51 pages • 1 hour read
My Losing Season
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Prologue-Part 1, Chapter 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “The Point Guard Takes to the Court”
Prologue Summary
In his Prologue to My Losing Season, author Pat Conroy introduces himself to readers by explaining his relationship to the two things that have defined him since his boyhood: being a basketball player and being a writer. Expressing how he felt in being known to himself and others as an athlete, Conroy writes “it was part of my own definition of who I was and certainly the part I most respected” (1). Conroy makes the case in his biographical account that athletics in general, and playing basketball at The Citadel specifically, shaped him as a man and as a writer. As the son of a Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, Conroy had moved 23 times before he turned 21-years-old, and it was The Citadel that finally gave him an uninterrupted home and sense of security.
Although the freshman plebe system that he despised was extraordinarily difficult for Conroy, he regards his senior year as his “happiest year ever” (5). That happiness was due both to his academic growth as an English major and to his transformation into a good basketball player. Explaining how he had begun to play the best he ever had in the last half of the season, Conroy writes “the season turned out to be a disaster for all concerned, except for me” (5-6). Conroy suggests that it is because of their disastrous season that his team from 1966-67 has never stayed in touch over the years the way that a winning team would have.
Conroy uses the second half of his Prologue to explain how his memoir came about and to delve into the personal turmoil that was going on in his life when the book was conceived. Conroy was on a book tour for his 1995 novel Beach Music when he was approached at a bookstore by John DeBrosse, a key member of the 1966-67 team, and that was followed by other teammates showing up at other bookstores. At the time, Conroy was going through a divorce, and one of his younger brothers had committed suicide the previous year. Conroy was suffering from depression and contemplating his own suicide in 1993 when he got the news that Dickie Jones, another famed Citadel point guard from a few years before his tenure, had also committed suicide. Between his personal turmoil of the mid-1990s and Citadel basketball returning to his life, Conroy decided to write about his important year and his losing season.
Chapter 1 Summary: “Before First Practice”
In the brief first chapter of My Losing Season, Conroy primarily introduces his teammates to readers and sets a tone by describing how the players interact with one another in the locker room. The upperclassmen, consisting of Conroy, DeBrosse, Jim Halpin, Danny Mohr, Doug Bridges, Bob Cauthen, and Dave Bornhorst, all seem to have a genuine comradery with one another. Through their playful banter, it also seems clear that awaiting their first practice with head coach Mel Thompson, whom they secretly call “muleface,” was unpleasant and ominous.
The ominous feel in the locker room is due to the type of first practice that they know is coming. Thompson’s first practice traditionally consists of being ran so much that one of them vomits. While the other players wait for October 15 and the official beginning of the season with trepidation, Conroy is enthused and optimistic because he knows that the incoming sophomores are talented and will make the team better. At that time, freshmen were ineligible for varsity sports under National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules, so it is their first time in the locker room with the other players.
Chapter 2 Summary: “First Practice”
Chapter 2 consists entirely of a detailed description of the team’s first practice, with the author providing more key insights about the players and their coach. Conroy describes practice using the language of basketball, explaining layup lines, figure eight drills, two-on-two drills, and zone defensive assignments, but the chapter primarily introduces coach Thompson and how the players respond to his abrasive and disciplinary style. In recounting Thompson teaching the post players the proper way to block out an opponent, Conroy reveals that Thompson was once a good college player himself, and he seems to respect that about him, but he also describes him as having a volcanic temper and requiring “gestures of submission” (23) from his players. In regard to how the sophomores might react to Thompson, Conroy warns that Thompson “could break a boy in a day or over a season or over a career. It was a gift that he brought to the art of coaching” (25).
Conroy also introduces the term “Green Weenie.” Green Weenies refers to the non-starters who formed a team to scrimmage against the first unit in practice. The name comes from the fact that practice jerseys are reversible with the inside being green and the outside being blue. Conroy had been a proud member of the Green Weenies in his first two seasons, but he was selected as a starter in his first practice as a senior. Despite this designation, Conroy knew that a particular talented sophomore, Tee Hooper, was a real threat to take his position. Not long into that first practice scrimmage, Thompson demoted Conroy from the starting unit and replaced him with Hooper after Conroy took a shot. Thompson said, “that’s exactly what you’re not supposed to do, Conroy. You can’t shoot. Everyone knows that” (30).
In closing the chapter, Conroy provides an anecdote of Thompson selecting him to stand with him during a televised interview about the upcoming season. During the interview, Thompson made the comment that all the team asks of him as the point guard is to run the team well and score one or two points a game. Although Thompson dished out a compliment that Conroy was the team’s finest dribbler and passer, the words about his scoring ability would haunt him.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Auburn”
Chapter 3 is a full recap of the team’s first game of the season against Auburn University. Conroy saw an opportunity, as Auburn was a member of the powerful Southeastern Conference (SEC), the “big time.” Although The Citadel was a member of the Southern Conference, a respected mid-major Division 1 basketball conference, the Bulldogs had never been one of its more competitive members, and its typical non-conference opponents included the likes of Wofford, Newberry, Erskine, and other small colleges from the Carolinas. Conroy was surprised Thompson named him the captain for the game, and he was also named a starter, which he thought was ceremonial in nature because of his seniority over Hooper.
As the starting point guard, Conroy’s assignment was to guard and be guarded by Auburn’s point guard, Bobby Buisson, an All-SEC player whom Conroy describes as “the best point guard [he] would ever play against” (37). Five minutes into the game, Conroy drove to the basket, was fouled, and sank both free throws to tie the game 10-10. Immediately, Hooper came in to replace him, with Thompson telling him on the bench, “I told you not to shoot, Conroy” (39).
In the second half, with Auburn now firmly ahead, Conroy checked back into the game and scored his first field goal of the season on a layup. Once again, immediately Hooper came in to replace him for the exact same reason. Auburn won the game 105-83, and Conroy left the locker room thinking it was certain that he would be a second-stringer for his entire senior season.
Prologue-Part 1, Chapter 3 Analysis
In the Prologue to My Losing Season, author Pat Conroy sets out to introduce himself and the subject of his memoir to readers. While the subject seems to be a specific one, focusing on his 1966-67 basketball team, it is actually a much more comprehensive work about the sport of basketball in general, The Citadel, and Conroy’s growth from an abused boy to a famous writer. Each of these aspects of the memoir are evident in Conroy’s sweeping overview provided in the Prologue. Additionally, Conroy uses the Prologue to establish the deeply personal reasons that the book was conceived and the deeply personal memories that have come from it.
Each of the three primary themes of My Losing Season appear in the Prologue as well. The value of losing is stated explicitly by Conroy in the closing sentence of the Prologue, where he writes, “though I learned some things from the games we won that year, I learned much, much more from loss” (14). Coming-of-age as a primary theme is equally evident in the Prologue. Explaining his growth during the year, Conroy writes, “because I grew up a complete stranger to myself, I did not even seem to catch a glimpse of a determined young man who developed in secret during college” (3). A final theme of the book is Conroy’s usage of basketball as a refuge. Concerning this, Conroy argues that “basketball provided a legitimate physical outlet for all the violence and rage and sadness I later brought to the writing table. The game kept me from facing the ruined boy who played basketball instead of killing his father” (6).
In the first three chapters of My Losing Season, Conroy establishes his linear timeline as the 1966-67 Citadel basketball team prepares to get its season underway on October 15, 1966. As the team prepares for its first practice, Conroy sets a mood of tension among the players that is obviously related to the pending arrival of head coach Mel Thompson, whom the players seem to fear greatly but have little respect for. Chapter 1 is both introduces the players on the team and reveals the comradery and ambiance that exists in the locker room. While Conroy has a sense of excitement and optimism for the season, his teammates don’t seem to share his enthusiasm.
Chapter 2 becomes less personal and more about basketball, as Conroy writes using the vernacular of basketball to describe the team’s first practice. Thompson also begins to surface as a main figure in the memoir in these chapters, as Conroy begins to hint about his personality and the rapport that his players have with him. He continually uses words such as impatient, caustic, inflexible, and volcanic to describe his coach. While Chapter 3 is primarily a recap of the team’s first game of the season, versus Auburn University, it also keys readers into the fact that the memoir is about much more than this single basketball season.
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