Chris Mahr is the managing editor of Lost Lettermen, a college sports website and athlete database.
“Talk to any young sportswriter today and odds are that their introduction to both Sports Illustrated’s long-form journalism and renowned writer Gary Smith are one in the same: ‘Higher Education.’ Smith’s March 2001 masterpiece tells the tale of Perry Reese Jr., a black Catholic basketball coach at Hiland High in the predominantly Mennonite town of Berlin, Ohio. A man whose force-of-nature personality on and off the court transformed a town ‘whose beliefs had barely budged in 200 years’ and forced his players and neighbors to rethink their long-held tenets on race, religion and life.”
Higher Education
Gary Smith | Sports Illustrated | March 2001 | 35 minutes (8,619 words)
***
We need your help to get to 5,000 Longreads Members.
Get the Longreads Weekly Email