"An easy and enjoyable read and one the reader won't be able to put down."—Felix F. Chávez, El Paso Times
"This is a book that should be read by sports fans, especially those who enjoy college basketball. . . . It is difficult to tell a familiar story and make it new, yet Snell accomplishes this very task."—Tony Calandrillo, Sport in American History
“The Baron and the Bear answers the question, ‘What was Adolph Rupp really like?’ It captures Rupp and Rupp’s Runts as never before. It also demolishes the contention that Rupp was a racist. It’s about time.”—Coach Joe B. Hall, Rupp’s assistant and successor at the University of Kentucky, winner of the NCAA basketball championship in 1978
“My grandmother used to say, if you want to change the world, wait for a door to open a crack and then kick it down. The Baron and the Bear challenges conventional wisdom about coaches Adolph Rupp and Don Haskins and gives a good strong kick to a door that needed kicking.”—Nolan Richardson, Hall of Fame basketball coach for the University of Arkansas, winner of the NCAA championship in 1994
“As David Snell makes clear, Texas Western’s historic win over Kentucky was both polarizing and transforming. It forced people to confront their stereotypes and biases, accelerating the momentum of the civil rights movement.”—Peter Dreier, professor of political science at Occidental College and author of The One Hundred Greatest Americans of the Twentieth Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame
