Husky Hero! | Jim Calhoun Returns to UConn for Book Signings

Calhoun retired from UConn 14 years ago, but many UConn fans said they never forgot his glory days and the winning men’s basketball tradition he established at the university. Nearly 125 Husky-lovers lined up in the UConn campus bookstore recently to meet the Hall of Fame basketball coach and get a signed copy of his new book. The book, “More Than a Game: How the UConn Basketball Dynasty Was Built on a Culture of Caring,” was written with Dom Amore, a Hartford Courant sports columnist. At the Nov. 3, 2025, book-signing event, fan after fan approached a seated Calhoun and asked him to autograph his book first. Then the conversation shifted instantly with fans shaking his hand and thanking him for providing great hoop memories and building the UConn men’s winning basketball legacy. Calhoun signed books and posed for pictures with fans for nearly 90 minutes. He autographed more than a 150 books, dozens of basketball jerseys and posters, two basketballs and a piece of the parquet flooring from the original UConn Fieldhouse basketball court. “Thank you for all you’ve done,” said Michele Zommer. She squeezed Calhoun’s shoulders tightly during a photo together, drawing a laugh from the coach and the crowd. “We love you very much,” she said. Calhoun’s book explores his relationships with a dozen former UConn players, but also includes stories of former players from earlier coaching jobs at Dedham High School and Northeastern University in Boston, MA. Calhoun was 26 years old when he started his first coaching job at Old Lyme High School in Old Lyme, CT in 1968. He later coached at Westport High School in Westport, MA in the early 1970s. Six years after he retired from UConn in 2012, Calhoun became the first men’s head basketball coach at the Division III University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford, CT. He retired from USJ in 2021 after coaching for four seasons. The book, published by Connecticut-based Woodhall Press, is available on woodhallpress.com and Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites.