Keene State Featured In New Basketball Book; 'Floor Burns' Chronicles Hoop In NAIA Days

Keene State College is featured in a new book on small-college basketball in New England, authored by Mike Whaley, an award-winning Maine/New Hampshire sportswriter.

The book centers on the lesser-known college sports organization, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).

Sprawling, intimate, and colorful, Floor Burns: A Wild Journey Across the Forgotten Backroads of NAIA Basketball in New England highlights all six New England states, starting in New Britain, Connecticut, in the 1940s and wrapping up in present-day Boston at tiny Fisher College, which opened in 1903, six years before Keene State.

Keene State teams competed in the NAIA from 1970 to 1981 with considerable success, including 18 conference titles, 10 NAIA district crowns, 12 national tournament appearances, and 27 individual All-American honors.

Rindge’s Franklin Pierce University, known as Franklin Pierce College during its NAIA days, New England College in Henniker, and Nathaniel Hawthorne and Notre Dame colleges, now closed, are also chronicled in the book.

Stories about Glenn Theulen, the late Owl men’s basketball coach, and talented multi-sport athlete Paul Trocki are told.

Whaley interviewed a slew of former Owl student-athletes, including Al Hicks, Mike Theulen, Kevin Savage, and Joe Yaris. One-time men’s soccer coach and sports information director Ron Butcher, whose 1977 squad was national runner-up, and former team manager Dale Ramsay are also included.

Whaley said conversing with more than 120 people was the most enjoyable part of the book-writing process.

“Listening to stories and writing about those stories is one of the things I’ll take away from this,” he said. “That and the eye-opening recall that so many of the people I interviewed had as they talked about stuff that happened 30, 40, or 50 years ago … or even longer.”

Published by Bondcliff Books of Littleton, N.H., the book is available online at www.shopball603.com and select bookstores throughout New England.

Whaley began his journalism career in 1987 and was named N.H. Sportswriter of the Year twice. He played NAIA basketball at Lyndon State College from 1979 to 1983, an era of short shorts and no 3-point line or shot clock. Floor Burns is his second book.

Whaley lives in Portland, Maine, with his wife, Jill Rosenblum.

The book can be purchased locally at Toadstool Bookstore, which has locations in Keene and Peterborough.