Among many renowned episodes from the life span and career of men’s basketball coach Dean Smith, few loom as large as his recruitment of Charlie Scott, the first African American scholarship athlete on the University of NEW YORK at Chapel Hill. Drawn together by college basketball in a time of momentous change, Smith and Scott helped transform a university or college, a community, and the racial landscaping of sports in the South. But there is much more to the story than is often told. In Game about Game Changers: Dean Smith, Charlie Scott, and the Period That Transformed a Southern University Town Changers, Artwork Chansky reveals an intense saga of race, university sport, and small-town politics. At the center were two teenagers, Scott and Smith, both destined for greatness but attempting through challenges on / off the courtroom, among them the storms of civil rights protest and the painfully sluggish integration of a Chapel Hill much less intensifying than its popularity today might suggest.

Drawing on extensive personal interviews and a number of other sources, Chansky calls for readers beyond the basketball court to highlight the city that supported Smith and Scott during these demanding years, from assistant basketball coach John Lotz to influential pastor the Reverend Robert Seymour to pioneering African American mayor Howard Lee.