Rich Sutter, ’84, gives an inside look into the game of basketball from a former player and current coach in his first book, “A Bronx Basketball Tale.”
The book unwinds a young boy’s love for the game, growing up in the Bronx, and the pursuit of greatness as a player and coach. It’s a story of conflict, understood best with the realization that anything pure and good cannot be held safely in the hands of fearful people. The account includes the profound impact of two St. Bonaventure graduates during Sutter’s basketball youth.
Bonaventure alums of the late 1960s and early 1970s will recognize the late Dan Monaghan, ’71, a popular student leader and 4th Dev East RA. Monaghan, along with the late Neal “Coach” Johnson, ’73, who also was from New York City, impacted Sutter’s early life and enrollment at St. Bonaventure. Dan and Neal were head and assistant coaches of Sutter’s varsity team at Sacred Heart High School in Yonkers.
Sutter often says he was profoundly impacted by the mission of a school he had never seen.
Sutter wrote the book under the pen name Danny Monahagn, as a tribute to Monaghan.
Sutter was a student assistant basketball coach for the Bonnies under Jim O’Brien, who recognized Sutter’s connections in the New York Catholic leagues as a recruiting resource. Today, he is in his 26th season as head coach at Westfield State College in Massachusetts. He also hosts a weekly podcast called “In the Zone.”
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