I was digging through a box of old memorabilia from my Clinton High School “Rocket” years. I discovered a collection of report cards that revealed to my dismay that I was not nearly as intelligent as I remembered I was.

Then there was the glass elf a souvenir from our Junior-Senior prom along with senior pictures of all of my classmates with sentimental inscriptions on the back of each reminding us of how enjoyable our years together had been. Since that was fifty eight years ago I can’t concur or deny if those memories were accurate. More than likely they were greatly exaggerated! 🙂

I discovered my athletic letter containing a basketball, baseball and track pin indicating I was a three sport letter winner. That triggered a memory of my painful finish in the Pheasant Conference track meet when I became the Pheasant Conference mile champion with a time of five minutes 16.7 seconds. That is a Clinton High School record that stands to this day as the track program was dropped the next year. Hey, a record is still a record. I just don’t tell the whole story when I’m sharing this high school accomplishment. 🙂

And then I discovered my most cherished ‘memory book’. The 1962 District 21 Basketball Tournament Sub-District, North Half, South Half and Finals booklet. To purchase that bit of memory I had to spend 10 cents back in 1962. A comic book would have cost that same amount.

The booklet contained pictures and names of players and coaches of the twenty-one schools making up our district.

I posted a picture of the front of the booklet which listed the twenty-one schools along with each schools’ mascot on Facebook. It was fun reading the Facebook viewers reactions to the post.

Tournament time back in 1962 was an exciting time. Tiny gyms were filled to overflowing with raucous spectators cheering for their team to come out victorious. The gym doors wouldn’t open until an hour before game time so long lines of spectators stood out in the cold waiting to purchase a ticket. Often they would verbally abuse their opponent’s who were intermingled among them always in a good natured manner of course. 🙂

My senior basketball season suffered a severe setback however the day before Thanksgiving in 1961 and has remained etched in my mind ever since. Our Mom died suddenly from a heart attack. She had been our cheerleader, loving Mom and friend and her passing left a gaping hole in our family that has never really healed.

When basketball practices were over she was faithfully waiting in front of the school to take us home and feed us supper (dinner to you young folks today) and then we headed to the barn to milk those cows by hand. (our weight lifting program back in 1962) We forever missed our Mom and those rides that we had taken for granted for so many years.

So I played my senior year of basketball trying to adjust to the loss of our Mom.

The whole community was so supportive as I look back on the tragedy.

I normally was not a starter. I was the first guard off the bench but since we had two very capable guards ahead of me I didn’t frequent the playing floor very often. I was not happy about the lack of playing time.

During my teaching career I spent twenty of those years coaching either boys or girls junior high basketball and I think my experience “riding the bench” made me a more sensitive coach to my young athletes and the amount of playing time each received. I made sure each athlete got some time on the court.

That basketball season our team had five seniors. Instead of electing captains our coach would assign a senior to be acting captain for each game. Early in the season I served as captain when we played the Ortonville Trojans a neighboring town much larger then our community.

When coach told me I was the captain I assumed I would be a starter. Wrong! I did not get in to play  until the last couple minutes of a game where we were down by more than twenty-five points! I told myself that I would never put myself into such a humiliating position again.

Several weeks later we were preparing to play the tough Herman Panthers on our home court when Coach threw me the basketball and said, “Mike you’re captain tonight.”

Not wanting to face the humiliation of meeting the opposing team captains at midcourt, shaking their hands and listening  to the referees go over the game ground rules again and then spending most of the game on the bench I did something very unlike myself.

I caught the ball and bounced it back to coach and simply replied, “No, I’m not going to be captian.”

You could have heard a pin drop as the locker room became eerily quiet. Coach remained calm and bounced the ball back to me and said,”Yes you are!”

I loved basketball and didn’t want to push it too far so as to get myself suspended so I reluctantly grabbed the ball charged out of the locker room and led my team into the gymnasium to began warmups.

Back in those days there was no loudspeaker to introduce the starting lineups. The coach told the cheerleaders and they introduced the individual starters with a personal cheer for each player. This took place as the teams were warming up and that’s when I heard my name being announced. I would be a starter!

The Herman Panthers as I mentioned earlier were a very good team. They had defeated us by twenty points earlier in the season so when we were only four points behind at half time we considered that a major victory.

I and a fellow senior Lee were high scorers with eleven points each. I missed at least five one and one free throw attempts so I could have possibly scored over twenty points! But remember free throw shooting was something I had not done very much that season. Riding the bench does not provide much of an opportunity.

By the last minutes of the fourth quarter I started getting cramps in my legs. I was not used to playing that many minutes.

Finally Coach sent in a sub for me and as I trotted off the floor something very surprising happened. All the spectators began to applaud and the applause continued for some time. In fact Coach looked down the bench at me because I think he thought I was standing up with two arms in the air holding up victory signs. I wasn’t. 🙂

One of my teamates told me after the game that one of the Herman players asked him if the people were  applauding for the player going off or the player coming onto the floor.

The memory of that thunderous applause still lingers in my mind. I had played the best game of my high school career but the applause was for more then that. I look back now and realize it was a way our small community showed their love for our family and for what we were going through.

My Dad wasn’t at the game. He assumed I probably wouldn’t  play much since the Panthers had dominated out first meeting.  He stayed home to do bookwork on his township assessor’s job and he also was struggling emotionally after loosing our Mom.

Mom I’m  sure was smiling throughout the whole game. People in Heaven smile all the time. 🙂

Oh, who won that game you ask? I checked my annual and the Rockets went down to defeat by the score of 68 to 46.

Thanks to a fifty eight year old District #21 Basketball tournament booklet I had a chance to take a trip down memory lane. Some good memories and some not so great.

I wonder if there are any senior citizens three on three leagues in the area? These basketball memories have stirred up my desire to play the game again.

It might be safer to visit the Scheels Sporting Good Store and invest in one of those portable basketball standards. They are the ones you can adjust the heighth and since I am only five foot six I’ve never experienced the new rage for dunking the basketball. Lowering the rim would allow me a chance to experience ‘the dunk’. 🙂

Oh yeah, one more thing. I probably should spend a little more time perfecting my free throws. Especially those one and ones! 🙂

Until next time.