Crooked Zebra
Encyclopedia
Crooked Zebra is a 2004 novel by former University of Texas college basketball coach Bob Weltlich.
Chad Payne, an eleven year old basketball phenom, sneaks into the camp. Girard rescues Chad from a broken home and encourages him. Eventually, Chad grows up, becomes a star and signs with Duke University
. Meanwhile, Girard becomes a college basketball referee with troubled finances.
Bob begins to make extra money by fixing games, he becomes so good at it, and so greedy, that he, with support from the mafia
, attempts to fix the national championship game.
Plot
Jim Stanton, the narrator, tells the tale of Bob Girard, a former college basketball player who now runs a popular basketball camp for children in South Florida.Chad Payne, an eleven year old basketball phenom, sneaks into the camp. Girard rescues Chad from a broken home and encourages him. Eventually, Chad grows up, becomes a star and signs with Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
. Meanwhile, Girard becomes a college basketball referee with troubled finances.
Bob begins to make extra money by fixing games, he becomes so good at it, and so greedy, that he, with support from the mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
, attempts to fix the national championship game.
Reviews
- Bob Knight, former head basketball coach at Texas Tech UniversityTexas Tech UniversityTexas Tech University, often referred to as Texas Tech or TTU, is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and originally known as Texas Technological College, it is the leading institution of the Texas Tech University System and has the...
and Indiana UniversityIndiana UniversityIndiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
, calls Crooked Zebra “Entertaining, exciting and an easy read. This story may be closer to the truth than many people would like to believe... An insightful novel that examines the susceptibility of college basketball to the whims of gamblers...". - Crooked Zebra has been featured in USA TodayUSA TodayUSA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, Fort Worth Star-TelegramFort Worth Star-TelegramThe Fort Worth Star-Telegram is a major U.S. daily newspaper serving Fort Worth and the western half of the North Texas area known as the Metroplex. Its area of domination is checked by its main rival, The Dallas Morning News, which is published from the eastern half of the Metroplex. It is owned...
, Memphis Commercial Appeal and several other newspapers.