Basketball
I
was very conscientious in my school work. I made very good
grades but it was not easy for me. I worked very hard.
When I was in the eighth grade my mother was advised that I
should have more activities outside the classroom. There
were no counselors back then and as I remember this was the
advice of the principal who was also my scoutmaster. So
that year I was given only three regular classes and a
class in basketball. At that time the school’s basketball
players were allowed to practice during the regular school
day and count that as a subject with the same credit as a
regular class. That could not be done today. It would be in
violation of accreditation standards and state law.
This automatically put me on the basketball team. I was the
only eighth grade student on the team. There were 12
regular team members and me. The school had only 12
uniforms that had been used by prior teams for many years.
The tops were dark gold and the pants were black. I was the
only one without a uniform. My daddy must have felt sorry
for me for he bought me my own uniform. It had black pants
but the top was bright yellow with a very large “13” on the
back. Never the less, I dressed out in it for every game.
At first I was very clumsy and had difficulty doing the
practice drills, but the older boys had compassion and
tried to help me as much as possible. I put the same effort
into practice as I had put in my regular studies. Since the
basketball class was at the end of the school day, I would
stay after school almost every day to practice.
One of the best players lived near the school and he too
stayed after school and practiced shooting. He would get me
to guard him as he practiced his different shots. I was not
much of a guard but he would coach me on what to do and I
gradually got better. The player was Billy Tate. He became
a kind of big brother to look up to and to help with
problems.
After a while the coach began to notice my defensive
ability and in my second year was often used in games. I’ll
always remember our first game in the district tournament
that second year. At the half the score was tied. The coach
decided to use me in the second half to guard the top
scorer- on the opposing team. He played a lot like Billy
and my practice with Billy paid off. I stopped him cold.
Our team won almost 2 to 1. I had made my mark and after
that I played in many games and later became a starter. I
never made more than 12 points in a game but I was good on
defense and rebounding. I loved the sport, the cheering
crowds, and I played my heart out.
I went out for basketball in college and made the first
cut, but I had a lot of academic catching up to do so I
gave up playing basketball for good.