Alfieri, Gus

PERSONAL:

Married; wife's name Janet; children: Ronald, Suzanne, Jill, David. Education: St. John's University, bachelor's degree, 1959; holds two master's degrees; Stony Brook University, Ph.D., 1994.

ADDRESSES:

Office—P.O. Box 314, Smithtown, NY 11787. Agent—Philip G. Spitzer, 50 Talmage Farm Lane, East Hampton, NY 11937. E-mail—gus@lapchickthebook.com.

CAREER:

St. Anthony's High School, Long Island, NY, social studies teacher and basketball coach; All-American Basketball Camp, Smithtown, NY, director, 1969—; Stony Brook University, professor in graduate program.

MEMBER:

Smithtown, NY, Library Board, trustee.

WRITINGS:

Lapchick: The Life of a Legendary Player and Coach in the Glory Days of Basketball, Lyons Press (Guilford, CT), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Gus Alfieri, who played on coach Joe Lapchick's Division I basketball team at St. John's University in the late 1950s, presented a well-received portrait of the man in Lapchick: The Life of a Legendary Player and Coach in the Glory Days of Basketball. Booklist contributor Wes Lukowsky considered the book a "moving" biography of a major figure who began his career as a player with the Celtics in the 1920s and 1930s, went on to coach St. John's to four National Invitation Tournament titles, and served as the first coach of the New York Knicks. A writer for Kirkus Reviews admired the book for its warmth and intelligence, while a contributor to Publishers Weekly described the book as a "good-hearted, reverential homage" to its subject.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 2006, Wes Lukowsky, review of Lapchick: The Life of a Legendary Player and Coach in the Glory Days of Basketball, p. 43.

Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2006, review of Lapchick, p. 659.

Publishers Weekly, May 29, 2006, p. 44, review of Lapchick, p. 30.

ONLINE

All-American Basketball Camp,http://www.allamericanbasketballcamp.com/ (February 21, 2007), author profile.

Lapchick: The Life of a Legendary Player and Coach in the Glory Days of Basketball Web site,http://www.lapchickthebook.com (February 21, 2007).