Photo courtesy of the U.S. Military Academy Library.
A page from West Point's yearbook, “Howitzer,” showing the Army men’s basketball team and the results from its first undefeated season in 1944.
For 18-year Mountain Brook resident Jim Noles, working as both a lawyer and an author turned out to not be so different from one another.
“[Both] are a lot of digging under rocks and double checking,” he said, “and making sure everything is backed up with facts.”
Since he started writing in 2001, he hasn’t been able to stop. Noles said he’s always been a big believer of the power of “good stories and facts,” which is what originally grabbed his attention for his most recent book. “Undefeated: A Story of Basketball, Battle, and West Point's Perfect 1944 Season” is a nonfiction story that centers on the West Point basketball team in 1944 and the graduating seniors’ eventual fight in World War II.
“It really focuses on three seniors at an interesting time at West Point,” Noles said. “These fellows went from an academy at peace to an academy at war. Because of the war, their course of studies were shortened.”
Noles, who describes himself as an “army brat who has lived all over,” spent his childhood everywhere from Germany to Virginia to Yemen, and said the army was the family business that he eventually decided to join.
He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1990 and was assigned to Fort Bragg until 1994, when he decided to go to the University of Texas School of Law. He eventually moved to Mountain Brook and began work as an environmental lawyer, which was quickly followed by his work as a historical essayist and author.
In terms of pop culture references, he describes his most recent book as “Hoosiers meets Band of Brothers.” Even though the book, published by UK-based Casemate Publishers, will be Noles’ ninth book, it will be his first book that takes place at West Point, a place he said has remained close to his heart ever since he graduated.
The story required extensive research from surviving relatives and the West Point Library alumni association, and it follows the lives of new head coach for the Cadets Ed Kelleher and three senior basketball players: team captain “Big Ed” Christl, John “Three Star” Hennessey and class president Bobby Faas. Through Kelleher’s leadership, the previously 5-10 basketball team goes on for a 15-0 record in 1944 for its first undefeated season. Since the world was at war, the team was unable to play in any championship, and the book follows the players as they head to war instead.
“I think if you’re interested in basketball, you will enjoy this book, and I think if you are interested in World War II, you will enjoy the book,” he said.
Although he’s never been a big basketball fan, his two sons started playing the sport, which sparked his interest in writing the story, in addition to the fact that West Point had never had an undefeated season before 1944. Today, the basketball arena is named after Christl.
Noles said the book features “the importance of teams and athletics at West Point” and includes old pictures at the back of the book showing the main characters and various others on the basketball court and at war. At its core, Noles said it is a story about “some young Americans at a very challenging time in our country.”
The book will release in local bookstores in late November, and the first book signing will be at Alabama Booksmith on Nov 27 at 5 p.m. A portion of the proceeds of sales from the Alabama Bookstore will go to the Wounded Warrior Project.
