In his Prologue to My Losing Season, author Pat Conroy introduces himself to readers by explaining his relationship to the two things that have defined him since his boyhood: being a basketball player and being a writer. Expressing how he felt in being known to himself and others as an athlete, Conroy writes “it was part of my own definition of who I was and certainly the part I most respected” (1). Conroy makes the case in his biographical account that athletics in general, and playing basketball at The Citadel specifically, shaped him as a man and as a writer. As the son of a Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, Conroy had moved 23 times before he turned 21-years-old, and it was The Citadel that finally gave him an uninterrupted home and sense of security.

Although the freshman plebe system that he despised was extraordinarily difficult for Conroy, he regards his senior year as his “happiest year ever” (5). That happiness was due both to his academic growth as an English major and to his transformation into a good basketball player. Explaining how he had begun to play the best he ever had in the last half of the season, Conroy writes “the season turned out to be a disaster for all concerned, except for me” (5-6).