Bob Asmussen | Author! Author! Illinois sports featured in a pair of recent book releases

If you are an avid book reader who also happens to be a University of Illinois sports fan, now is a great time.

There are currently two just-released tomes featuring Illini athletics as the central character.

Two very different books.

The Golden Age of Red: A Novel of Red Grange, The Galloping Ghost, is a fact-based work of fiction focused on the life and times of the iconic football star.

Written by Glen Carbons Doug Villhard, the book ties into the name, image and likeness debate in modern college sports.

It was released in September by Mabel Publishing and is available on Amazon.com .

It is receiving strong, positive reviews.

The second Illinois-related title is self-published by Urbanas Mike Carpenter: The 200 Level: An Illinois Fighting Illini Basketball Fans Journey.

It was released on Oct.

3 and details the last 30 years of the the Illinois mens basketball program.

Villhard is an entrepreneur and professor at Washington University in St.

Louis.

The 52-year-old is a Truman State graduate.

The father of four with wife Diane has written two other books.

His daughter Danielle designed the book cover.

What inspired his latest work? I do love Red Grange, Villhard said.

And I think the timeliness, 100 years ago, he really put the NFL on the map.

But the real draw was Granges agent, C.C.

Pyle.

Im an entrepreneurship professor, and its minds like that that really attract me, Villhard said.

Red is an amazing person, but it was C.C.

Pyle who cooked all this stuff up and led to the modern game.

Villhard did research at the UI Archives, learning all he could about Grange.

The protagonist based on a real character, I am very particular to follow the exact things that happened, Villhard said.

While going through the archives, Villhard found scrapbooks that described various events during Granges days on campus.

Like the time women lined up to get Grange to sign their dance cards.

Villhard also learned that Grange met future President John F.

Kennedy through his father, Joe.

The Kennedy children were big football fans.

I have a scene in my book where Joe is off on the side talking to C.C.

Pyle while Red is playing catch with little JFK.

Villhard could have written it as nonfiction.

Plenty of books have been penned about Grange.

But Villhard had more freedom with the historic novel format he chose.

A lot of football books get into how many yards they ran and touchdowns they scored, Villhard said.

I wanted to get into what it might have felt like to be in that situation.

Nonfiction tells you what happened.

In this lens, I can tell you why it happened.

Drop 1920s Grange into 2024s sports world, and how much money would he be worth? We might not be able to count that high.

I think the best analogy is Caitlin Clark, Villhard said.

Red became more famous than Babe Ruth while he was in college.

So famous that when he went to the pros, he was able to demand 50 percent of the gate at a time when they were paying players $50 a game.

Grange helped NFL attendance skyrocket.

Just as Clark has helped with womens basketball at the college and WNBA level (she is a star with the Indiana Fever, packing every arena).

Caitlin had all that fame at Iowa, Villhard said.

Look what shes done now for the WNBA.

Grange was in his early 20s when he came to fame.

Thanks to his exploits on the field and Pyles promoting, he became a star.

Who actually doesnt want to be a star, Villhard said.

He just wanted to graduate and get a job.

He had to pay to go to school.

There were no athletic scholarships.

So, if Grange was like Clark, who does Pyle equate to? I think hes a modern-day Don King, Villhard said referring to the boxing promoter.

Some view Pyle as the villain in the Grange story.

Not Villhard.

Pyle pointed to the fact that Grange and other athletes at the time earned their schools fame and fortune without reaping the benefits.

A hundred years ago, C.C.

Pyle was saying, Hey, thats not fair, Villhard said.

He saw himself as a champion of the student-athlete.

To borrow from Danny Rojas of Ted Lasso fame, Mike Carpenters mantra is, Basketball is life.

More specifically, Illinois basketball is life.

The longtime area media personality and current English teacher at Champaigns Jefferson Middle School, Carpenters job in education gave him time to write during the summer.

The book came together quickly.

He started the first draft June 1 and finished the draft by June 20.

He wrote for several hours each day.

The final product was done July 20.

There are nine chapters in the book, and he has a 10th in mind for an updated version if Illinois wins the elusive national title.

Carpenter went through Amazon to self-publish his work.

This was kind of an outlet for stories Ive been writing my whole life.

Carpenter said.

The book is available on amazon.com , at both local GameDay Spirit locations, Jane Addams Book Shop and The Lit.

The book is half sports journalism and half personal narrative about the big moments.

The emotions, the feelings, where was I, who was I watching it with, Carpenter said.

What was my lucky jersey? What was my lucky dinner? All these things that as a fan there are sensory memories that really kind of shape how you remember these things.

His friends told him to write what he knew.

Voila.

When I came up with this idea to write a book, it seemed pretty simple to me to really focus on the 30-plus years Ive been very closely following Illini basketball.

Some of my early memories are of going to the Assembly Hall.

He was in the stands for Andy Kaufmanns game-winning three-pointer against Iowa in 1993.

Carpenter was 6 at the time.

We were sitting in B28, Row 5, Seats 6 and 7, Carpenter said.

He was with his dad, Dennis.

Mom Pam and sister Angela were also in the stands, seated in a different section.

They didnt get the memo about staying until the end.

The roar when Kaufmann hit the shot has to be one of the loudest in the history of the building.

Unfortunately, Pam and Angela didnt hear it.

After the game, the family met at the car.

Dumbfounded, they said, What happened? They left (after Iowa took the lead), Carpenter said.

Carpenter, who will also start work in the spring as an adjunct professor at the UI, turns 38 on Oct.

21.

Married to Michigan State grad Kara, Carpenter is an Urbana High School and UI alum.

Since 2003, he has been involved in radio and podcast coverage of Illini sports.

From 2011 to 2019, he worked at the local ESPN Radio affiliate.

He attends most Illinois home basketball games and all football games.

His dad has had basketball season tickets since the late 1970s.

When he isnt teaching and writing books, Carpenter sings and plays guitar with the local band Decadents.

For me, the creative outlets have either been music or sports, Carpenter said..

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