Longtime local sportswriter and sports editor Mike Whaley (Rochester Courier, Rochester Times, Foster’s Daily Democrat) will appear at the Rochester Public Library on Tuesday, October 7, at 5:30 p.m. to discuss and sign copies of his new book, Floor Burns: A Wild Journey Across the Forgotten Backroads of NAIA Basketball in New England.

Whaley’s book is a sprawling, in-depth celebration of small-college basketball in the region, covering all six New England states. It is also part memoir, as Whaley played NAIA basketball himself in the early 1980s at Lyndon State College in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. It was the era of short shorts, before the 3-pointer and the shot clock.

New Hampshire figures prominently in the book, with stories on Franklin Pierce University, Keene State College, New England College, and the former Nathaniel Hawthorne and Notre Dame colleges. There is also a National Basketball Association connection to the NAIA: future NBA coaches Stan Van Gundy and Steve Clifford got their starts there—Van Gundy as head coach at Castleton State in Vermont and Clifford as a player at UMaine–Farmington. Boston Celtics legend Jungle Jim Loscutoff also coached in the NAIA, leading Boston State College from 1964 to 1976 after his pro career.

This is Whaley’s second book. His first, A Pen For All Seasons, was published in 2023 and is a collection of his favorite newspaper sports stories and columns, many about Rochester. Whaley covered sports in the Rochester area for more than 30 years. He now lives in Portland, Maine, with his wife, Jill Rosenblum.

Both of Whaley’s books are available locally at Collins Sports Center.