Rush Bradburd is the author of four previous books. He spent 14 seasons coaching Division I basketball, including eight at the University of Texas–El Paso, where his teams battled Colorado State and Air Force each year. He was a writing professor at New Mexico State for 16 years. “Big Time,” set at the fictional Coors State University, is his first novel.

SunLit: Tell us the background of this book. What inspired you to write it? Where does the story/theme originate?

Rus Bradburd: I made an unusual transition, leaving Division I basketball to try to become a writer. I was immediately struck by the stark contrast between academia and life as a major college coach. I was dealing with the strange alliance between the purpose of a university and the demands of basketball and football. As I sat through faculty meetings, I realized that I either had to laugh at the mentality or bang my head against the wall.

SunLit: Place this excerpt in context. How does it fit into the book as a whole? Why did you choose it?

Bradbeard: Chapter One kicks off the novel: the reader lands in the middle of the madness at Coors State University, where two history professors are getting the popcorn ready for the first home game. The rebranding has already taken place, the faculty must work for football to survive – and one of the professors is essentially declaring war, in a philosophical sense, against major sports, hoping to pull the other pros along.

SunLit: You had a long and interesting career in basketball before leaving to teach writing and self-publish many works. Tell us a little about your sporting background and why you switched.

Bradbeard: I was the worst player in the history of North Park College, but I loved basketball and didn’t want a real job. Even as a Division I coach at the University of Texas – El Paso and New Mexico State, I brought a book on the plane and never turned on the TV in a hotel. I was a trapped reader who spilled over – the way most coaches are ex-players who spilled over into coaching.

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Each week, The Colorado Sun and Colorado Humanities & Center For The Book feature an excerpt from a Colorado book and an interview with the author. Explore the SunLit archives at coloradosun.com/sunlit.

How did your experience coaching Division I basketball influence your work with “Big Time”?

Bradbeard: I worked for two of the greatest coaches in the history of the game, Don Haskins and Lou Henson. In retrospect, I was always more interested in the stories behind the coaches, players and games than the stats or strategies. I can’t draw any of Lou Henson’s brilliant plays, but I have many captivating stories about him.

SunLit: The landscape of major college athletics has changed dramatically in recent years with the advent of the NIL, conference realignment and other factors. Did that affect your approach to the novel?

Bradbeard: I had a sense of urgency when I started writing it in 2011: I wanted to get it done before the era of major college sports ended and the satire became obsolete. Of course, because of NIL and television, the sport is more dominant than ever. And I’m conflicted, like so many people who love sports. They are destroying the mission of our universities, but they are so amazing to watch. I’m like the alcoholic who walks past the pub and looks in the window: I might go in just for a beer.

“Big Time”

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SunLit: “Big Time” describes a fictional Colorado university, and at a time when the University of Colorado football program has undergone massive change under “Coach Prime” Deion Sanders. Was it a coincidence? Can readers see any parallels between CU’s new direction and what takes place in the book?

Bradbeard: Total coincidence that I set the story at “Coors State University.” Would it be Colorado State or Boulder? Well, it doesn’t really matter. But Coach Sanders has helped make the book current and urgent. Thank him for me, okay? Wait, I’ll just send him a Coors State U hoodie.

SunLit: Your novel really captures college athletics in a fascinating and tumultuous period. What do you hope readers take away from “Big Time”?

Bradbeard: The book began as a humorous critique of the expansion of major sports on our campuses. But in the end it is just as much about the impotence and inability of the faculty and administration to resist the changes. In 1939, the president of the University of Chicago released – they were in the Big Ten! – football. I think humor is a good tool to reveal things. Stephen Colbert, in my opinion, is as good a news source as any.

SunLit: What books influenced you the most when writing “Big Time?”

Bradbeard: I read David Meggyesy’s memoir “Out of Their League” when it first came out and I was a young teenager. I’ve read it five times since then, and it’s more relevant than ever, even if there’s nothing funny about his exposition.

But I loved “Straight Man” by Richard Russo, which mocks academia, and Tom Perrotta’s novels, and “Catch-22” and Karen Russell’s “Swamplandia.” Oddly enough, the British TV series “Detectorists” was a big influence on my two flawed history majors who worked at the popcorn stand.

SunLit: Tell us about your next project.

Bradbeard: I’m completing (I hope) a non-fiction book about Syrian and Ukrainian refugee children in Northern Ireland who assimilate through Gaelic football.

A few more quick questions

SunLit: Which do you like more when working on a book – writing or editing?

Bradbeard: They are two different muscles, the creation and revision muscles. It would be a tie, and we would have to go to overtime to get the answer. Certainly I spend more time revising by far.

SunLit: What is the first text – regardless of age – that you remember being proud of?

Bradbeard: My first book, “Paddy on the Hardwood,” is a memoir about coaching my Irish basketball team to dead last while struggling to learn the Irish fiddle. It is my most personal book. That’s my story.

SunLit: Which three writers, from any era, would you invite into a great discussion about literature and writing?

Bradbeard: Among the best moments of my life were sitting at the kitchen table of Robert Boswell and Antonya Nelson, who were my teachers at New Mexico State. I learned so much from hearing them talk about writing – so maybe you can get James Baldwin to wrap things up? They live in Colorado now, so the pressure is on you to arrange all of this.

SunLit: Do you have a favorite quote about writing?

Bradbeard: I oppose slogans and aphorisms, which sound like guidance posters to me. But my wife, the great poet Connie Voisine, told me in 2002, “You have to sit in the chair for three hours a day and write.” Simple enough. It helped me to first think of writing as a physical act.

SunLit: What does the current collection of books on your home shelves tell visitors about you?

Bradbeard: That I am far behind in my reading. However, I lean towards audio books that you can’t see on my nightstand, but they help me keep up.

SunLit: Soundtrack or Silence? What is the background sound that helps you write?

Bradbeard: Oh, definitely silence. I am a serious fiddler and I cannot devote myself to both music and books.

SunLit: What music do you listen to for pure enjoyment?

Bradbeard: Irish traditional or American string bands.

SunLit: What event, and at what age, convinced you that you wanted to be a writer?

Bradbeard: Like many people of my generation, at the age of 20 I read “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac, and I used to reread it every spring, which seemed like the right time to embrace the novel. I haven’t read it since I quit training to be a writer, and I fear how it might hold up now.

SunLit: Biggest printer fear?

Bradbeard: I’m not a great writer, but I think I’ve had good ideas for books. I’m worried I’ll run out of good ideas.

SunLit: Greatest writing satisfaction?

Bradbeard: I got a very late start and stopped training in 2000 at the age of 40, so I’m just glad my radical career leap didn’t leave me in the mud by the side of the road.