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It All Began With Wilt | 
 enlarge | Author: Cecil Mosenson
Publisher: Tate Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $14.99
Buy New: $9.73
You Save: $5.26 (35%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 854391
Media: Perfect Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 168
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.4
ISBN: 1606040553
EAN: 9781606040553
ASIN: 1606040553
Publication Date: June 17, 2008
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
At the age of twenty-two, I took a job as a physical education teacher and basketball coach at Overbrook High School, where one of my players was Wilt Chamberlain. Having coached one of the best basketball players to have ever played the game is a great accomplishment, but Cecil Mosenson has a bigger story to tell. In It All Began with Wilt the reader gets to see the power of a coach, the power of a man, and the power of a friend. Armed with the ability to coach and teach, Cecil worked his way through highly acclaimed and successful coaching positions, awards on every level, administrative opportunities, and, ultimately, into the lives of countless teenagers. His kids still thank him for the impact that he hadin sports and life. His inspiration now extends past the court into a wonderfully wrought memoir. Cecil Mosenson shares his life of coachingstarting with Wilt.
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| Customer Reviews:
Memoirs of a High School Coach August 4, 2008
This book is not about Wilt; it is about Cecil Mosenson. It is a short (143 pages) anecdotal autobiography of Mosenson's 50-year career as a high school educator and basketball coach. The anchor of the book is the segment about Wilt Chamberlain, who was a junior at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia at the time the author was appointed to coach the basketball team. Especially interesting in this segment is the description of the efforts of Phog Allen, coach of Kansas University, and other college basketball powers to recruit Chamberlain for their schools.
Mosenson suffered through a 3-year hiatus in his career when he helped out his father by working in the father's delicatessen. Returning to high school coaching, he found a job in a suburban school. After 15 years at that school, Mosenson shifted to the administration end of education, ultimately becoming principal of a junior high school in a prestigious Philadelphia suburb. A dozen years later, he gravitated back to coaching basketball at another suburban high school. Even after retirement, he spent six years coaching, this time a ninth grade girls basketball team. He illustrates the difference between coaching girls and coaching boys with a story from his last coaching assignment. He put Heather in the game and told her to be sure that she and Kelly discussed their respective defensive assignments. Heather responded, "I am not speaking to Kelly."
Coach M tells his story mainly through summary anecdotes. This anecdotal approach makes for interesting reading. The anecdotes are supplemented by what he calls "reflections," short personal notes that he has received from some of his former players. These notes add a personal touch to the memoir. Another positive touch is the inclusion of many photographs, most of them high quality photos.
As you might expect of a book that is both short and summary in nature, there is not much detail. The lack of specificity sometimes makes it difficult to understand the relevant time frame. For example, Coach M states that he started at Overbrook High School in the fall of 1952 and there is a photo of him with the 1952-53 basketball team. But the 1952-53 team was coached by Sam Cozen, and Wilt was then in his sophomore year. (Wilt was a junior when Mosenson first coached him.) Lack of detail is not a serious flaw; it is just annoying at times. The book is eminently readable.
It is an interesting memoir.
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