Heartland: A Forgotten Place, an Impossible Dream, and the Miracle of Larry Bird
Keith O'Brien
Mar 2026 · Simon and Schuster · Narrated by Ellen Adair
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11 hr 51 min
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AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
From the New York Times bestselling author of Charlie Hustle and Fly Girls comes “a wonderfully entertaining and meticulously researched look at one of the most intriguing and important basketball stories of the past 50 years” (Christine Brennan, New York Times bestselling author): the improbable rise of Larry Bird and the Indiana State Sycamores.
In the fall 1974, Larry Bird—one of the greatest players to ever pick up a basketball—was lost, and in danger of slipping away.
He had dropped out of Indiana University, spurning legendary Hoosiers head coach Bobby Knight. He returned home to French Lick, a tiny town in the second poorest county in Indiana, and he got a job hauling trash.
It could have been the end of Bird’s basketball career right there were it not for two men: Bob King, an old coach with bad knees, and Bill Hodges, a man who knew what it was like to be poor and overlooked. They convinced Bird to leave French Lick and play basketball at Indiana State University, then built a team of players around him: they were castoffs and leftovers, ready to work. Four years later, in March 1979, this unheralded team would put together one of the greatest seasons in American sports history.
“Deeply research and beautifully written” (Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize winner) and drawing on exclusive, in-depth interviews with players, coaches, and staffers, Heartland offers a stirring account of Bird and the mighty Indiana State Sycamores. It’s the story of a group of young men who achieved the greatest feat of all: immortality.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Charlie Hustle and Fly Girls comes “a wonderfully entertaining and meticulously researched look at one of the most intriguing and important basketball stories of the past 50 years” (Christine Brennan, New York Times bestselling author): the improbable rise of Larry Bird and the Indiana State Sycamores.
In the fall 1974, Larry Bird—one of the greatest players to ever pick up a basketball—was lost, and in danger of slipping away.
He had dropped out of Indiana University, spurning legendary Hoosiers head coach Bobby Knight. He returned home to French Lick, a tiny town in the second poorest county in Indiana, and he got a job hauling trash.
It could have been the end of Bird’s basketball career right there were it not for two men: Bob King, an old coach with bad knees, and Bill Hodges, a man who knew what it was like to be poor and overlooked. They convinced Bird to leave French Lick and play basketball at Indiana State University, then built a team of players around him: they were castoffs and leftovers, ready to work. Four years later, in March 1979, this unheralded team would put together one of the greatest seasons in American sports history.
“Deeply research and beautifully written” (Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize winner) and drawing on exclusive, in-depth interviews with players, coaches, and staffers, Heartland offers a stirring account of Bird and the mighty Indiana State Sycamores. It’s the story of a group of young men who achieved the greatest feat of all: immortality.
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
From the New York Times bestselling author of Charlie Hustle and Fly Girls comes “a wonderfully entertaining and meticulously researched look at one of the most intriguing and important basketball stories of the past 50 years” (Christine Brennan, New York Tim...
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About the author
Keith O’Brien is the New York Times bestselling author of Charlie Hustle, Paradise Falls, Fly Girls, and Outside Shot. He has won the 2025 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld award for biography; has been a finalist for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports writing; and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, NPR, and This American Life. A native of Ohio, he lives in New Hampshire.
Keith O’Brien is the New York Times bestselling author of Charlie Hustle, Paradise Falls, Fly Girls, and Outside Shot. He has won the 2025 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld award for biography; has been a finalist for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports writing; and has written for The New York Times...
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