PROFESSOR DISCOVERS THE `BEST' TEACHER ON SOUTHEAST CAMPUS

Imagine Ishmael in the belly of Ron Shumate's fiery halftime locker room.

That's what Southeast Missouri State University English professor Robert Hamblin felt like when he was working on his book, "Win or Win: A Season With Ron Shumate."

"I was an observer listening and recording what was going on, but I was supposed to go unnoticed," said Hamblin. "In one way I thought of myself as just another piece of furniture. In another way I felt like Ishmael, the eye in Moby Dick," said Hamblin.

When Hamblin first thought of the idea for a book about the move from Division II to Division I and the Southeast basketball program, he wondered how Shumate would react to his proposal.

"I didn't really know Ron, except as a fan watching him from the stands," said Hamblin. "I talked to my wife Kaye about it and she seemed to think I should pursue it. She finally told me to just call him and see what he thought."

Hamblin made the call with some trepidation. "I remember my hand was shaking when I first started talking to him," said Hamblin.

"If you look at him during a game, Ron Shumate can seem like an intimidating person. But actually the more I got to know him, the more I realized there was another side to him that was anything but intimidating. Once he got to trust me, about midway through the season, he told me quite a lot about himself and his coaching career."

Shumate talked about his youth in Portsmouth, Ohio. He revealed how he used athletics to overcome low self-esteem amid the rigors of a modest family income.

He recounted his mercurial coaching experience at Tennessee-Chattanooga. He outlined how it felt to reach the Division II summit, only to find himself in hot water two years later following a trivial NCAA violation by his assistant coaches. The coaches gave a recruit a T-shirt and a meal, thereby violating NCAA rules. When Shumate refused to let his assistants go, UT-Chattanooga decided to encourage Shumate to resign or be fired. He opted for the former.

Once Shumate agreed to cooperate with Hamblin's project, he let him know there would be complete freedom to witness the Southeast program from virtually every angle.

"He told me if we were going to do something like this, it should be done right," said Hamblin. "As I recall, there was only one practice that I wasn't allowed to attend. Everything else was open to me. That includes team meetings, pre-game, halftime and post-game talks in the locker room. Everything."

Hamblin, who took a semester-long sabbatical to travel with the Southeast basketball team, knew he didn't have to worry about finding interesting material.

"There was so much in front of me," He said. "There was the move from Division II to Division I. Ron Shumate is a very colorful and controversial coach who isn't afraid to speak his mind. And there was the move to the Show Me Center after the team was a dominant force in Division II."

Added Hamblin, "I wanted this to be more than just a book about a basketball coach and his program. I know Ron thought it would be all about him. But that would be like saying Moby Dick is just about a whale. Yes, that's true, but there's much more to it.

"I wanted it to be part biography, part history and part commentary. It is mainly about Shumate, of course, but it is also about the role of athletics in academia and in society in general."

A native of rural Mississippi, Hamblin has considered sports to be much more than games people play.

He learned that as early as his youth, bouncing a baseball off of the Nathan Bedford Memorial. "I thought the Civil War was fought to provide me with something to field line drives," quipped Hamblin.

"Sports is a reflection of society," he said. "It tells us so much about who we are."

From the beginning, Hamblin thought he would just be the learned professor providing insight into the world of athletics.

After all, he is the poetry editor for Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature. He even taught a course titled "Sport and Society."

What he ultimately experienced, however, was a keener awareness of what it takes to achieve success on the Division I collegiate level. He also encountered someone he respected as much as any of his colleagues.

"When I saw how much time Ron spent on his preparation leading into every practice and game, I knew I was looking at a very good teacher," said Hamblin. "He cares very deeply about the welfare of his players.

"And even though he puts them through the most intense practices I've ever seen, he will defend them to the hilt. It becomes a love-hate relationship. He has to be the bad guy to get the most out of his players, but when they graduate they come back and hug each other. It's a very moving scene to witness."

Hamblin believes what Shumate teaches on the basketball court and in his program is every bit as relevant as the messages he imparts in the classroom.

"I think Ron Shumate is probably the best teacher at this university," said Hamblin. "He goes over every possible situation so there is never a surprise in the game. His players are as informed about what they're supposed to do as any in the country."

Hamblin spent twice as long as he anticipated on his project. "I thought I would get it all done in a year, but actually it took more than two years," he said. "As it turned out, the period of gestation, where I just stepped back and looked at everything I had, proved to be the best thing for me. The book actually wrote itself. All I had to do was figure out where to put the chapters."

When everything was completed, Hamblin was left with a curious impression.

"I spent nearly three years with this man and still felt like I didn't really know him as much as I thought I would," he said. "He's a very interesting and complex individual. He's an enigma."

Sound like Ishmael talking about Ahab?

Hardly. Unlike Ahab, Shumate has found a way to turn his obsession into a winning situation for his players as well as Southeast fans.