A new biography claims Sarah Palin hooked up with basketball star Glen Rice in 1987, less than a year before she eloped with her husband Todd.
The book is “The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin” by Joe McGinniss, which hits shelves September 20. The National Enquirer got an advance copy, and this is the detail everybody is talking about.
The book says it happened during the Great Alaska Shootout, a college basketball tournament held in Anchorage over Thanksgiving weekend. Rice was a 6 foot 8 junior at the University of Michigan. Palin, then Sarah Heath, was 23, just out of college and working as a sports reporter for Anchorage TV station KTUU.
McGinniss quotes a friend who claims Sarah and her sisters had “a fetish for black guys” at the time. One version of the story in the book places the hookup in her sister Molly’s dorm room at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Here’s the part that makes it more than gossip: McGinniss called Glen Rice, and Rice confirmed it. He told the author he doesn’t remember any dorm room, but he does remember the weekend, and he says the two kept in touch after he left. “Even after I left Alaska, we talked a lot on the phone,” Rice said.
The New York Times review of the book raises one caution. The reviewer pointed out that McGinniss asked Rice the kind of leading questions he uses throughout the book. Rice’s confirmation is still the closest thing to a second source anyone has.
McGinniss is no stranger to going all the way for a story. While researching the book, he rented the house right next door to the Palin family in Wasilla.
Palin has not commented. Rice went on to win the 1989 national championship with Michigan, was drafted fourth overall that year, made three All Star teams and won an NBA title with the Lakers in 2000. Palin went on to become governor of Alaska and John McCain’s running mate. It turns out that back in 1987, their paths crossed in a big way.
