Susan Whitney/The Gazette John McNamara (left) and David Elfin co-wrote "Cole Classics! Maryland Basketball's Leading Men & Moments", a book recalling the greatest moments in the history of the University of Maryland's Cole Field House.

The long-time friends and sportswriters collaborated on a newly released book entitled "Cole Classics!". The 128-page book chronicles the 46-year history of Cole Field House, revisiting the top moments and players to grace the arena. Maryland's basketball teams will play at the newly built Comcast Center starting next year.

"Cole Classics!" opens with a foreword by current University of Maryland men's basketball coach Gary Williams and takes readers on a brief historical tour of the bigger events hosted by Cole Field House, such as the National Invitational track meet in the 1970s and a concert by Elvis Presley in 1974.

The rest of the book looks at the life and careers of Maryland's top players from Bob Kessler, who helped open Cole Field House in 1955, to current stars Juan Dixon and Lonny Baxter.

Elfin and McNamara also look at legendary coaches Bud Millikan and Lefty Driesell and personalities such as play-by-play radio announcer Johnny Holliday, who has been with the team for 22 years. Mixed in are the top-10 games ever played in Cole such as Maryland's 31-30 win over then No. 2 South Carolina in 1971, a game that put the Terrapins on the national map, to last year's 102-67 victory over Virginia, which helped propel Maryland into its longest NCAA Tournament run.

Other tidbits in the book include an All-Time Cole Team, Cole statistics and Terps leaders during the Cole area.

"It's a labor of love, " said Elfin, who lives in Bethesda and works for the Washington Times. "We don't take sabbaticals to do it. We do this all ourselves. It's more of a celebration of basketball. We both grew up rooting for Maryland. I covered them in the 1980s. It's a special place for a lot of people."

Elfin wrote a similar book entitled "Hail to RFK" to commemorate the long-time home of the Washington Redskins and after seeing how well that booked was received, he decided to keep an eye open for another such opportunity which came in the form of "Cole Classics!".

"I went to Rick [Snider, the book's publisher] with the idea and I told him I really would like somebody who is covering Maryland now," said Elfin, who has written three books on the Redskins. "Someone with the connections, who knows the current people and John was the perfect person."

So Elfin decided to give McNamara a call at home.

"It happened a year ago February, February 2000," said McNamara, who grew up in Bethesda, but who currently lives in Silver Spring and works for the Annapolis Capital newspaper. "Maryland went down and won at Cameron two years in a row. It was the first one of the two. The phone rang after it was over and it was David. I had known him since 1983 [when both worked at the Washington Post].

"He was calling to say the team's going well and the building's going to close soon because of Comcast and why don't we do a book about Cole Field House," added McNamara, who graduated from Maryland and who has covered the Terrapins since 1980. "He got me thinking immediately about the games and names and the things I wanted to touch on. We started tossing ideas back and forth through the summer and started to get the ball rolling that fall."

McNamara and Elfin said the majority of the book was done from last spring through the summer after the pair negotiated with Maryland for the right to sell the book at Cole Field House and for use of their pictures in the book. It went on sale in November.

"It was a blast," McNamara said of writing the book. "Everybody was so helpful and happy to talk about the days gone by and everyone was enthusiastic. I had great luck getting in touch with Keith Booth, Ernie Graham and Albert King."

The book is published by 21st Century Online Publishing and retails for $9.95. It can be purchased by calling 301-535-5592 or online at coleclassics@cs.com.