Dan Genovese, Westfield sports historian, will discuss his third book, this time on Westfield’s professional basketball history titled ‘Rough House,’ a rare glimpse of the turbulent world of professional basketball in the early twentieth century. ‘Rough House’ examines a time when Westfield was a “major league” city and basketball was played in a wire cage on a small court with rugby scrums, fisticuffs, no backboards, back-court violations, shot clocks or seven-foot giants.

Dan Genovese is the captain of the Westfield Wheelmen, a vintage base ball team from Westfield, and is the author of a two-volume set called “The Old Ball Ground” about the early history of base ball in Westfield. A book signing will follow the talk.