UNLV basketball coach Lon Kruger pens his autograph at a book signing last Thursday at PT’s Pub near the UNLV campus. The Mtn. network was there to gather video for an upcoming segment on Kruger’s book “The Xs and Os of Success.”
Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008 | 2:10 a.m.
Lon Kruger's book, "The Xs and Os of Success."
Sun archives
Lon Kruger’s magical World Book Tour concluded last week at a PT’s Pub a short walk from the Thomas & Mack Center.
One bourbon, one beer and one book?
That’s not how the famous song by George Thorogood & The Delaware Destroyers goes, but it would have been a fitting rendition as Kruger settled in at the pub early last Thursday night.
It’s nestled on the short end of an L-shaped strip mall, between Dotty’s Casino & Spirits, Cara’s Coin Laundry, Michael’s Photolab and Flomar’s Corner Café.
The entrance of the pub winds you left, in front of a long rectangular bar with 10 plasma screens in the center.
It wasn’t Sinatra smoky. Still, Barb Kruger probably took a whiff of her husband’s blood-red Polo shirt when he got home and wondered where the fifth-year Rebels coach had been.
Thankfully, soon after Lon Kruger arrived, the Thursday night NFL game between Chicago and New Orleans was put on the house speakers, replacing some slow, morbid music.
Kruger landed at a tall pub table, at the end of two rows of five. In front of him, the football game played out. Just behind him, Villanova played St. Joe’s in college hoops.
A table over, an older couple drank beer and munched on a bucket of chicken wings. Eventually, they made small talk with Kruger, bought two books and the husband took Polaroid pictures of Kruger with his wife.
Off to the left, a dozen lonely scarlet-felt billiards tables waited for a night of action. Barb Kruger would have felt at home, since Lon took her to play pool on their first date when they attended Kansas State.
A woman from the company that published “The Xs & Os of Success” sat at the table next to his, beside two two-deep upright rows of the paperback book.
Kruger is most pleased that the majority of the proceeds of the book sales will go to local children’s charities.
A camerman for the cable television channel The Mtn. roamed around, recording video for an upcoming segment about Kruger’s first effort as an author.
Right away, a man had Kruger sign a basketball and a copy of the book. A woman bought two copies and had Kruger sign both.
They didn’t break down the pub doors and overwhelm the place, but sales were somewhat steady and Kruger was rarely left on his own to watch the Bears or Villanova.
After those first few customers, a pocket of three patrons drinking beer figured it out.
“Oh, this is a book signing,” one said.
At a corner, two guys in red UNLV T-shirts hunched over and talked with a waitress. Later, they purchased a dozen books between them as gifts for friends.
A guy sat at the bar reading another paperback, oblivious to everything around him. Another patron played video poker, wearing a white UNLV cap backward.
“He’s the basketball coach? For who? UNLV?” said someone on the other side of the bar.
“Twenty bucks?” said a woman. “That’s pretty good for a sports bar.”
Not just any bar. This one is a Rebels bar, complete with a red and white UNLV Rebels flag on one wall and little “Welcome Rebels Fans” pennants draped across a beam.
A PT’s is where Kruger and Las Vegas publicist D.J. Allen regularly met to hatch chapter ideas and organize the book, which the owners of the pub chain read about in the Sun.
They coaxed Kruger and Allen to do signings at two of their locations last week, which capped the book tour at four.
One was held at another tavern, but the biggest was at Border’s in Town Square. Kruger was told his signing was bigger than Valerie Bertinelli’s.
Allen said, on average, seven books are signed and sold at such events. Kruger’s did 10 times that at Border’s.
Mail-order requests have been fielded from as far away as Australia. Nobody should be surprised, though, that the biggest demands have come from Florida and Kansas.
Kruger is a legendary figure in Kansas, and he guided Florida to a Final Four in 1994.
A man asked Kruger to sign one for his brother in Reno. He wanted Kruger to write something derogatory about the Wolf Pack. Nah, Kruger said. Nothing negative.
“Go Wolf Pack,” he wrote, telling the man, “That was a good battle up there.”
Fan after fan thanked Kruger for coming to Las Vegas and congratulated him for winning games in consecutive NCAA tournaments for the first time since 1991.
“We’re so proud of what you’ve done,” Kruger was told.
“I think he’s going to have a big run here,” Kruger told someone who is a big fan of senior power forward Mo Rutledge.
“He’s got that extra gear that a lot of us never have,” he told a fan of freshman guard Oscar Bellfield.
The most amazing scene during the tour, Allen said, was when a woman approached Kruger and he realized he had gone to elementary school in Kansas with her.
A moment later, Kruger remembered her first name.
“He makes everyone,” Allen said, “feel like a million bucks.”
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