I've been working on a book. For years, I said I didn't have a book in me, but along came the centennial of LeConte Lodge, and Mike Hembree and collected the stories and photos, found a publisher (McFarland Books), and hope to have books by early 2025.
Lots of my friends and acquaintances already have published book, and the following list is a library of these. The process of publishing is not for the faint-hearted.
I've been blessed to know dozens of authors in my career. Off the top of Google's head, I came up with more than 150 books written or edited by friends and acquaintances.
The bibliography says a lot about me and my circle of friends. My little library has shelves for baseball, biography, the Civil War, Clemson, history, Jesus, mountains, and NASCAR, not necessarily in that order. It includes two books titled Rebel With A Cause, as well as the synonymous Intangiball and The Intangibles.
If I have overlooked your book, please let me know so I can add it. One good thing about a blog is the ink never dries.
Here they are, arranged alphabetically by author:
PETER BARR: I had the honor of welcoming Peter to the summit of Sugarloaf Mountain in Rutherford County, N.C., when he became just the second man to reach the highest point in all 100 counties in North Carolina; and he was on Mount Guyot to welcome me when I became the fourth member of the club. These books won't be his last:
WILLIE BINETTE (1938-2003): Willie was sports editor of Anderson's afternoon newspaper, The Daily Mail, when I first started newspapering. He wrote The Phil Niekro Story after the 1969 season. Niekro pitched until 1987 and recorded 264 of his 318 victories after his biography was written, which must be some sort of a record. (John McKissick, mentioned above, won 206 of his 621 victories after his book was finished.)
SAM BLACKMAN, TIM BOURRET, and BOB BRADLEY (1925-2000): I've listed the B-team of Clemson's sports information department together, because they line up alphabetically in my library and have collaborated so often. The Bob Bradley Press Box is (or used to be) the one place in Death Valley where cheering was not allowed. You will please excuse Mr. B if he cheered in his books.
BART BOATWRIGHT: Bart was a longtime photographer for The Greenville News and one of the world's foremost collectors of Mayberry memorabilia, including some you can see in Mayberry Memories: The Andy Griffith Show Photo Album, a 2000 book by Ken Beck and Jim Clark; and The Definitive Andy Griffith Show Reference, a 1996 book by Dale Robinson and David Fernandes. So it's appropriate that Bart's photos adorn two books about Clemson, which used to be our own little Mayberry.
DR. DICK BRANSFORD (1940-2022): After a career as a medical missionary in Africa, Dick retired to Boone. "Retired" is just a code word that meant he kept working in places we can't name.
KEN BURGER (1949-2015): Pat Conroy said it so well: "Nobody picks at the scabs of South Carolina like her native son, Ken Burger." Ken was the fastest sports columnist I ever saw, which was good because his time with us was way too short.
REV. JASON BYASSEE: Jason was my pastor at Boone United Methodist Church and now teaches homiletics and biblical hermeneutics at the Vancouver School of Theology in Canada. We didn't always agree, but he made me think and study and pray, which is what a pastor should do. Jason is also a prolific contributor to Christian Century magazine, in addition to his books:
KERRY CAPPS: When Kerry retired after 40 years of covering Clemson sports, he teased us with the possibility of a book in his farewell column for the Orange and White. "When, and if, I do write a book, what I write is not likely to draw the attention of national publishers or attract motion picture deals. It will be a collection of orange-tinted stories and remembrances from a sportswriting hack who's been lucky enough to make a life and living (and eaten more than a few free meals) while doing something satisfyingly agreeable, while rarely, if ever, getting up in the morning and dreading to go to work." It would be a bookend to the one he and Steve Ellis produced way back in 1979 that featured Steve Fuller on the cover:
DR. MEL CHEATHAM: I borrowed the title of my blog from a book Dr. Cheatham wrote about an inspiring cancer patient he met while serving as a missionary in Kenya.
DR. PAUL CHILES: Paul takes on short-term missionary assignments like his Biblical namesake. We traveled together to Afghanistan, among other places. His book profiles a remarkable Christian couple he worked with in India.
JIMMY CORNELISON: Nothing could be finer than a fall day on a pontoon boat on Lake Jocassee with guys like Jimmy, Mike, Luther, and Scott.
MONTE DUTTON: Nobody I know produces more words per day than Hudson Montgomery Dutton. Newspapers could never contain him, and nowadays Kindle and Facebook can barely stay ahead of him. A quarter-century ago, Monte helped typeset my only book, the 1992 centennial history of Mountain View United Methodist Church. His latest project is LaurensCountySports.com.
JIM FRASER (1932-2021): The football coach at T.L. Hanna High School while I was a student, Coach Fraser wrote a weekly column for the Electric City News, and these stories were compiled into a book. Fraser was my history teacher and he liked to bargain for grades rather than actually grade a test. "Layton, will you take an 88? No thanks, coach. Go ahead and grade it, cause I think I made an A." He offers insight into the era of school desegregation, the movie "Radio," and athletes such as Hall of Fame baseball player Jim Ed Rice.
If I have overlooked your book, please let me know so I can add it. One good thing about a blog is the ink never dries.
Here they are, arranged alphabetically by author:
JERRY ALEXANDER: Jerry manned our Oconee-Pickens bureau at the Anderson Independent and knows those storied hills better than anybody else.
DR. FRANK AYCOCK: If you wonder why your TV won't function like a wall-sized iPhone, join us on Wednesday morning for bagels, and Doc can explain it to you.
BILLY BAKER: We share a deep appreciation for high school sports in South Carolina. I burned out after a decade of statewide coverage for The Greenville News, but Billy's High School Sports Report is about to turn 30 and still thriving. He wrote the book on the granddaddy of them all:
- 2004: The Cateechee Story
- 2006: Where Have All Our Moonshiners Gone?
- 2008: Antebellum: Old Pickens District S.C., 1828-1868
- 2009: Blood Red Runs the Sacred Keowee
DR. FRANK AYCOCK: If you wonder why your TV won't function like a wall-sized iPhone, join us on Wednesday morning for bagels, and Doc can explain it to you.
- 2012: 21st Century Television: The Players, the Viewers, the Money
- 2014: Television in the Cloud
BILLY BAKER: We share a deep appreciation for high school sports in South Carolina. I burned out after a decade of statewide coverage for The Greenville News, but Billy's High School Sports Report is about to turn 30 and still thriving. He wrote the book on the granddaddy of them all:
- 1993: John McKissick: Called to Coach
PETER BARR: I had the honor of welcoming Peter to the summit of Sugarloaf Mountain in Rutherford County, N.C., when he became just the second man to reach the highest point in all 100 counties in North Carolina; and he was on Mount Guyot to welcome me when I became the fourth member of the club. These books won't be his last:
- 2008: Hiking North Carolina's Lookout Towers
- 2021: Exploring North Carolina's Lookout Towers
WILLIE BINETTE (1938-2003): Willie was sports editor of Anderson's afternoon newspaper, The Daily Mail, when I first started newspapering. He wrote The Phil Niekro Story after the 1969 season. Niekro pitched until 1987 and recorded 264 of his 318 victories after his biography was written, which must be some sort of a record. (John McKissick, mentioned above, won 206 of his 621 victories after his book was finished.)
- 1970: Knuckler: The Phil Niekro Story
SAM BLACKMAN, TIM BOURRET, and BOB BRADLEY (1925-2000): I've listed the B-team of Clemson's sports information department together, because they line up alphabetically in my library and have collaborated so often. The Bob Bradley Press Box is (or used to be) the one place in Death Valley where cheering was not allowed. You will please excuse Mr. B if he cheered in his books.
- 1991: Death Valley Days: The Glory of Clemson Football (Bob Bradley)
- 2001: Clemson: Where the Tigers Play (Bob Bradley, Sam Blackman, and Chuck Kriese)
- 2008: Clemson University Football Vault (Tim Bourret)
- 2015: Tales from the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Locker Room: A Collection of the Greatest Fighting Irish Stories Ever Told (Tim Bourret with Digger Phelps)
- 2016: If These Walls Could Talk: Stories from the Clemson Tigers Sideline, Locker Room, and Press Box (Sam Blackman and Tim Bourret)
- 2017: Father Ted Hesburgh: He Coached Me (Digger Phelphs with Tim Bourret)
- 2024: 88 and 1: UCLA, NOTRE DAME, and the Game that Ended the Longest Winning Streak in College Basketball History (Tim Bourret with Dick Weiss)
BART BOATWRIGHT: Bart was a longtime photographer for The Greenville News and one of the world's foremost collectors of Mayberry memorabilia, including some you can see in Mayberry Memories: The Andy Griffith Show Photo Album, a 2000 book by Ken Beck and Jim Clark; and The Definitive Andy Griffith Show Reference, a 1996 book by Dale Robinson and David Fernandes. So it's appropriate that Bart's photos adorn two books about Clemson, which used to be our own little Mayberry.
- 2016: Return to Glory: The Story of Clemson's Historic 2015 Season, by Scott Keepfer and Mandrallius Robinson
- 2017: Clemson Crowned: The Tigers' Historic Run to the National Championship, by Scott Keepfer and Mandrallius Robinson
DR. DICK BRANSFORD (1940-2022): After a career as a medical missionary in Africa, Dick retired to Boone. "Retired" is just a code word that meant he kept working in places we can't name.
- 2016: Take Two Hearts: One Surgeon's Passion for Disabled Children in Africa (with Diane Coleman)
KEN BURGER (1949-2015): Pat Conroy said it so well: "Nobody picks at the scabs of South Carolina like her native son, Ken Burger." Ken was the fastest sports columnist I ever saw, which was good because his time with us was way too short.
- 2008: Swallow Savannah
- 2010: Sister Santee
- 2011: Baptized in Sweet Tea: A Collection of Ken Burger's Columns Celebrating the South
- 2012: Salkehatchie Soup.
REV. JASON BYASSEE: Jason was my pastor at Boone United Methodist Church and now teaches homiletics and biblical hermeneutics at the Vancouver School of Theology in Canada. We didn't always agree, but he made me think and study and pray, which is what a pastor should do. Jason is also a prolific contributor to Christian Century magazine, in addition to his books:
- 2006: Reading Augustine: A Guide to the Confessions
- 2007: An Introduction to the Desert Fathers
- 2007: Praise Seeking Understanding
- 2010: The Gifts of the Small Church
- 2013: Discerning the Body: Searching for Jesus in the World
- 2014: Pastoral Work: Engagement with the Work of Eugene Peterson
- 2015: Trinity: The God We Don't Know
- 2020: Northern Lights: Reviving Church in North England
KERRY CAPPS: When Kerry retired after 40 years of covering Clemson sports, he teased us with the possibility of a book in his farewell column for the Orange and White. "When, and if, I do write a book, what I write is not likely to draw the attention of national publishers or attract motion picture deals. It will be a collection of orange-tinted stories and remembrances from a sportswriting hack who's been lucky enough to make a life and living (and eaten more than a few free meals) while doing something satisfyingly agreeable, while rarely, if ever, getting up in the morning and dreading to go to work." It would be a bookend to the one he and Steve Ellis produced way back in 1979 that featured Steve Fuller on the cover:
- 1979: The Orange Machine (with Steve Ellis)
DR. MEL CHEATHAM: I borrowed the title of my blog from a book Dr. Cheatham wrote about an inspiring cancer patient he met while serving as a missionary in Kenya.
- 1993: Come Walk With Me (with Mark Cutshall)
- 1995: Living a Life That Counts (with Mark Cutshall)
DR. PAUL CHILES: Paul takes on short-term missionary assignments like his Biblical namesake. We traveled together to Afghanistan, among other places. His book profiles a remarkable Christian couple he worked with in India.
- 2016: Rose of Calcutta
JIMMY CORNELISON: Nothing could be finer than a fall day on a pontoon boat on Lake Jocassee with guys like Jimmy, Mike, Luther, and Scott.
- 1988: Journey Home (with Dot Robertson, Reese Fant, Mike Hembree)
MONTE DUTTON: Nobody I know produces more words per day than Hudson Montgomery Dutton. Newspapers could never contain him, and nowadays Kindle and Facebook can barely stay ahead of him. A quarter-century ago, Monte helped typeset my only book, the 1992 centennial history of Mountain View United Methodist Church. His latest project is LaurensCountySports.com.
- 1986: Pride of Clinton: Clinton High School Football 1920-1985
- 2000: At Speed: Up Close and Personal with the People, Places, and Fans of NASCAR
- 2000: Jeff Gordon: The Racer
- 2001: Rebel With A Cause: A Season with NASCAR Star Tony Stewart
- 2002: Taking Stock: Life in NASCAR's Fast Lane (with Mike Hembree, Kenny Bruce, Jim McLaurin, Jeff Owens, David Poole, Thomas Pope, and Larry Woody)
- 2003: Postcards from Pit Road
- 2006: Haul A** and Turn Left: The Wit and Wisdom of NASCAR
- 2006: True to the Roots: Americana Music Revealed
- 2011: The Audacity of Dope
- 2013: The Intangibles
- 2015: Crazy of Natural Causes
- 2016: Forgive Us Our Trespasses
- 2016: Longer Songs: A Collection of Short Stories
- 2017: Lightning in a Bottle
- 2017: Life Gets Complicated
- 2023: The Latter Days
- 2020: Becoming Church
STEVE ELLIS (1955-2009): Steve was the Cy Young of the press box—the Football Writers Association of America's Award for Beat Reporters is named for him. He was an Eagle scout who got his start at Clemson and made his career covering Florida State for the Tallahassee Democrat. Our paths crossed frequently for the first six years FSU was in the ACC.
- 1979: The Orange Machine (with Kerry Capps)
- 2004: Bobby Bowden's Tales from the Seminoles Sideline
- 2006: Pure Gold: Bobby Bowden: An Inside Look
- 2001: The Great Fire of 1901 (with Bill Foley, Robert Broward, Emily Lisska, and Wayne Wood)
- 2005: The Jacksonville Family Album: 150 Years of the Art of Photography (with Emily Lisska and Wayne Wood)
- 1988: Journey Home (with Dot Robertson, Mike Hembree, Jimmy Cornelison)
- 2019: Musings of an Ole Ball Coach
- 1982: To Be A Surgeon
- 2014: Prescription for Life: Three Simple Strategies to Live Younger Longer
- 2018: Defeating Dementia
- South Carolina GOLF (2021)
JIM GOFF is the chair of the history department at Appalachian State University. We met through the "Invisible Man" breakfasts at Deerfield United Methodist Church. If there is such a thing as a leading scholar of Southern Gospel music, "Goose" is it. He also wrote "Conflicted by the Spirit: The Religious Life of Elvis Presley" in the Assemblies of God Heritage magazine.
- 2018: Close Harmony (2002).
FRANKLIN GRAHAM: It is a blessing and an adventure to work on Franklin's team and tell the stories of what God is doing through Samaritan's Purse.
RUDY GRAY: Rev. James R. Gray was a longtime pastor in Seneca who succeeded Don Kirkland (below) as editor of the Baptist Courier. I knew him as Rudy Gray as an athlete at Crescent High School, as a short-term sports writer for the Anderson Independent, and as my predecessor as editor of the Anderson College newspaper, which he renamed from The Yodler to AC Echoes.
- 1983: Bob Pierce: This One Thing I Do
- 1995: Rebel With a Cause: Finally Comfortable Being Graham
- 1998: Living Beyond the Limits
- 2002: The Name
- 2003: Kids Praying for Kids
- 2003: All for Jesus
- 2005: A Wing and a Prayer
- 2011: Billy Graham in Quotes
- 2012: The Sower: FInding Yourself in the Parables of Jesus
- 2013: Operation Christmas Child: A Story of Simple Gifts
- 2018: Through My Father's Eyes
RUDY GRAY: Rev. James R. Gray was a longtime pastor in Seneca who succeeded Don Kirkland (below) as editor of the Baptist Courier. I knew him as Rudy Gray as an athlete at Crescent High School, as a short-term sports writer for the Anderson Independent, and as my predecessor as editor of the Anderson College newspaper, which he renamed from The Yodler to AC Echoes.
- 1990: Jude: The Alarm Has Sounded
- 2014: Marriage That Works Is Work
- 2014: Worry: The Silent Killer
- 2015: You Can Live Until You Die
- 2023: Making Waves: TWR's Journey to Reach the World for Christ through Media (with John Lundy and Erwin Lutzer)
JIM HAMMOND: My predecessor as the assistant sports editor at The Greenville News, Jim wrote the story of his father's service as a B-17 pilot in World War II: Tom's War, Flying with the Eighth Army Air Force, Tom flew B-17s in Europe in 1944. He had a frame shop in Greer, and he framed for us a sketch of our daughter Marta.
- 2007: Tom's War: Flying with the Eighth Army Air Force in Europe, 19444
- 2015: Over Blue Aegean Waters: A Fifty Year Romance with the Greek Island of Skópelos
TERRY HARMON: If you have roots in Watauga County, N.C., then Terry is probably your cousin. (That includes our most infamous Yankee, butter-fingered Gen. George Stoneman, who was Terry's seventh cousin, five times removed.) Terry received a Historical Book Award from the North Carolina Society of Historians, and if the The Stoneman Gazette gave an award for genealogy, he would get one from me, too. Terry's next book will cover a 1972 triple homicide in Boone.
MIKE HEMBREE: If not for Mike, I might never have beheld Yellowstone National Park, nor Richard Petty's last race, nor the coveted Jabba trophy, nor the P in Clemson. Nor would my name be first on the LeConte Lodge book.
ELSIE HOLCOMBE: My sweet mother-in-law published her first book at age 97, a novel about a priest leading a double life.
SCOTT KEEPFER: Bob Dylan called Scott "the man with the golden pen." Fellow sportswriters at The Greenville News called him "Glue," because without him our team might have fallen apart. That nickname has new meaning now that Scott is one of the last of us who is still sticking around The News. Scott once took me to Bryson City, N.C., to watch his high school football team, the Swain County Maroon Devils. Their star was named Rocky Dietz, and the fans celebrated his big plays by rattling plastic milk jugs with gravel inside. Scott's next book may be about Rocky's father.
CINDY LANDRUM: When we asked our bureau reporters to moonlight as sportswriters on Friday nights, Cindy poured her heart into her coverage of Wren, Palmetto, and wherever I sent her. Her book hits home:
TIM LUKE: God used Tim to deliver me from the newspaper business before times got too hard. Tim was the hardest-working reporter I ever knew, and he earned the opportunity to cover the Atlanta Braves for The Greenville News back in the day when newspapers dreamed big. When The News retreated from some of our far-flung bureaus, Tim decided to stay in Atlanta and joined In Touch magazine, published by Dr. Charles Stanley's ministry. From there he had an opportunity to go to Samaritan's Purse, but he and Karen wanted to stay in Atlanta to raise their family, so he recommended me instead. Tim became executive pastor at Eagles Landing Baptist Church in Atlanta, and several of his books are collaborations with Mark Hall of the church's band, Casting Crowns.
BOB MARCAURELLE: Bob was the longtime pastor at Concord Baptist Church and baptized me in 1973.
JOHNNY MARTIN: The sports editor of my hometown paper is best remembered for his "dribble-meter," where he estimated how many dribbles he saw during the course of each basketball season. As a stunt, Johnny once dribbled a basketball 17 miles from Anderson to Clemson into a pregame ceremony at Fike Fieldhouse—where he missed the lay-up.
DON MILLER: Don was a high school coach during my sportswriting career, and now is retired in the Dark Corner of Greenville County.
TIM PEELER: The foothills of North Carolina have given us a trinity of Tim Peelers. Two write sports books, and the third stalks Bigfoot. I worked several years in Greenville, S.C., with the Tim P from Cat Square, who has become the official historian of N.C. State athletics. He was a big booster for my other blog, The Stoneman Gazette, which might yet become a book.
DEB RICHARDSON-MOORE: Several of my Greenville colleagues have wound up in pulpits: Tom Robinson, Tim Luke, and Deb Richardson-Moore. (Not to mention my Hanna classmates Marsh Fant and Jacky Newton.) Christians can learn a lot from Deb's first book, which describes her experience as a rookie pastor at the extraordinary Triune Mercy Center in downtown Greenville.
RICK SCOPPE & CHARLIE BENNETT: My old sportswriting colleagues sat down with University of South Carolina football heroes—including George Rogers, Jeff Grantz, Steve Tanneyhill, and Marcus Lattimore—and got them to tell about the "Game of My Life." Steve Spurrier said in the foreword, "Hopefully one of these days, books will be written that go beyond individual players and individual games to chronicle great seasons."
ANDY SOLOMON: Only a native Charlestonian could romanticize the sports history of "The Military College of South Carolina."
CHARLES SOWELL (1955-2015): Charlie strayed into the darker sides of life, so I should not have been surprised that his novel dealt with a terrorist attack on Greenville. What was a surprise, though, was to read Wayne Roper's eulogy about how Charlie found hope at last. Here's an excerpt:
MICKEY SPAGNOLA: Shortly after I started working for the Anderson Independent, publisher John Ginn pumped up our newsroom with a number of fresh graduates of the esteemed Missouri School of Journalism. Among them, Mickey Spagnola and Lonnie Wheeler were most influential in my decision to go to Mizzou. Mickey was from the south side of Chicago, and we once attended a Chicago concert in the Chicago Stadium.
DIXIE TENNY: Dixie and I were friends at the University of Missouri, but I didn't know she wrote a book until decades later, when I stumbled across her book on a library shelf in my daughter's high school in Greenville.
KEN TYSIAC: Ken covered Clemson for the Anderson newspaper during the years I did the same for Greenville. He later reported for Columbia and Charlotte. His book marked the 25th anniversary of Clemson's heyday.
LONNIE WHEELER (1952-2020): Lonnie and I coached a Little League baseball team while we were sportwriters at the Anderson Independent. Fundamentals he taught on the hardpan playground at Nevitt Forest Elementary School were incorporated into his 2015 book Intangiball, which won the 2016 SABR Research Award. (SABR is the Society for American Baseball Research, known for "sabermetrics," the science behind the Brad Pitt film Moneyball.) Lonnie also made the big time in an NPR interview with Terry Gross, not to mention my blog on Hank Aaron's 80th birthday. His books:
More authors I have brushed shoulders with
STEVE BIONDO (1951-2008): Steve was the columnist for the Anderson Independent as well as a Confederate re-enactor, which made him the perfect person to tell the story of Anderson's most infamous rebel.
FURMAN BISHER (1918-2012): Furman was elected the Georgia Sportswriter of the Year 18 times in 50 years. I didn't know him well, but I had the privilege of spending one unforgettable day with him in Salisbury, N.C., as we explored the N.C. Transportation Museum and Furman reminisced about the days when sportswriters rode Pullmans. Furman also had the last interview with Shoeless Joe Jackson.
DR. BOB FOSTER (1924-2012): Dr. Bob spent his career as a missionary in Africa, and he had a snake story for almost any occasion.
MICHAEL C. HARDY: Michael was named the North Carolina Historian of the Year in 2010. His books were indispensable when I was writing The Stoneman Gazette.
DICK JENSEN: We met when his son David was a star basketball player at Wade Hampton High School in Greenville, S.C., and our paths crossed again after I left the newspaper business. Dick once managed the WMIT radio station for Billy Graham, and his book compares the evangelical careers of Billy Graham and Billy Sunday.
DON KIRKLAND: Don is editor emeritus of the Baptist Courier, where he served from 1974 to 2012. Prior to that he ran the communications department at Anderson College and helped keep me out of mischief.
HUGH MORTON (1921-2006): Mr. Morton is the only author on this list who has also been the subject of a book: Hugh Morton, North Carolina Photographer, published in 2015. We met briefly when Samaritan's Purse held our company picnics at Grandfather Mountain, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to tell him how much I appreciated all that he has done for our mountains. He was audacious enough to stand up to Uncle Sam and dictate the Blue Ridge Parkway viaduct—protecting the shoulders of Grandfather from road construction, even after he built his own mile-high tourist road.
TOM PRICE (1927-2008): Tom was the longtime sports information director at the University of South Carolina and shepherded me through my first big assignment, the 1975 College World Series in Omaha.
BOBBY RICHARDSON: A native of Sumter, S.C., Bobby was the World Series MVP in 1960—still the only player to win that award for a losing team. His first book was influential in shaping my faith in Christ. We met in 1975 when he coached the USC baseball team and I had the opportunity to follow them to the College World Series in Omaha. Years later, I heard Bobby speak at a church in Boone, and I won an autographed baseball from him for knowing who replaced him at second base for the Yankees (answer: Horace Clarke).
ROBERT WHITLOW: Before we hired him to help us with a legal matter, Mary and I had no idea that Robert was a best-selling novelist in the vein of John Grisham.
ED WRIGHT (1925-2008): Ed figured he met over 120,000 people on his 1,310 hikes up and down Tennessee's Mounte Le Conte. I figure that I must have been one of them—even if I was too winded to remember the encounter. His peak-bagging exploits inspired my other blog, LeContest.com.
- 1984: The Harmon Family (2 volumes)
- 2016: Watauga County Revisited
- 2024: Convoluted: The 1972 Durham Family Triple Homicide
MIKE HEMBREE: If not for Mike, I might never have beheld Yellowstone National Park, nor Richard Petty's last race, nor the coveted Jabba trophy, nor the P in Clemson. Nor would my name be first on the LeConte Lodge book.
- 1987: A Place Called Clifton: A Pictorial History of Clifton, South Carolina
- 1988: Clifton: A River of Memories
- 1988: Journey Home (with Dot Robertson, Jimmy Cornelison, Reese Fant)
- 1994: Glendale: A Pictoral History (with Paul Crocker)
- 1995: Keowee (with Dot Jackson)
- 1999: The Seasons of Harold Hatcher
- 2000: The Driving Force: Handling the Curves of Life
- 2000: NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport
- 2002: Taking Stock: Life in NASCAR's Fast Lane (with Monte Dutton, Kenny Bruce, Jim McLaurin, Jeff Owens, David Poole, Thomas Pope, and Larry Woody)
- 2003: Newry: A Place Apart
- 2003: Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Out of the Shadow of Greatness
- 2009: Then Tony Said to Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told
- 2009: Racing With Giants: How God Can Steer You to the Winner's Circle
- 2012: 100 Things NASCAR Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die
- 2022: 50 First Victories
- 2025: LeConte Lodge / A Centennial History
- 2025: Petty vs. Pearson: The Rivalry that Shaped NASCAR
ELSIE HOLCOMBE: My sweet mother-in-law published her first book at age 97, a novel about a priest leading a double life.
- 2019: It Happened in a Parish
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| The books of Dot Jackson, and friends. |
DOT JACKSON (1932-2016): Dot treated our kids like they were her grandkids, and she acknowledged Mary and me in her novel, "Refuge." Mary helped type it onto floppy disks so the paper manuscript wouldn't languish forever in the box under Dot's bedstead. She was a sweet soul and an exemplary journalist with a heart as big as all outdoors. If you appreciate the free-flowing New River or mourn for the dammed Keowee, you need to know her story. Here is a sweet tribute to Dot by Mike Hembree.
- 1983: The Catawba River (with Frye Gaillard)
- 1988: Journey Home (with Mike Hembree, Jimmy Cornelison, Reese Fant)
- 1995: Keowee (with Mike Hembree)
- 2006: Refuge.
- 2016: Return to Glory: The Story of Clemson's Historic 2015 Season (with Mandrallius Robinson)
- 2017: Clemson Crowned: The Tigers' Historic Run to the National Championship (with Mandrallius Robinson)
CINDY LANDRUM: When we asked our bureau reporters to moonlight as sportswriters on Friday nights, Cindy poured her heart into her coverage of Wren, Palmetto, and wherever I sent her. Her book hits home:
- 2015: Legendary Locals of Greenville
TIM LUKE: God used Tim to deliver me from the newspaper business before times got too hard. Tim was the hardest-working reporter I ever knew, and he earned the opportunity to cover the Atlanta Braves for The Greenville News back in the day when newspapers dreamed big. When The News retreated from some of our far-flung bureaus, Tim decided to stay in Atlanta and joined In Touch magazine, published by Dr. Charles Stanley's ministry. From there he had an opportunity to go to Samaritan's Purse, but he and Karen wanted to stay in Atlanta to raise their family, so he recommended me instead. Tim became executive pastor at Eagles Landing Baptist Church in Atlanta, and several of his books are collaborations with Mark Hall of the church's band, Casting Crowns. - 1995: Atlanta Braves: 1995 World Champions
- 2006: Lifestories: Finding God's Voice of Truth in Everyday Life (with Mark Hall)
- 2007: Don't Forget to Dream: Because Your Life Shouldn't Happen Without You (with Tim Dowdy)
- 2009: Your Own Jesus: A God Insistent on Making It Personal (with Mark Hall)
- 2011: The Well: Why Are So Many Still Thirsty (with Mark Hall)
- 2011: If My Body Is a Temple, Then I Was a Megachurch (with Scott Davis)
- 2014: Thrive: Digging Deep, Reaching Out (with Mark Hall)
- 2016: The Very Next Thing: Follow God. Where You Are. Right Now. (with Mark Hall)
- 2018: I Am Not My Own (with Scott Davis)
- 2019: Only Jesus: A Voice that Sounds Like Home (with Mark Hall)
- 2020: Jesus Can (with Austin French).
BOB MARCAURELLE: Bob was the longtime pastor at Concord Baptist Church and baptized me in 1973.
- Don't Say Your Prayers: Goodness, Happiness, and Answered Prayers
JOHNNY MARTIN: The sports editor of my hometown paper is best remembered for his "dribble-meter," where he estimated how many dribbles he saw during the course of each basketball season. As a stunt, Johnny once dribbled a basketball 17 miles from Anderson to Clemson into a pregame ceremony at Fike Fieldhouse—where he missed the lay-up.
- 1968: Death Valley: 72 Years of Exciting Football at Clemson University (foreword by Paul W. "Bear" Bryant).
DON MILLER: Don was a high school coach during my sportswriting career, and now is retired in the Dark Corner of Greenville County.
- 2014: Winning was never the only thing
- 2015: Floppy parts
- 2015: Pathways
- 2016: Through the Front Gate (with Linda Gail Porter-Miller)
TIM PEELER: The foothills of North Carolina have given us a trinity of Tim Peelers. Two write sports books, and the third stalks Bigfoot. I worked several years in Greenville, S.C., with the Tim P from Cat Square, who has become the official historian of N.C. State athletics. He was a big booster for my other blog, The Stoneman Gazette, which might yet become a book.
- 2004: Legends of N.C. State Basketball
- 2007: When March Went Mad: A Celebration of N.C. State's 1982-83 Championship
- 2010: N.C. State Basketball: 100 Years of Innovation
- 2005: Fried Twinkies, Buckle Bunnies, and Bull Riders: A Year Inside the Professional Bull Riders Tour
- 2010: Death to the BCS: The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series (with Dan Wetzel)
DEB RICHARDSON-MOORE: Several of my Greenville colleagues have wound up in pulpits: Tom Robinson, Tim Luke, and Deb Richardson-Moore. (Not to mention my Hanna classmates Marsh Fant and Jacky Newton.) Christians can learn a lot from Deb's first book, which describes her experience as a rookie pastor at the extraordinary Triune Mercy Center in downtown Greenville.
- 2012: The Weight of Mercy: A Novice Pastor on the City Streets
- 2016: The Canteloupe Thief
- 2017: The Cover Story
- 2018: Death of a Jester
- 2020: Murder, Forgotten
- 2024: Through Any Window
RICK SCOPPE & CHARLIE BENNETT: My old sportswriting colleagues sat down with University of South Carolina football heroes—including George Rogers, Jeff Grantz, Steve Tanneyhill, and Marcus Lattimore—and got them to tell about the "Game of My Life." Steve Spurrier said in the foreword, "Hopefully one of these days, books will be written that go beyond individual players and individual games to chronicle great seasons."
- 2007, 2013: Game of My Life: Memorable Stories of Gamecocks Football
- 2003: Mount Mitchell and the Black Mountains
- 2021: The Environmental History of the Civil War
- 2024: Death in Briar Bottom
ANDY SOLOMON: Only a native Charlestonian could romanticize the sports history of "The Military College of South Carolina."
- 2017: My First 25 Years of Citadel Athletics
- 2019: The First 100,000 Games Were Fun, But The People I Met Along The Way Were Funner.
CHARLES SOWELL (1955-2015): Charlie strayed into the darker sides of life, so I should not have been surprised that his novel dealt with a terrorist attack on Greenville. What was a surprise, though, was to read Wayne Roper's eulogy about how Charlie found hope at last. Here's an excerpt:
- 2010: Ties
- 1997: America's Rivalry: The 20 Greatest Redskins-Cowboys Games (with John Keim and David Elfin)
DIXIE TENNY: Dixie and I were friends at the University of Missouri, but I didn't know she wrote a book until decades later, when I stumbled across her book on a library shelf in my daughter's high school in Greenville.
- 1984: Call the Darkness Down
- 2016: How to Find Your Dream Dog
KEN TYSIAC: Ken covered Clemson for the Anderson newspaper during the years I did the same for Greenville. He later reported for Columbia and Charlotte. His book marked the 25th anniversary of Clemson's heyday.
- 2006: Tales from Clemson's 1981 Championship Season
LONNIE WHEELER (1952-2020): Lonnie and I coached a Little League baseball team while we were sportwriters at the Anderson Independent. Fundamentals he taught on the hardpan playground at Nevitt Forest Elementary School were incorporated into his 2015 book Intangiball, which won the 2016 SABR Research Award. (SABR is the Society for American Baseball Research, known for "sabermetrics," the science behind the Brad Pitt film Moneyball.) Lonnie also made the big time in an NPR interview with Terry Gross, not to mention my blog on Hank Aaron's 80th birthday. His books:
- 1988: The Cincinnati Game (with John Baskin)
- 1988: Bleachers: A Summer in Wrigley Field
- 1990: The Official Baseball Hall of Fame Story of Mickey Mantle
- 1991: I Had A Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story
- 1994: Stranger to the Game: The Autobiography of Bob Gibson
- 1994: Hard Stuff: The Autobiography of Mayor Coleman Young
- 1997: Street Soldier: One Man's Struggle to Save a Generation--One Life at a Time (with Joe Marshall)
- 1998: Blue Yonder: Kentucky, the United State of Basketball
- 2006: The Road Back: The Cincinnati Bengals Under Coach Marvin Lewis
- 2009: Schoolboy Legends: A Hundred Years of Cincinnati's Most Storied High School Football Players
- 2009: Sixty Feet, Six Inches: A Hall of Fame Pitcher and a Hall of Fame Hitter Talk about How the Game Is Played (with Bob Gibson and Reggie Jackson)
- 2013: Long Shot: Mike Piazza
- 2015: Intangiball: The Subtle Things that Win Baseball Games
- 2015: Pitch by Pitch: My View of One Unforgettable Game (by Bob Gibson)
- 2020: The Bona Fide Legend of Cool Papa Bell: Speed, Grace, and the Negro Leagues
More authors I have brushed shoulders with
STEVE BIONDO (1951-2008): Steve was the columnist for the Anderson Independent as well as a Confederate re-enactor, which made him the perfect person to tell the story of Anderson's most infamous rebel.
- 2002: The True Story of Manse Jolly
- 2004: The True Story of Manse Jolly, Part II
FURMAN BISHER (1918-2012): Furman was elected the Georgia Sportswriter of the Year 18 times in 50 years. I didn't know him well, but I had the privilege of spending one unforgettable day with him in Salisbury, N.C., as we explored the N.C. Transportation Museum and Furman reminisced about the days when sportswriters rode Pullmans. Furman also had the last interview with Shoeless Joe Jackson.
- 1966: Strange but True Baseball Stories
- 1972: The Birth of a Legend: Arnold Palmer's Golden Year, 1960
- 1973: The Atlanta Falcons
- 1976: The Masters: Augusta Revisited
- 1989: The Furman Bisher Collection
- 2001: Thankful
- 2005: Furman Bisher: Face to Face
MIKE CHIBBARO: Mike tells a "Remember the Titans"-type story about the integration of Wade Hampton High School in Greenville, S.C., and how it created a basketball dynasty.
- 2014: The Cadillac: The Life Story of University of South Carolina Football Legend Steve Wadiak.
- 2019: The Mighty Generals: A Story of Basketball Championships and Racial Unity in the Deep South.
- 2022: Voices from Meadowbrook Park: Memories of Greenville's Historic Ballpark.
- 1997: Sword and Scalpel (with Lorry Lutz)
MICHAEL C. HARDY: Michael was named the North Carolina Historian of the Year in 2010. His books were indispensable when I was writing The Stoneman Gazette.
- 2003: The Thirty-Seventh North Carolina Troops: Tar Heels in the Army of Northern Virginia
- 2004: The c. 1840 McElroy House: A Glimpse of Yancey County, North Carolina
- 2005: Images of America: Avery County
- 2005: A Short History of Old Watauga County
- 2006: Battle of Hanover Courthouse: Turning Point of the Peninsula Campaign, May 27, 1862
- 2006: Images of America: Caldwell County
- 2006: Remembering North Carolina's Confederates
- 2006: Short History of Old Watauga County
- 2007: Remembering Avery County: Old Tales from North Carolina's Youngest County
- 2008: Families, Friends, and Felons: Growing Up in the Avery County Jail
- 2009: "A Heinous Sin": The 1864 Brooksville Bayport Raid (with Robert M. Hardy
- 2009: The Thirty-Seventh North Carolina Troops: Tar Heels in the Army of Northern Virginia
- 2009: Avery County Heritage, Volume IX: Obituaries
- 2010: Images of America: Mitchell County
- 2010: The Fifty-Eighth North Carolina Troops: Tar Heels in the Army of Tennessee
- 2011: North Carolina Remembers Gettysburg
- 2011: North Carolina Remembers Chancellorsville
- 2011: North Carolina in the Civil War
- 2011: Battle of Hanover Courthouse
- 2012: Civil War Charlotte: Last Capital of the Confederacy
- 2013: North Carolina Remembers Chancellorsville
- 2013: Watauga County, North Carolina, in the Civil War
- 2014: Images of America: Grandfather Mountain
- 2015: The Capitals of the Confederacy
- 2016: Avery County Place Names
- 2018: General Lee's Immortals: The Battles and Campaigns of the Branch-Lane Brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia, 1861-1865
- 2018: Kirk's Civil War Raids Along the Blue Ridge
- 2023: Hidden History of the Toe River Valley
- 2025: Aviation in North Carolina: A History
DICK JENSEN: We met when his son David was a star basketball player at Wade Hampton High School in Greenville, S.C., and our paths crossed again after I left the newspaper business. Dick once managed the WMIT radio station for Billy Graham, and his book compares the evangelical careers of Billy Graham and Billy Sunday.
- 2008: The Billy Pulpits: Chronicles of Billy Graham and Billy Sunday
DON KIRKLAND: Don is editor emeritus of the Baptist Courier, where he served from 1974 to 2012. Prior to that he ran the communications department at Anderson College and helped keep me out of mischief.
- 2014: Something Gained: Selected Writings from My Career in Christian Journalism
HUGH MORTON (1921-2006): Mr. Morton is the only author on this list who has also been the subject of a book: Hugh Morton, North Carolina Photographer, published in 2015. We met briefly when Samaritan's Purse held our company picnics at Grandfather Mountain, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to tell him how much I appreciated all that he has done for our mountains. He was audacious enough to stand up to Uncle Sam and dictate the Blue Ridge Parkway viaduct—protecting the shoulders of Grandfather from road construction, even after he built his own mile-high tourist road.
- 1981: The ACC Basketball Tournament Classic (with Smith Barrier)
- 1988: Making a Difference in North Carolina (with Ed Rankin)
- 2003: Hugh Morton's North Carolina
TOM PRICE (1927-2008): Tom was the longtime sports information director at the University of South Carolina and shepherded me through my first big assignment, the 1975 College World Series in Omaha.
- 2001: Tales from the Gamecocks' Roost: A Collection of the Greatest Gamecock Stories Ever Told
BOBBY RICHARDSON: A native of Sumter, S.C., Bobby was the World Series MVP in 1960—still the only player to win that award for a losing team. His first book was influential in shaping my faith in Christ. We met in 1975 when he coached the USC baseball team and I had the opportunity to follow them to the College World Series in Omaha. Years later, I heard Bobby speak at a church in Boone, and I won an autographed baseball from him for knowing who replaced him at second base for the Yankees (answer: Horace Clarke).
- 1964: The Bobby Richardson Story
- 2012: Impact Player: Leaving a Legacy On and Off the Field
ROBERT WHITLOW: Before we hired him to help us with a legal matter, Mary and I had no idea that Robert was a best-selling novelist in the vein of John Grisham.
- 2001: The Trial (movie)
- 2003: Life Support
- 2004: The List (movie)
- 2004: The Sacrifice
- 2004: Life Everlasting
- 2006: Jimmy (movie)
- 2007: Mountain Top (movie)
- 2008: Deeper Water
- 2009: Higher Hope
- 2010: Greater Love
- 2011: Water's Edge
- 2012: The Choice
- 2013: The Confession
- 2015: A House Divided
- 2017: A Time to Stand
- 2018: Chosen People
- 2023: Double Indemnity
- 1998: More than 1,001 Hikes to Mount Le Conte: And Still Counting
