Chapter 8 Summary

During the first basketball game of the season, somebody trips Sonny, and he smashes into the wall of the Paducah gym and is knocked unconscious. He feigns a coma as long as he can, but the coach catches on and immediately sends him back out. Thalia is losing horribly. Mr. Wean, the Paducah home-economics teacher cum referee, fails to identify an elbow to Lester Malone's groin as an intentional foul, and Sonny is so angered that he throws the ball at the back of Mr. Wean's head and knocks him out. This makes Sonny a Thalia celebrity, though the Thalia basketball ultimately loses to Paducah 14 to 121. The coach immediately falls asleep on the bus, because football is the only sport that really counts for him. Sonny tries his luck with the pretty but prudish sophomore he has had his eye on, and his...