Book Review: All the Dreams We’ve Dreamed

In 1972, Rus Bradburd attended Von Steuben High School. He played for one year on the Frosh-Soph basketball team, until his family moved out of state. Rus is the author of several books, some related to basketball.

All the Dreams We’ve Dreamed tells the true story of a tragic event in the life of Shawn Harrington, who was a player featured in the film, Hoop Dreams and later was an assistant basketball coach at Marshall High School the year Marshall won the state championship (2008).

In a blurb on the book cover, Chicago author Alex Kotlowitz says, “Rus Bradburd takes us on this extraordinary journey of friendship, contrition, and heroism, all in the confines of a storied basketball program on Chicago’s West Side, all amid the persistent violence of the city.”

Frances: What inspired you to write this book?  

Rus: I was very taken by Shawn Harrington’s astonishing act of heroism – in a mistaken identity shooting, he dove on top of his daughter to protect her. Ten shots were fired. One went right through the daughter’s headrest, so Shawn undoubtedly saved her life. Another hit him in the spine.   

I had coached Shawn at New Mexico State and thought his story needed to be told. But I didn’t really have a story until one of Shawn’s star players was murdered. It was in this complication – a player and coach both shot – that the story emerged. 

Because I believed it was a Chicago story, I didn’t want to go after a New York publisher, so the Chicago Review Press (and their African American issues imprint, Lawrence Hill Books) was the only press to see the pitch or manuscript. 

F: How familiar were you with the West Side neighborhood where this story takes place before you began this project? 

R: When I went to Von, the school was perhaps 15 percent African American, and all the kids came from the West Side. That’s was my first experience.  Basketball offered so many of us a window into the black community. Although I’d gone to church at a mixed church and lived on the south side until I was seven, this was the first intimate interactions I had with black kids.  I became very interested in black culture – the music, dress, speech, and of course the basketball. 

Then as a coach at UTEP and New Mexico State, I was there constantly, looking for players for our teams. 

Rus Bradburd

F: How much time did you spend in Chicago doing research and writing this book? 

R: I still live in Ravenswood every summer, so that allowed me time and proximity to do the research and interviews. 

F: Any experiences visiting your hometown stood out?  What surprised you? 

R: Marshall High School, where the book mostly takes place, was the same high school in the movie Hoop Dreams. Sadly,  much of that area has stayed the same. The violence has gotten worse, but because there are now so many trauma units, the murder rate is actually slightly improved.

F: Outside your work on this book, do you still follow Chicago public high school basketball?  

R: Not much.  With the onslaught of “charter schools” and being in New Mexico where I teach, it’s hard to do. 

All the Dreams We’ve Dreamed is available on Amazon.

I also reviewed Rus’s previous book, Forty Minutes of Hell.