Heartland

From the New York Times bestselling author of Charlie Hustle and Fly Girls comes one of America’s greatest sports stories: 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 ended right there for Bird, 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. In the spring of 1975, during one of the darkest chapters of Bird’s life, King and Hodges convinced Bird to leave French Lick and play basketball at Indiana State University, a college that couldn’t even fill its arena, much less compete with Bobby Knight. Then, while no one was watching, King and Hodges built a team of players around Bird who were just like 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. By the time it was over, more than 50 million people would tune in to watch the Indiana State Sycamores play in the NCAA finals against Magic Johnson and Michigan State.

What happened that night would change college basketball and the NBA. Perhaps more importantly, it would change the members of this hardscrabble team, binding them together forever. In some ways, their one shining moment would never end.

Drawing on exclusive, in-depth interviews with players, coaches, and staffers, New York Times bestselling author and PEN American award-winning biographer Keith O’Brien offers a stirring account of the mighty Indiana State Sycamores. With its unforgettable ensemble cast, Heartland is more than just a sports book. It’s the story of a group of young men who achieved the greatest feat of all: immortality.

Author Biography

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.