New book goes inside UC-XU Shootout rivalry

Few have more intimate knowledge of Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout history than veteran Cincinnati sportswriter Bill Koch, who has written a new book about the storied Cincinnati-Xavier men's basketball rivalry.

The book is entitled “Inside The Crosstown Shootout.” Koch has covered the Shootout for more than three decades as a writer for the former Cincinnati Post, Cincinnati Enquirer and now the UC website GoBearcats.com. Koch covered both XU and UC as a beat writer and columnist for the Post, and then was UC beat writer again for The Enquirer.

With the annual Shootout set for Thursday at UC’s Fifth Third Arena (7 p.m., ESPN2), Koch spoke to The Enquirer about his book.

“In recent years I had thought about writing a book about the Crosstown Shootout, and frankly I was surprised that someone hadn’t already done it,” Koch said. “Last year, I hit on the idea of talking to the players and coaches who have been part of it.”

Koch did not want to do a straight history of the series, such as the top 25 games or greatest moments.

“Rather than doing just kind of an oral history, I just talked to them about what it was like to play in the game,” Koch said. “I asked them what they knew about it if they were from out of town, which most of them are. I asked what they remember from it now, what it means for them to have played in it, what it’s really like to walk on the court to play their first one, to feel the pressure.”

Koch’s first interview for the book was with Terry Nelson, the former UC player who famously predicted the Bearcats would blow out the Musketeers in the Shootout of Jan. 29, 1992. UC won 93-75.

Nelson now works in the UC athletic department, and occasionally works as an analyst on UC and television and radio broadcasts.

“I talked with Terry Nelson in the lobby of a hotel in Dallas last January on a road trip,” Koch said. “Then I did (former XU coach) Pete Gillen next. I covered Pete in his first year at Xavier, and I called him on the phone. Then I found out how to get hold of (former XU coach) Bob Staak. I covered him at Xavier too.”

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Staak turned the XU program around in the early 1980s, and his successors helped build the Musketeers into a national presence. Koch decided to start his book with the 1979-80 season, when XU beat UC 77-69 at Riverfront Coliseum (now US Bank Arena). The XU victory snapped an eight-game UC winning streak in the series.

“Before 1980, UC had won 22 of the last 24 games and it really wasn’t much of a rivalry,” Koch said. “Xavier won that game at Riverfront Coliseum, and that kind of changed the whole series from that point on. That’s when Xavier started catching up to UC."

UC had long been the big boy in town, including two NCAA titles (1961 and ’62) and five consecutive Final Four appearances from 1959-63. XU was mainly known for its 1958 NIT (National Invitation Tournament) championship, at the time a much bigger deal than today’s NIT. When Staak arrived at XU in the 1979-80 season, the program had been down for years.

UC still holds a 49-34 edge in the Shootout series. But, XU since 1980 holds a 22-15 advantage. Most recently, XU has won the last three meetings and seven of the last nine.

“I talked to Bob Staak about what beating UC in 1980 meant to the program, how he made that a priority if he was going to make the program relevant in Cincinnati,” Koch said. “He knew he had to beat UC.”

Koch unearthed many personal stories, one involving former Elder High School and XU player Pat Kelsey. Kelsey is now head coach at Winthrop.

“Pat Kelsey transferred from Wyoming to Xavier, and there is a story about the first time he met (former XU coach) Skip Prosser and how he wound up on the team,” Koch said. “There is a lot of Skip Prosser in the book on both sides, because he was so well-loved.”

Prosser was Musketeers head coach from 1994-2001. Prosser was head coach at Wake Forest when he died of a heart attack in 2007, at age 56.

Koch met with many former UC and XU players and coaches in person, and spoke with others by phone. Koch drove to Morgantown, West Virginia to interview former UC coach Bob Huggins for the book, with Huggins now head coach at West Virginia.

“He talked about his friendship with Skip Prosser, because he really liked and respected Skip,” Koch said. “He talked about how the Xavier game wasn’t as important to them as most people thought it was. He thought the media made a big deal of it. He said UC was more focused on beating Louisville because they wanted to be like Louisville was, playing a national schedule and being nationally ranked. He didn’t think they could do that just by beating Xavier.”

Koch interviewed many key Shootout figures from the last 30-plus years, but not everyone wanted to talk. One was former UC player Yancy Gates, a main participant in the infamous December 10, 2011 brawl between the teams at XU.

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“Yancy Gates wouldn’t do it,” Koch said. “I couldn’t get (former XU star) David West to do it. Those are a couple of guys I would have really liked to have.”

The brawl, naturally, could not be ignored.

“There is a lot about the fight from 2011 in the book, but I didn’t want to make it all about the fight, “ Koch said. “There are a lot more stories than that.”

Since leaving The Enquirer in 2014, Koch has been working for GoBearcats.com. Koch still covers most UC football and men’s basketball games for the website.

WHERE TO BUY: “Inside The Crosstown Shootout” is available for $19.95 at local Joseph-Beth Booksellers (Rookwood Commons, and Crestview Hills, Ky.), UC’s DuBois bookstore, the UC bookstore on campus, the XU All For One Shops, and The Booksellers on Fountain Square. The book can be ordered online at insidetheshootout.com.

NOTEWORTHY: UC improved from No. 20 to a season-high No. 19 Monday in the weekly Associated Press Top 25. Xavier fell from No. 22 to No. 24.

- UC senior point guard Troy Caupain was named Monday to the weekly American Athletic Conference honor roll. In two games, Caupain averaged a team-high 16.0 points while shooting 10-of-20 from the field, with 5.5 assists and 5.0 rebounds per game.

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No. 19 Cincinnati vs. No. 24 Xavier

Tipoff: 7 p.m. Thursday at Fifth Third Arena (13,176)

TV/Radio: ESPN2/WLW-AM (700), WKRC-AM (550)

Records: UC 17-2, XU 14-5