HellGate-Triborough Books

A boy with a withered leg finds athletic acclaim and endures the heart-rending uncertainties of young love.

In 1942, seven-year-old Pat returns home after a nineteen-month hospital stay caused by polio. His Pop, an ex-prizefighter, teaches him how to stand up to bullies. Pat earns a “don’t mess with the crip” rep in his working-class neighborhood and later at a tough Manhattan trade school. After high school, he can’t find work in his electrician trade due to his disability. He goes back to school to qualify as a mechanical/electrical draftsman, gets a great job as such, buys a ’39 Chevy, and despite his disability, attracts Peggy and falls madly in love. Meanwhile, Pat joins a YMCA gymnastics team and adapts his feeble leg to the sport. His team wins the 1956 YMCA National Championship. In the wake of the win, Pat is invited to join the University of Illinois gymnastics team. He leaves NYC and his beloved Peggy. Rejected by the university as academically unqualified, Pat, disheartened but determined, goes to Uni High to prepare for a high school equivalency exam. He passes and is finally accepted. Peggy then visits. Disaster! He’s jilted, gets mononucleosis, and his gymnastics performance is headlined in the student newspaper as “... not living up to expectations.” Pat’s life implodes. So begins this is a story of grit, luck, disappointment, and joy as Pat copes with his disability while in pursuit of love and athletic success. The story is also peppered with NYC and college adventures, both funny and sad, and provides an insight into 1950s and 1960s collegiate sport. But will Pat manage to woo and win his childhood sweetheart and achieve his longed-for athletic success?