Do you need a last-minute gift idea for a Kentucky sports fan? This could help.

If, like me, you still have holiday gift shopping left to do and if you are searching for a present(s) for a Kentucky sports fan, you are in luck.

There are multiple new books out that should be of unique interest to those who follow sports in the commonwealth.

Below is a list of some of the titles available to stuff the stockings of Kentucky sports fans (books are listed alphabetically by title):

‘Forever Crazy About the Cats’

▪ Full title: “Forever Crazy About the Cats: An Improbable Journey of a Kentucky Sportswriter Overcoming Adversity”

▪ Publisher: Amazon KDP

▪ Meet the author: Jamie Vaught is a professor at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College who moonlights as a sportswriter. He is the author of five previous books on UK basketball.

▪ The idea that led to a book: Vaught says professional colleagues encouraged him to share some of his personal story about how he’s been able to work as a sportswriter while living with a substantial hearing impairment.

“They knew I was severely hard of hearing. They kept telling me that people would enjoy reading personal stories about my struggles with severe impairment while covering UK basketball and football,” Vaught shared in an email.

▪ What makes the book unique: Along with chapters on notable UK sports figures such as Joe B. Hall, Dan Issel, Tubby Smith, Oscar Tshiebwe, Maci Morris and others, Vaught shares his own story.

“It wasn’t an easy project to do, as I had to write outside of my comfort zone,” he wrote. “I would rather write about interesting athletes.”

▪ The surprise you’ll find: A chapter explaining how Pittsburgh Pirates superstar Roberto Clemente befriended Vaught when the author was a child.

▪ Purchasing info: https://www.amazon.com/Forever-Crazy-About-Cats-Sportswriter/dp/B0BMSZSW3H

‘House of Champions’

▪ Full title: “House of Champions: The Story of Kentucky Basketball’s Home Courts”

▪ Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

▪ Meet the author: Kevin Cook is a pharmaceutical sales representative from Jessamine County who has long had a passion for sports venues, including Major League Baseball ballparks.

▪ The idea that led to a book: Cook said a friend, author Doug Brunk, encouraged him in his aspiration to write a book on Kentucky basketball.

“So then it was, ‘What do you write about? Everything seems to have (already) been written about UK basketball,” Cook says. “There are plenty of books on Yankee Stadium, Wrigley Field but there is almost nothing on Memorial Coliseum, Rupp Arena, even Alumni Gym.”

▪ What makes the book unique: There are chapters written from a “you are there” perspective designed to make a reader feel as if they are at a game in each of UK’s three most-recent basketball homes.

“It lets you see what it was like to actually go to a game at Alumni Gym, at Memorial Coliseum and at the opening of Rupp Arena,” Cook says. “(The reader) will go through the whole experience, from getting their ticket, through the front door, finding their seat and then taking in an actual game.”

▪ The surprise you’ll find: The idea that became Rupp Arena was launched in a Jerry’s Restaurant over pie.

▪ Purchasing info: https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813196404/house-of-champions/

‘Kentucky Hustler’

▪ Full title: “Kentucky Hustler: The Terry Hatton Story”

▪ Publisher: Paisley Mountain Press

▪ Meet the authors: Terry Hatton was a member of Lafayette High School’s 1979 boys’ basketball Kentucky state championship team who went on to a colorful career as an international ticket scalper/broker. Jeremy Rice is a poet, fiction writer and essayist.

▪ The idea that led to a book: A magazine article written by a former employee of Hatton’s, Travis Pilling, on the inner workings of international-level ticket brokering planted the seeds for a longer exploration of that mysterious world.

Says Hatton: “My original thought was I am just going to write this book, put it in my sock drawer and, when I’m dead, my grandkids will pick it up and they’ll see, ‘Hey, this is what grandpa was.’”

▪ What makes the book unique: In highly readable form, this is an inside look at how those who make their living buying and selling tickets to major sports events such as the Super Bowl or the World Cup go about their business.

Hatton says its also about his attempts to find his own path and live up to the legacy of his father, ex-Kentucky basketball star Vernon Hatton.

“You never stop trying to please your Dad,” Terry Hatton says. “Even though he wasn’t that thrilled with the kind of work I was doing, I made a name for myself.”

▪ The surprise you’ll find: Entertaining anecdotes involving Henry Aaron, Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West.

▪ Purchasing info: https://www.josephbeth.com/search/site/Terry%20Hatton

‘Shattering the Ceiling’

▪ Full title: “Phyllis George: Shattering the Ceiling”

▪ Meet the authors: Lenny Shulman and Paul Volponi are former colleagues at the Blood-Horse. Volponi now writes young adult novels, while Shulman has written two books on horse racing.

▪ The idea that led to a book: Once the coronavirus pandemic hit, the eventual co-authors were each looking for a literary project to work on through the shutdown. The death in May 2020 of George, the 1971 Miss America winner, barrier-breaking CBS sportscaster and Kentucky First Lady sparked their interest in her story.

“The farther we got into (researching George’s past), the more fascinating her life came to be,” Shulman said. “Just the juxtaposition, in an era of women’s liberation, (George) goes from a beauty queen, kind of looked down on, to a hero, a trailblazer for women and their careers.”

▪ What makes the book unique: Provides a stark look at the pushback George faced once CBS hired her in 1975 to co-host “The NFL Today.”

“(George) went through a lot of (crap) when she got that job, just the whole male chauvinistic thing,” Shulman says. “She was getting hate mail.”

▪ The surprise you’ll find: For the entire second half of her life, George lived with what Shulman describes as “a terrible illness that she kept hidden from everybody.”

▪ Purchasing info: https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813195810/phyllis-george/