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Team of Destiny: Inside Virginia Basketball’s Run
to the 2019 National Championship

uva basketball team of destiny

By Jerry Ratcliffe and Chris Graham
With Additional Reporting by Zach Pereles, Scott Ratcliffe, and Scott German

Publisher: Augusta Free Press (June 10, 2019)
Paperback: 240 pages
ISBN: 978-1-7923-0950-2
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.45 inches
Soft-Cover List Price: $25.00

Retailers

Amazon
County Line Mercantile: 5548 Seminole Trail (US 29, Greene/Albemarle line)
Mincer’s: 1527 University Ave. (The Corner)
Mincer’s: 2015 Bond St. (The Shops at Stonefield)
New Dominion Bookshop: 404 East Main St (Downtown Mall)
UVA Bookstore: 400 Emmet St. South (On Grounds)

Mincer’s is the only retailer currently with shrinkwrapped copies.

About Team of Destiny

Team of Destiny: Inside Virginia Basketball’s Run to the 2019 National Championship, by Jerry Ratcliffe and Chris Graham, is now available for $25 per copy. The book, with additional reporting by Zach Pereles, Scott Ratcliffe, and Scott German, will take you from the aftermath of the stunning first-round loss to UMBC in 2018, and how coach Tony Bennett and his team used that loss as the source of strength, through to the ACC regular-season championship, the run to the Final Four, and the thrilling overtime win over Texas Tech to win the 2019 national title, the first in school history.

Dick Vitale on Team of Destiny: “This is a hoops story you will LOVE! Jerry and Chris capture the sensational and dramatic championship journey by Tony Bennett and his tenacious Cavalier team. UVA was Awesome Baby and so is this book!”

Ralph Sampson on Team of Destiny: “Jerry and Chris have lived and seen it all, even before my time. I highly recommend this book to every basketball fan across the globe. This story translates to all who know defeat and how to overcome it!”

Feedback from buyers:
“Got the Book in the Mail Saturday, and could not put it down! Great read and great photography as well! Love all of the books I’ve received, but hands down, this is my favorite!” – Russell

 

Mad About U: Four Decades of Basketball at University Hall


By Chris Graham and Patrick Hite
Paperback: 232 pages
Publisher: Augusta Free Press (October 5, 2006)
ISBN-10: 097487518X
ISBN-13: 978-0974875187
Product Dimensions: 8.25 x 5.25 x 0.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
Paperback List Price: $25.00
Ebook List Price: $5.99

Mad About U: Four Decades of at University Hall is a comprehensive book covering the players, coaches and memories of University Hall at the University of Virginia. Join us as we look back at the memories from more than 40 years in U Hall. From Barry Parkhill’s last-second shot to help Virginia knock off No. 2 South Carolina to the struggles faced by coaches Barbara Kelly and Dan Bonner in the early years of UVa. women’s basketball to the excitement of the early 1980s in the House that Ralph Built to the move to JPJ – it’s all here.

We’ve talked to players, coaches and fans, including Terry Holland, Debbie Ryan, Jeff Lamp, Heather and Heidi Burge, Mac McDonald, Wally Walker, Dawn Staley, Jeff Jones, Richard Morgan, Dan Bonner, Bryant Stith, Wendy Palmer, Bobby and Ricky Stokes, Val Ackerman, Gus Gerard, Craig Littlepage and many more.

UVA Hoops: How different it was when we wrote the book (Augusta Free Press)
Looking back at the top five seasons of UVA basketball (C-VILLE Weekly)
Graham previews UVA Basketball season (Inside Charlottesville)
JPJ rocks: But what about ol’ UHall? (Cover Story, The Hook)
Mad about U readies fans for NCAA Tournament (NBC29)
Top picks in the (other) March Madness (The Hook)

 

The Worst Wrestling Pay-Per-View Ever


By Chris Graham
Published by Augusta Free Press LLC
Ebook List Price: $3.49   Buy now.The Worst Wrestling Pay-Per-View Ever

Chris Graham offers a glimpse behind the curtain of the pro wrestling business in his new book, The Worst Wrestling Pay-Per-View Ever, the inside story of the 2011 Night of Legends, a live pay-per-view event featuring stars including WWE Hall of Famers Kevin Nash, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan and The Rock ‘n Roll Express that was met with almost universally negative reviews.

Graham, the editor of Augusta Free Press, was a member of the two-man creative team behind the event, developing and writing storylines for some of the biggest names in the wrestling business, as a show that had originally been envisioned as a local indy house show grew into more with an explosion of interest on social media.

“It’s always bothered me that the show didn’t come off the way we had it planned, but that’s part of the business, as I would learn later,” said Graham, an award-winning journalist, author of six books and ESPN3 college baseball and college football color commentator.

Graham also worked for six years in the pro wrestling business as a writer and promoter. He also counts himself as a lifelong fan of pro wrestling.

“As a fan, I think it can be helpful to hear from somebody who has worked on the other side of the curtain as to how the business really works, and when I say that, I don’t mean to make it out to be something sinister or underhanded. Wrestling is a lot of fun, but, man, yeah, it can be hard to make sense of it when you’re backstage,” Graham said.

And, no, for the record, Graham doesn’t think Night of Legends was “the worst wrestling pay-per-view ever.”

“One thing they can’t take away from me is that I was able to help make a live wrestling pay-per-view show happen. I wish things had worked out differently, but, hey, I wouldn’t trade my time in the wrestling business for anything in the world,” Graham said.

 

Ridin’ the Pine

By Chris Graham
Published by Augusta Free Press LLC
Ebook List Price: $4.99   Buy now.

Augusta Free Press editor Chris Graham’s fourth book, Ridin’ the Pine, a collection of literary short stories, is also the first ebook from Augusta Free Press LLC. The stories in Ridin’ the Pine include a tale of a little-league baseball game, a young romance gone up in flames on a night at the park and the humorous story of a self-absorbed newspaper columnist’s interaction with a crazed fan.

 

Stop the Presses: A collection of columns

By Chris Graham
Paperback: 260 pages
Publisher: Augusta Free Press (October 15, 2004)
ISBN-10: 0974875112
ISBN-13: 978-0974875118
Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
Paperback List Price: $19.00   Buy now.

Stop the Presses, a collection of columns by Chris Graham, is a 260-page book complete with more than 100 columns that will make you laugh and make you cry – covering everything from weather to politics to the various and sundry vagaries of daily life. Also included is an emotional column written on the first anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that drew comments from around the world.

 

Judge Not

By Chris Graham
Paperback: 108 pages
Publisher: Augusta Free Press (October 15, 2005)
ISBN-10: 0974875139
ISBN-13: 978-0974875132
Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
Paperback List Price: $10.00   Buy now.

Every small town has its own tales to tell. Ruetown isn’t special in that respect. For years, the political machinations that dominated the parlor talk in the sleepy Shenandoah Valley town had been kept as much beneath the surface as possible. But that was before community activist Juan Cordonez turned up dead – and the evidence pointed to The Honorable John Edward Malone as the man behind his murder. The headlines in The Times-Progress told Ruetown residents part of what was going on. The reporter for the paper who was working on the story of a lifetime, Andrew Floyd, knew more, a lot more – but could it be that he perhaps knew too much? Waynesboro author Chris Graham fleshes out the details of the macabre happenings in Ruetown in his first novel, Judge Not, a political thriller that follows reporter Andrew Floyd as he blazes a trail into the parlors to ferret out the identity of the real killer – before he himself meets his own final judgment.

 

Contributors

Contributors

Have a guest column, letter to the editor, story idea or a news tip? Email editor Chris Graham at [email protected]. Subscribe to AFP podcasts on Apple PodcastsSpotifyPandora and YouTube.