The Sixteenth Street Chronicles

Here, Missouri Hall of Famer and sports educator Jim Aziere has crafted a remarkable true story, a classically American story, about an essential part of his youthful struggles and our own, featuring a one-of-a-kind Kansas City parochial high school called De La Salle Academy that flourished in the years between wars, 1941-1959, a time of great social strife in our city. It's an eye-opening tale of the seismic shifts in America in the 1960s, about a unique group of Christian educators who managed to integrate a high school before Brown v. Board of Education but could not keep the dream alive beyond Watergate. You're sure to find Jim's story about his years at De La Salle, where he was first a student and later faculty, highly affecting and personal as he recounts his many life lessons, survives a learning disability, and uses athletic skill and determination to excel despite everything. It's bound to touch and inspire anyone who's ever felt more at home on AstroTurf than in a classroom.