Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
I want to read the book!
All characters reduced
This Is Panther Country - A Memoir of Youth Underdog Spirit and Basketball Glory - cover

This Is Panther Country - A Memoir of Youth Underdog Spirit and Basketball Glory

Tom McKeon

Publisher: Brown Books Publishing Group

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Summary

A Basketball Season for the Ages
In the spirit of Hoosiers, Friday Night Lights, and The Boys in the Boat comes the classic underdog story of a high school basketball team's quest for glory and a young man's journey of growth, family, and determination. Set against the vibrant backdrop of mid-1970s Long Island, New York, this heartwarming memoir captures the excitement, challenges, and camaraderie of a small-town varsity basketball team and its dreams of triumph.

Thirteen-year-old Tom McKeown, growing up in a close-knit Irish American family, struggles to balance school, friends, and the newly discovered world of teenage society. It’s an era when race and class divisions were very real, but bridged by athletics and community purpose. From his vantage in the eighth grade, Tom and the Village of Babylon follow their varsity basketball team, the Panthers, as they fight their way forward in hopes of claiming the first ever Long Island Championship.

Led by visionary coach Roy Koelbel and star player Glenn Vickers, the Panthers confront adversity on and off the court. Each obstacle overcome brings them closer to that elusive title. At the heart of their journey is a knockdown trilogy of games with a familiar and formidable Amityville team, who have dreams of their own.

With a keen eye for strategy, detail, execution, and a deep love for the game of basketball, McKeown chronicles a season of finding purpose in unexpected places, the power of teamwork, and the thrill of cheering for a team that embodies the heart and spirit of a community. Even when faced with potential heartbreak, you’ll find yourself shouting, “This is Panther Country!”
Available since: 05/22/2025.
Print length: 264 pages.

Other books that might interest you

  • The Final Confession of Mabel Stark - A Novel - cover

    The Final Confession of Mabel...

    Robert Hough

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Meet the Tiger Queen—in this "extravagantly entertaining” novel based on the wild life of the famous animal trainer and circus celebrity (The Boston Globe).   In the 1920s, during the golden age of the big top, Mabel Stark was the superstar of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and one of America’s most eccentric and unlikely celebrities. A tiny, curvaceous Kentucky blonde in a white leather bodysuit, Mabel was brazen, sexually adventurous, and the greatest tiger trainer in history. She was fearlessly courageous. That was then. This is now.   It’s 1968. Mabel is turning eighty and is about to lose her job at Jungleland, a Southern California game park. Devastated by the loss of her cats, she looks back on her life, her five marriages, her regrets, and her triumphs. From her time as a mental institution–escapee; the notorious belly dancer, Little Egypt; and a crowd-roaring success with her one true love—a 550-pound Bengal tiger named Rajah—Mabel delivers an audacious confession of dark secrets, broken dreams, and escapades both comic and tragic.   In The Final Confession of Mabel Stark, Robert Hough resurrects the life of a formidably independent, proudly scarred, naughtily ribald, and totally unapologetic star in “one of the most rollicking, good-time books of the year” (USA Today).   “Mabel Stark developed an act so original, so daring, so brave, that it puts all the stupid human tricks on today’s reality shows to shame . . . a captivating portrait of a woman and a way of life that no longer exist.” —The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review   “Narrating with a saucy, bouncy verve, [Mabel Stark] recounts a life story that is one part John Irving, two parts blue movie.” —Time Out New York
    Show book
  • The Freedom Line - The Brave Men and Women Who Rescued Allied Airmen from the Nazis During World War II - cover

    The Freedom Line - The Brave Men...

    Peter Eisner

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Compared to Casablanca by the Washington Post, The Freedom Line is a page-turning story of a group of resistance workers who secreted downed Allied fighter pilots through France and into safety in Spain during World War II—perfect for fans of Apple TV's Masters of the Air.As war raged against Hitler's Germany, an increasing number of Allied fliers were shot down on missions against Nazi targets in occupied Europe. Many fliers parachuted safely behind enemy lines only to find themselves stranded and hunted down by the Gestapo. The Freedom Line traces the thrilling and true story of Robert Grimes, a 20–year–old American B–17 pilot whose plane was shot down over Belgium on Oct. 20, 1943. Wounded, disoriented, and scared, he was rescued by operatives of the Comet Line, a group of tenacious young women and men from Belgium, France, and Spain who joined forces to rescue the Allied aircrews and take them to safety. And on Christmas Eve 1943, he and a group of fellow Americans faced unexpected sudden danger and tragedy on the border between France and Spain.The road to safety was a treacherous journey by train, by bicycle, and on foot that stretched hundreds of miles across occupied France to the Pyrenees Mountains at the Spanish border. Armed with guile and spirit, the selfless civilian fighters of the Comet Line had risked their lives to create this underground railroad, and by this time in the war, they had saved hundreds of Americans, British, Australians, and other Allied airmen.Based on interviews with the survivors and in–depth archival research, The Freedom Line is the story of a group of friends who chose to act on their own out of a deep respect for liberty and human dignity. Theirs was a courage that presumed to take on a fearfully powerful foe with few defences.
    Show book
  • East by West: A Journey in the Recess - cover

    East by West: A Journey in the...

    Sir Henry William Lucy

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    With "East by West" we are immersed into long lost world of the Victorian era, we are introduced with the hardships and the incredible diversities while traveling in this period. Henry Lucy describes in a witty and vivid way his travels across the United States and the Far East during the parliamentary recess in 1883. First Volume covers his journeys in America and Japan, including the incredible trip across the Atlantic and the Pacific by a steamer. Second Volume includes his travels in Japan, India and other countries of south-east Asia. Sir Henry William Lucy JP, (1842-1924) was one of the most famous English political journalists of the Victorian era. He was also an accomplished humorist, and a parliamentary sketch-writer. To the British and men like Ernest Shackleton, who named a mountain after him in Antarctica, he was a hero.
    Show book
  • Gallantry in Action - Airmen Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Two Bars 1918-1955 - cover

    Gallantry in Action - Airmen...

    Norman Franks

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Between 1918 and 1955 sixty airmen were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and Two Bars. In this book recorded for the first time together are the mini-biographies of those sixty along with the citations that accompanied their awards, or in some cases the recommendations for them. Also recorded are citations for other decorations such as the Distinguished Service Order, et al. The recommendations were often longer than the actual citations themselves, and during periods of large numbers of all types of awards, these citations did not make it into the London Gazette, recording name of the recipient only. 
 
 
 
As the listener will discover, the range of airmen who received the DFC and Two Bars cover most of the ambit of World War II operations, be they fighter pilots, bomber pilots, night-fighter aircrew, aircrew navigators, engineers, etc, or reconnaissance pilots. Each has interesting stories, proving, if proof be needed, their gallantry in action.
    Show book
  • Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man - cover

    Charles Sumner and the Rights of...

    David Herbert Donald

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    A Pulitzer Prize winner's “magisterial” biography of the Civil War–era Massachusetts senator, a Radical Republican who fought for slavery’s abolition (The New York Times).   In his follow-up to Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, acclaimed historian David Herbert Donald examines the life of the Massachusetts legislator from 1860 to his death in 1874. As a leader of the Radical Republicans, Sumner made the abolition of slavery his primary legislative focus—yet opposed the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the US Constitution for not going far enough to guarantee full equality. His struggle to balance power and principle defined his career during the Civil War and Reconstruction, and Donald masterfully charts the senator’s wavering path from fiery sectarian leader to responsible party member. In a richly detailed portrait of Sumner’s role as chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Donald analyzes how the legislator brought his influence and political acumen to bear on an issue as dear to his heart as equal rights: international peace. Authoritative and engrossing, Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man captures a fascinating political figure at the height of his powers and brings a tumultuous period in American history to vivid life.
    Show book
  • My Secret Life - cover

    My Secret Life

    Dominic Crawford Collins

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    My Secret Life, the anonymously written erotic memoirs of a Victorian English gentleman who refers to himself simply as 'Walter' is one of the most idiosyncratic and sexually obsessed books ever written. In this vast autobiographical confessional the author recounts, in meticulous detail, his sexual exploits throughout the course of a life devoted entirely to the pursuit of carnal pleasure. Through this compelling exploration of the author's sexual behaviour we are left with a uniquely entertaining insight into life behind the closed doors of Victorian society. My Secret Life is evocative, provocative, sorrowful, suspenseful, obscene, exciting and highly erotic...in it we are privy to the thoughts, emotions and memories of one of the most unusual, unsung and colourful English eccentrics of the Victorian era.Now, for the first time, the complete unabridged version of this unique text is being narrated and scored by film composer Dominic Crawford Collins as an 'audiofilm' (an audiobook in which the emotional landscape is explored through the music score). Each chapter of My Secret Life will be released at monthly intervals over the next ten or so years culminating in what is likely to become the longest audio book ever to be produced.
    Show book