Bestselling Author John Feinstein Talks to DeMatha High Students

Picture this: A well-known coach finishes his shower, hurts his foot out of anger and is hopping around naked.

The tale was part of the many stories bestselling author John Feinstein told to students in Pete Strickland’s ’75 Sports Literature class Thursday. Strickland had arranged for his students to ask questions of Feinstein, whose first book they had just read.

The book, “A Season on the Brink: A Year with Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers," which chronicled Indiana’s 1985-86 season, rose to No. 1 on the New York Times bestsellers list and is one of the top-selling sports book of all time. Feinstein credits its success to the unprecedented access Knight gave him to cover the Hoosiers men’s basketball team.

“Knight was very hot and cold. Some days he was great, some days he was a total pain in the butt,” Feinstein said via ZOOM. “But the people around him were great. The assistant coaches, the players, [they] all embraced me as sort of one of them during that season.
“And that made the experience often pleasurable, although being with Knight every day was not always pleasurable.”

Feinstein said his parents weren’t too pleased with him when he took a sabbatical from The Washington Post (and his $65,000-a-year salary) for a $17,500 advance. Five publishers rejected his proposal before Macmillan accepted it. He penned it from his parents’ beach house.

“When I wrote ‘Season on the Brink,’ I actually wrote it in six weeks,” he said. “I would sit down at my computer, usually right after lunch, and I would write most of the afternoon. I never had a goal of word count; I would just write until I was tired. When I was tired I realized that my writing got very bad.

“So, I would write from maybe 1 to 5:30 or 6 and then I would go walk on the beach alone.”

Senior Brooks Franklin, who plays on the DeMatha baseball team and is heading to the U.S. Naval Academy, was especially interested in hearing Feinstein talk about his 1996 publication, “A Civil War: A Year Inside Army vs. Navy – College Football’s Purest Rivalry.”

Franklin also liked the advice Feinstein shared with the class on choosing a career.

“He said you want to have a backup plan; you can’t always lean to your first option,” Franklin said. “That kind of stuck with me.”

Feinstein, who began his Washington Post career in 1977 as a night police reporter, eventually moved to sports and covered University of Maryland football and basketball. He said the most compelling character he ever covered was former Terrapins basketball coach Lefty Driesell, who in 2018 was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Feinstein recalled being on a recruiting visit with Driesell at a home in Southeast Washington, D.C., during Halloween and, with no candy in the house, seeing firsthand what the likeable coach gave out to satisfy the trick-or-treaters.

“Lefty reached into his pocket, took out his money clip and just started handing out bills until he had no money left,” Feinstein recalled. “And as the kids walked away all happy, laughing and screaming, Lefty said, ‘Damn, I hope I didn’t have any big bills on that money clip.’

“That was typical Lefty. He would give you his last dollar without knowing it. He was very generous, very funny and a hell of a coach. He’s in the Hall of Fame now – finally.”

So, who was the hopping mad (and naked) coach? It was Knight, who after getting out of the shower got upset about something and kicked a phone. It symbolizes the type of access Feinstein got – and still gets – to write compelling stories.

“In ‘A Season on the Brink,’’’ said Strickland, who played college basketball at Pittsburgh, “we got to read the inside scoop on how players and coaches relate to one another and the drama they go through. That had never been done before.”

Franklin was pleased with the opportunity to hear directly from Feinstein, who’s written 50 books, including 15 teen mysteries. Strickland knows Feinstein well.

“Opportunities like this are great,” Franklin said. “I know other schools probably wouldn’t be able to do it, but having the connections that Mr. Strickland and DeMatha has provides an amazing opportunity for the students.”

Chris McManes is DeMatha Catholic High School’s communications manager.