donny Lalonde. I wanted to shake him by the lapels and say, "Why are you managing this one-armed stiff when you write a book like Foul?" Foul is great -- I re-read a big chunk of it the other day, the stuff with Connie Hawkins being bullied by the feds and landing with the Rens. By accounts of the subject's academic performance, it sounds like Wolf--and I don't mean this to be unkind--didn't have a lot to fear by letting Hawk read the ms. Hard to imagine anyone so naive.

I don't know if he's still alive or not. He wore a hairpiece that looked like John Daly's worst divot at a US Open: Six inches that stood straight up like bamboo or something.

YHS, etc

Foul was a great book.
It was not, not an autobiography. In the introduction, David Wolf made that clear. As far as Connie Hawkins being able to read, the book tells the story about how Hawkins worked hard to try to learn before he went to college. The book also helped to clear the name of an innocent person, Connie Hawkins. Jack Molinas, who was a mastermind of the fix and an interesting rogue, said Hawkins was innocent.
The book and the lawsuit against the NBA went on around the same time. Hawkins got a big settlement.
Hawkins was an incredible sight on the basketball court.

The Molinas story would also make a great movie, except Molinas himself was such a repugnant character the audience would be rooting for him to eat a bullet in the end.

 

[T&C]

Anyone looking for another great read, should track down a copy of Neil Isaacs' novel, The Great Molinas. In his acknowledgments, Isaacs mentions David Wolf as one of the people whose reporting he found helpful. I'm going from memory on this, but I think Isaacs told me years ago that there was a reason he had to tell the Molinas story in the form of a novel. Unfortunately, I don't remember why. And good luck in finding the book. I have never seen a copy other than the used one I found in a bookstore in St. Petersburg many years ago.

 

[friend of the friendless]

Mr Gold,

Am I missing something? I never suggested that it was an autobiography and in fact the first person does not appear. I have no idea where you get that from, maybe just an opportunity for you to go didactic. Or perhaps you meant that this wasn't an authorized biography (as opposed to an autobiography). And yes, Wolf did note that ... though he also notes that Hawk co-operated. As far as Hawk reading, it's pretty clear from his struggles in college classes that nuances might be lost on him.

YHS, etc

 

[Bristol Insider]

Borges quoted Wolf in a story done on ESPN.com last month ...

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=3065738

 

[Boom_70]

Mr Gold,

Am I missing something? I never suggested that it was an autobiography and in fact the first person does not appear. I have no idea where you get that from, maybe just an opportunity for you to go didactic. Or perhaps you meant that this wasn't an authorized biography (as opposed to an autobiography). And yes, Wolf did note that ... though he also notes that Hawk co-operated. As far as Hawk reading, it's pretty clear from his struggles in college classes that nuances might be lost on him.

YHS, etc

Hey yiz - I'm confused - are you using "didactic" with hostile intent or are you suggesting that Gold's intent was benevolent?

 

[friend of the friendless]

Mr 70,

Your default mode: Confused.

YHS, etc

 

[Gold]

Mr Friend/Friendless:

I read your comment about not letting Hawkins read the manuscript and thought you implied that Hawkins might have control over it. I might have misinterpreted your comment, but I don't think it was an unreasonable intrepretation. And as I said, Hawkins was perfectly capable of reading the book and from comments at the time, he was completely supportive because it told his story and brought it to a wide audience.

 

[friend of the friendless]

Mr Gold,

I wrote that Wolf "didn't have a lot to fear" in letting Hawkins read the ms -- the implication is that he let him read it (he did) rather than keeping it away from him. Wolf was on the side of the angels from the get-go. That said, for Hawkins, this was an article of faith. It was based more on his reading of Wolf than the ms. How much he took away from his reading of the ms, I'd wonder about. First and foremost it was, for Wolf, a matter of building trust. And believe me, when I dealt with Wolf, I expressed my highest admiration for the book and his sense of right and wrong.

YHS, etc

 

[Dan Moody]

I just read "Foul." An incredible book. It meant a lot to me because I moved to Phoenix in 1968 when I was 11 years old. The following year, 1969, I attended St Mary's Catholic School for 8th grade. St Mary's High School was across the street. The Phoenix Suns practiced in their gymnasium. I was lucky enough on multiple occasions to sneak into the gym and watch practice. After practice I'd stick around and rebound the ball for players staying late and working on their shots. One of them was Connie Hawkins. Everyone was a fan of the Hawk, including me. Reading the book, I had a revelation. I knew about the alleged gambler associations and gambling accusations, but never knew about the hard life he endured growing up on the streets of New York. An incredible story.

 

[LanceyHoward]

The Molinas story would also make a great movie, except Molinas himself was such a repugnant character the audience would be rooting for him to eat a bullet in the end.

Charley Rosen did a book on Molinas, The Wizard of Odds: How Jack Molinas Almost Destroyed the Game of Basketball. I tried an excerpt and decided that Rosen is not a good enough writer to hold my interest for a full-length book.