Sept. 11, 2002
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
Autobiographical books by Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams and longtime "Voice of the Terps" Johnny Holliday, both published by Sports Publishing, are now available online. Both have also scheduled a series of book-signing events in the Baltimore-Washington area.
Both books may be purchased online by visiting www.SportsPublishingLLC.com. Specifically, the Williams book entitled "Sweet Redemption" may be purchased by clicking here. The Holliday book called "Johnny Holliday: From Rock to Jock" may be purchased by clicking here.
Williams and Holliday both will conduct a book-signing session prior to Maryland's Midnight Madness festivities on Friday, Oct. 11 at Comcast Center. A specific time and location are to be determined.
Holliday and Sweet Redemption author David A. Vise will each appear at signing events at the Baltimore Book Festival (Mount Vernon Place, 600 block of North Charles Street) from Sept. 27-29. Vise will appear from 12 to 4 p.m. on Sept. 28 and 29. Holliday will do a book signing on Sept. 27 from 6 to 9 p.m., and appear again on Sept. 29 from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Williams and Vise have completed the autobiographical book on the national champion coach which will be released in bookstores in October. Sweet Redemption captures the journey that carried Williams - a Maryland alum and former player - back to his alma mater during an era of frustration and despair, and through 13 seasons that led the Terrapins to the 2002 NCAA championship.
Williams, 274-143 as Maryland's head coach, is the only active coach in America to guide his alma mater to consecutive appearances in the NCAA Final Four. He is the first coach since 1974 to guide his alma mater to the national title. Vise, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist with the Washington Post, is most recently noted for his best-selling book, "The Bureau and the Mole" which tells the story of the FBI and its notorious double-agent Robert Philip Hanssen.
Sweet Redemption retails for $24.95. The book includes a 16-page photo layout and begins with a foreword by former Terps guard and 2002 Final Four MVP
Juan Dixon.
Holliday, meanwhile, has released a similar book that chronicles his ascent from his days as a Rock 'n Roll disc jockey to his present-day status as a local broadcaster and veteran play-by-play announcer in the nation's capital. A news voice with ABC Radio, Holliday is in his 24th year as the radio voice of University of Maryland's football and basketball teams. Since receiving national notoriety in the world of music in the 1960s and 1970s, Holliday's story is told in the book, Johnny Holliday: From Rock to Jock which includes a Foreword by Tony Kornheiser and Afterword by Dick Vitale. Vitale recently rated Holliday among the top college basketball radio announcers in the country. Excerpts of the book can be viewed online at www.jholliday.com.
Written with Helen Hayes biographer Stephen Moore, From Rock to Jock retails for $22.95
SWEET REDEMPTION SUMMARY AND BOOK-SIGNING EVENTS
Sweet Redemption is the amazing, inside story of how Coach Gary Williams survived devastating defeats and overwhelming odds to build a championship basketball program at Maryland and win the 2002 NCAA title.
In a series of exclusive interviews that take you into the huddle, into the locker room and into his head,
Gary Williams, for the first time, pulls back the curtain and tells his incredible story through best-selling author David A. Vise, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for the Washington Post.
Sweet Redemption also takes you into the heart and soul of Gary Williams and the team's star guard, Juan Dixon, providing a vast array of never-before-told stories about the mysterious forces and people that fueled their rise. It is a fast-moving inspirational tale of trial and triumph. And it is the story of a man, a family and a team whose lives were made, and saved, through a simple game involving a ball, a hoop and a dream.
When he arrived in College Park in 1989, Williams absorbed one knockout punch after another as the new head basketball coach of his alma mater. His promising career seemed over and Maryland basketball appeared destined, like its greatest player ever, to plunge to an untimely death.
But by the spring of 2002, when Coach Williams and the Terrapins stood on the podium in the Georgia Dome to receive the NCAA Championship Trophy, he had brought about some of the most far-reaching changes in the history of college athletics. Sweet Redemption is the story of how he did it.
* Gary Williams and David Vise have committed to a series of local book-signing opportunities in the Baltimore-Washington area beginning in October, just prior to the beginning of the Terps' 2002-03 season and the school's Midnight Madness festivities at Comcast Center on Oct. 11. Local book-signings [updated Sept. 18] are scheduled for:
1. Tuesday, Oct. 1 at Olssons Books in Washington, D.C. (12th & F Streets, NW), from 12:30-2 p.m.
2. Tuesday, Oct. 1 at the Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Bethesda (4801 Bethesda Ave.), beginning at 7:30 p.m.
3. Wednesday, Oct. 2 at the Barnes & Noble On The Avenue in White Marsh/Baltimore (8123 Honeygo Blvd.), beginning at 7:30 p.m.
4. Tuesday, Oct. 8 at Borders Books at White Flint Mall (Rockville Pike), beginning at 7:30 p.m.
5. Friday, Oct. 11 before Midnight Madness activities at Comcast Center (time to be determined)
6. Tuesday, Oct. 15 at Maryland Book Exchange in College Park, from 12 to 2 p.m.
7. Friday, Oct. 18 at R.J. Bentley's Restaurant in College Park, from 12 to 2 p.m.
FROM ROCK TO JOCK SUMMARY AND BOOK-SIGNING EVENTS
After 45 years in broadcasting, ABC Sports' Johnny Holliday -- the Voice of the NCAA Champion University of Maryland Terrapins -- has written a joyful and inspiring autobiography, Johnny Holliday: From Rock to Jock.
Cokie Roberts (ABC News, NPR) says "It's an exuberant account that will make you smile and then laugh out loud. What a life!"
Ben Fong-Torres, Author, "The Hits Just Keep On Coming," says "You think Johnny Holliday is a great sportscaster? You should've seen him on the court, as a blazing point guard on various radio station basketball teams. And you should've heard Johnny as a rapid-fire DJ, spinning stacks of hot wax at topflight Top 40 stations, from San Francisco to New York City. Stephen Moore slows him down just enough to tell you Johnny's amazing story."
Sportswriter John Feinstein has characterized Holliday's professional resume as "slightly longer than War and Peace." From his early days in Miami, to his solid radio successes in Rochester, Cleveland, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC, Holliday retraces the steps that made him one of the best play-by-play announcers in the nation.
Holliday's autobiography is a book overflowing with one-of-a-kind memories and extraordinary stories from 45 years of early rock radio and sportscasting adventures. His story touches an alphabet of major sports and music celebrities from Hank Aaron, Rick Barry, the Beatles, Joe DiMaggio, Ralph Friedgen, and Paul Hornung to Janis Joplin, Murray the K, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roger Miller, and both Ted and Gary Williams. From Rock To Jock is even more compelling as Holliday begins his 24th year as the "Voice of the Terps."
* In additional to Holliday's appearance with Williams at the Terps' Midnight Madness signing opportunity, Holliday and Moore have committed to book signings in the Maryland, Cleveland, Rochester, and San Francisco areas. Johnny will also be signing at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Local appearances to date include:
1. Thursday, Oct. 3 at Georgetown University Bookstore, from 12 to 1:30 p.m.
2. Wednesday, Oct. 9 at R. J. Bentley's Restaurant in College Park, beginning at 6 p.m.
3. Friday, Oct. 11 before Midnight Madness activities at Comcast Center (time to be determined)
4. Wednesday, Oct. 16 at Borders Books in Fairfax, Va. (11054 Lee Hwy.), beginning at 7:30 p.m.
5. Monday, Oct. 21 at Borders Books at White Flint Mall (Rockville Pike), beginning at 7:30 p.m.
6. Tuesday, Oct. 22 at Borders Books in Waldorf (3304-A Crain Hwy.), beginning at 7:30 p.m.
7. Wednesday, Oct. 23 at Borders Books in Chevy Chase (5333 Wisconsin Ave., NW), beginning at 7:30 p.m.
8. Thursday, Oct. 24 at Borders Books in Bowie (4420 Mitchellville Road), beginning at 7:30 p.m.
9. Wednesday, Oct. 30 at Borders Books in Annapolis (1115 Annapolis Mall), beginning at 7:30 p.m.
