Vukovich: The Man Who Wouldn't Lift (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780998729824)

Angelo Angelopolous was born and raised in Indianapolis and spent most of his working career with the city's afternoon newspaper, The Indianapolis News. He was an outstanding writer who took advantage of the afternoon paper's generous deadlines to tell stories like nobody else in the history of the city's newspapers. He was living a charmed life. Hired by the News directly out of college at Butler University, he interrupted his career to enlist in the Navy after World War II broke out. He became a pilot, returning to civilian life and the News after the war's end. He married a local model and was a charismatic, popular figure in both the local sporting world and social circles. In 1955, however, he was diagnosed with leukemia, which he contracted after flying over bombing sites in Japan. He handled his fate gracefully, remaining optimistic about a recovery and working up to the final month of his life in 1962. He was prominent enough that his passing was reported in newspapers throughout the country. This book was his major focus after leaving the News in 1956 to become a freelance writer and will stand as the ultimate testimony to his career. It also carries an air of mystique because it never reached publication, for uncertain reasons, despite a contract with publisher Bobbs Merrill. A few copies of the manuscript were known to exist over the years, but only one - kept in a closet by Angelopolous' nephew - was kept.