Hoopraker provides commentary on the basketball of the Big Ten Conference and the exceptional high schools of Chicagoland. Through the perspectives of lifelong Big Ten basketball observers, Hoopraker offers comprehensive first person reports and incisive game analysis.
What exactly is a Hoopraker? A hoopraker (n. hoop-rak-er) (NY, NY: 2006) is a writer, filmmaker or other downtrodden individual who investigates and exposes the multitude of societal issues effecting college basketball. These include exemplary effort, player development, coaching incompetence, institutional malaise, child labor in fraternity houses, unsanitary conditions in collegiate dining halls, and fraudulent claims and hypocrisy related to similar matters. Generally, hoopraking tends to be targeted at the established basketball forces within the Big Ten Conference.
The term hoopraker is a derivative of the word muckraker (Chicago: 1913). While beginning in the late 1800s to early 1900s Muckrakers were investigative reporters and writers, the term is also applicable to contemporary writers who follow in their tradition and craft.
In the early 1900s, muckrakers shed light on societal issues by writing books and articles for popular magazines and newspapers such as Cosmopolitan, The Independent, and McClure’s. Ralph Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed (1965) and Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, (1906) are well known books written in the muckraking tradition which, respectively, led to significant reforms in automotive manufacturing and meatpacking in the United States.
Similarly, yet different, Hoopraker seeks to ostensibly serve the public interest and those components of society consumed by college basketball, while thoroughly relishing every moment they spend observing basketball. Hoopraker seeks to provide incisive commentary and analysis free from the the restraints of corporate and mainstream media.
A break from mainstream sports media. Rake on.
DJ Elsass, Editor/Writer. Plays upright bass in the avant garde jazz ensemble Uwe Blab
TD Lawlor, Editor/Writer. Pines for the splintered seats of St. John’s Arena, capacity 13,276
Header photograph and artwork courtesy of Jane C. Scharer