This will be a short blog because I had a very short career.
I only played football one year. It was part of the Optimist program and I was a C.B. Berry Bear. At that time there was only one team from each school and it included 5th and 6th graders.
There was no weight limit. Rankin had two kids over 200 pounds. One was Roger Reeder at 6' 2" - 225 lbs. The other kid was 205 lbs. Reeder went on to play at Sam Houston and accepted a scholarship to Rice. That was back in the Southwest Conference days and Rice was a good football school. He had offers from all of the big schools and should have gone anywhere but Rice. He wasn't very smart and flunked out his freshman year. At Berry we had no one that big but we did have some big guys who probably would have exceeded today's weight limits. There was no limit on the ball carriers either. James Mantooth was a running back for the Thornton Tigers. He was tall, big, and pretty fast. I think I weighed about 76 pounds. It may have been 92. I really can't remember, but I was little.
My brother Gary was the big star of our team. He was the main running back and also played defensive back. Mike Nicole was our QB. I think Kathy, Jessica's mom, dated him a couple of times shortly before Jack and Jessica got married. I played left end on both offense and defense. During the season we lost to Crow (today's Cowboys) once (24-6) and tied them (0-0) once and finished 2nd in our division. Still, we played at UTA in a consolation game prior to the championship game.
The highlights of my career were two plays, one on defense and one on offense. Against Thortnon, Mantooth was coming at my end on a power sweep. I side stepped the blockers, got down low, and hit him slightly below the waist with my left shoulder. As he went over me I stood up, sending his legs and feet high in the air and dumping him on his face. My Dad was across the field from the play and said that all he could see was the guys feet up in the air. It happened right in front of our bench and my coaches were all congratulating me.
On offense my big play came against Crow. We had the ball on our own 20. Our big play was a power sweep to the right with Gary carrying the ball. We snapped the ball, pitched back to Gary, and he started on the sweep to the right. I went about 10 yards downfield, behind the safety who was running hard for the sweep. Gary stopped and and passed the ball back to me. I caught it and ran for the touchdown! The safety (Gary Hill) closed to about a yard or two back at midfield but I outran him the rest of the way A 60-yard touchdown pass and run (the field was only 80 yards). Those were the only points we ever scored on Crow.
In the week before the UTA game, we had a piano lesson that conflicted with practice. Since Gary was the star, he got the first lesson and made it to practice on time. I was 30 minutes late and got benched. I lost my starting job and didn't play in the game until late in the second half when we were down 20-0. Do I still sound bitter? Well, that's because I am!
So much for my football career.
Some of the guys on our team were Mike Nichol (QB), Steve Hodges (FB and a good pitcher), Owen Barnett (RB and later Sam Houston's star basketball player), Tommy Waterson (G and a good baseball catcher), Mike Cade (T, I punched him in the nose the last day of school), Bruce Pratt (T), Steve Musser (sub and Mandy's husband), and Dorian Anderson. Dorian was a substitute guard but was moved to starting end when I was late for practice and got benched. His mom was my 3rd grade teacher and he lived down the street from Tommy Hawkes in high school. Some of these guys will end up in later stories.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Friday, March 23, 2007
Politics and Bosses
I sometimes awaken in the wee hours of the morning with my brain racing over obscure thoughts. Yesterday morning I found myself thinking that a boss' management style usually mirrors the governmental style of his political party.
The Premise
The Democratic Party is accused of trying to micromanage the war in Iraq and wanting to establish government bureaucracies to control large aspects of everyday life. For example, they want universal healthcare and Medicare administered by a government office. They want Social Security to be wholly controlled by the government and do not want to allow any privitization, partial or otherwise, of individual contributions. And, Democrats want to control education through public schools and not allow vouchers for underperforming schoolkids to attend a private, "uncontrolled" school. They are also accused of being big government spenders. In short, Democrats tend to prefer a government solution or corporate office solution and control.
Republicans want to allow private industry to adminster much of everyday life, such as insurance companies provding healthcare and Medicare prescription drug coverage. They want partial privitization of Social Security and they want school vouchers for private schools. Also, most Republicans claim to want to control governement spending, but they sure didn't prove that during the last few years when they let earmark spending get totally out of control. Republicans tend to prefer a private industry solution, or, in the workplace scenario, giving managers a job or goal and allowing them to make their own decsions on how to reach the goal.
The results with my bosses
Over the years I've had a number of bosses, both active Democrats and active Republicans, and some whose political affiliation I didn't know. Some have been great bosses, a couple of bad bosses, and the others in between. On the whole, I've found that my Democratic bosses tended to be big spenders, especially in high profile, glamour areas, they've been more prone to micromanaging or at least having strong corporate decision making control on local issues, and they've wanted bonus compensation to be subjective and not tied to verifiable benchmarks. My Republican bosses tend to give you a job and let you do it, bonuses are based on verifiable performance, and expenses are based on budgets and not subject to knee-jerk whims.
I'll start my analysis with my bosses after I left the C-J. Warren Potash was an active Republican who promoted Jack Kemp instead of G.H.W. Bush for Vice-President for Ronald Reagan. He was definitely an economic conservative. Budgets were strictly adhered to, costs were very much controlled and minimized, but he would spend big dollars if he saw an even larger revenue return. For example, he chartered a boat in New York harbor for the unveiling of the repaired Statue of Liberty. He made the charter deal a year in advance and then built a sales promotion around the unveiling with a big party at the Hyatt to announce the program. Between the party, the boat, and all the travel arrangements to New York we spent several hundred thousand dollars, but we wrote new revenue business of several million dollars. If profits exceeded budget, bonuses were very generous. Warren was one of the best managers I ever worked for and I learned a lot from him. I learned that cost control is essential and that you can often make more money with a #2 ranking than a #1 audience ranking. Warren left Cap Cities with a couple of million or more. Warren confirms the premise of mangement style matching politcal governing style.
Warren was followed by John Hare. I don't know anything about John's political leanings so I'll leave him out. I will say he was one of my "bad" bosses.
Scott Ginsburg was an active behind the scenes Democrat, active in raising money for candidates and using his connections for his personal benefit. On the whole, Scott left day to day things alone but, every now and then he would want to totally control certain things. He was also prone to sudden, knee-jerk decisions. Usually, that meant disaster and a whole lot of wasted money. For example, when we paid millions for a new station in Los Angeles the research studies said the format hole was Urban. Scott wanted to do a rock format in a market already crowded with various rock formats. He orchestrated a $1.2 million advertising blitz over 3 months for the new rock format, the largest launch for a radio station up to that time. It failed miserably, producing a 1.0 share. Facing technical default on our loan covenants we quietly and quickly converted to an Urban format that immediately generated 4 times the audience, revenue, and profits. He repeated the mistake in Dallas when he decided to take Y95 out of the unprofitable CHR format. I won't get into the details of why it was unprofitable but it had much to do with his direct involvement. Research said to do a Young Country format but Scott wanted to do Oldies becasue he like the music better. We went Oldies, went broke within a year, and had to sell the station. Another company took the Young Country format to #1 and several years of strong audiences and strong profits. Scott wasn't done, though. Before we sold the station he decided to have a Beach Boys concert. He said it would only cost $25,000. It turned out that the $25,000 was just the deposit for half of the Beach Boys appearance fee. Scott added the Four Tops, the Temptations, and a Texas Stadium venue. He also hired a big time producer to stage the whole thing. Before it was over we lost $150,000 or more but Scott had a big party. Through astute dealings, good fortune, and the strong work by CFO Matt Devine, Scott stayed one step ahead of bankruptcy and eventually had a compnay that he sold to Clear Channel. Scott walked away with more than half a billion dollars in cash and stock. Budgets were a farce. Corporate prepared them with no input from the stations. Compensation and bonuses were arbitrary and based on how Scott felt about the person. He proves the premise - micromangement, uncontrolled spending, compensation based on feeling - that mangement style matches politcal governing style.
Next came Heritage Media with Jim Hoak as the Chairman, Jack Robinnette as the TV President, and Paul Fiddick as the Radio President. I'll discuss Jim when I get to Hoak Media. Jack was an outspoken Republican supporter and contributor. Upon the sale of Heritage he received several million dollars for his stock. As a boss he was essentially a carbon copy of of Warren Potash and, as such, proves the premise.
Paul Fiddick basically disproves the premise. Paul was a staunch Democrat who later served as Undersecretary of Agriculture in the Clinton Administration and for the early months of the Bush administration. While he carefully monitored and directed the market managers, he generally gave them a job and let them do it. The budgets were carefully crafted by Paul and the GMs and then followed. Expenses were controlled and bonus compensation was totally predicated on measurable performance - sales, ratings, and profits, especially profits. I know Paul left Heritage with several million after the sale of the company. Up to this time, Paul was the best boss I ever had. However, his management style was totally different that the above stated Democrat governing style.
John Borders and Don Tuner of Sunburst Media were my next and now current bosses. Both are Republicans but not overtly politically active. With a very small company, necessity requires a lot of involvement by the top management. Even so, they gave their managers the goals and the means to complete the goal and allowed them to manage their markets. There was no micromanaging. I developed budgets with the market GMs using profit targets provided by Don. Compensation was based on achieving measureable goals, costs were controlled, and there were no knee-jerk decisions. Integrity was a key, so much so that when they started up again I came back to work with them on a handshake. Both are millionaires. Their management style fits the premise of their political party.
I'll skip Radio One and Rodriguez Communications since I was never much involved with the Alfred Liggins or Mark Rodriguez and I was only with each company a very short time.
First Broadcasting brought me Ron Unkefer and Gary Lawrence as bosses. Both were Democrats, but like John and Don, not overtly politically active. I've never been in a company that was more micromanaged. We lost several deals because the person tasked with making the deals was given no leeway to negotiate terms. For example, we had a project to acquire a particular station and move it to a larger city. We could make a very good profit if we could acquire the target station for $1.0 million and even make the deal work at $1.5M. However, our person was only authorized to offer $500,000. The seller countered with $1M but our guy (girl) couldn't accept it even though we would have made several million because she didn't have the authority and said she'd call back. In the meantime the seller found out who we were and deduced that we must be doing a move-in. His price went to $2M, deal dead. This happened over and over. It was a small company and no one was safe from the micromanagement and criticism (mostly unfounded but done to put you in place). Bonuses that were tied to objective criteria were replaced with subjective bonuses. Definitely one of my bad bosses. Both are millionaires. Management style equal political style - premise proved.
My next stop was Hoak Media with Jim Hoak as Chairman. Jim is an active Republican fundraiser. Jim gives his managers a job and lets them do their work. He sits in on a weekly management conference call but seldom injects his opinions and never bypasses the President to go directly to the station with directives. Bonuses are paid on measurable performance criteria, costs controlled, and budgets developed primarily by the stations and are followed. Jim is a mulit-millionaire and proves the theory.
The last one on my list is Tom Castro of BMP Radio. Tom was the Texas Campaign Chairman for John Kerry. He is an outspoken Democrat supporter and very active in political circles. He is heavily involved in the operations of BMP. No decision is made without his approval. The markets and senior management spent 2-3 weeks developing annual budgets. During the process Tom had to sign off on the preliminary revenue numbers. After the budgets were completed, Tom went through them station by station with senior management for 3 or 4 weeks finally making several admittedly arbitrary decisions regarding additional revenue and expense changes before they were submitted to the board for approval. Operationally, the budgets were quickly dismissed if it was felt that circumstances had changed. Bonuses were subjective based on Tom's evaluation. The thought was more work may have gone into a bad profit year versus a good profit year due to circumstances beyond our control, the economy, 9/11, etc. Tom wanted to be able to reward people based on his evaluation of their effort. Station openings were accompanied by extravagant parties for prospective clients. Direct results in the form of direct revenue was difficult to guage from these parties but the community was definitely made aware that BMP was there and not a small mom and pop operation. It gave the station credibility. Tom is a millionaire. On the whole, Tom's management style reflects his political party's style.
Regardless of party affiliation, all of these guys have been successful business people and are now millionaires. So, from that aspect you can't claim that one way is better than the other. From my own personal point of view I prefer to work for a boss who gives me a job, the resources to the the job, and leaves me alone to do the job. That and the opportunity to make more money is why I am back with John and Don at Sunburst. Does that mean I am a Republican?
The Premise
The Democratic Party is accused of trying to micromanage the war in Iraq and wanting to establish government bureaucracies to control large aspects of everyday life. For example, they want universal healthcare and Medicare administered by a government office. They want Social Security to be wholly controlled by the government and do not want to allow any privitization, partial or otherwise, of individual contributions. And, Democrats want to control education through public schools and not allow vouchers for underperforming schoolkids to attend a private, "uncontrolled" school. They are also accused of being big government spenders. In short, Democrats tend to prefer a government solution or corporate office solution and control.
Republicans want to allow private industry to adminster much of everyday life, such as insurance companies provding healthcare and Medicare prescription drug coverage. They want partial privitization of Social Security and they want school vouchers for private schools. Also, most Republicans claim to want to control governement spending, but they sure didn't prove that during the last few years when they let earmark spending get totally out of control. Republicans tend to prefer a private industry solution, or, in the workplace scenario, giving managers a job or goal and allowing them to make their own decsions on how to reach the goal.
The results with my bosses
Over the years I've had a number of bosses, both active Democrats and active Republicans, and some whose political affiliation I didn't know. Some have been great bosses, a couple of bad bosses, and the others in between. On the whole, I've found that my Democratic bosses tended to be big spenders, especially in high profile, glamour areas, they've been more prone to micromanaging or at least having strong corporate decision making control on local issues, and they've wanted bonus compensation to be subjective and not tied to verifiable benchmarks. My Republican bosses tend to give you a job and let you do it, bonuses are based on verifiable performance, and expenses are based on budgets and not subject to knee-jerk whims.
I'll start my analysis with my bosses after I left the C-J. Warren Potash was an active Republican who promoted Jack Kemp instead of G.H.W. Bush for Vice-President for Ronald Reagan. He was definitely an economic conservative. Budgets were strictly adhered to, costs were very much controlled and minimized, but he would spend big dollars if he saw an even larger revenue return. For example, he chartered a boat in New York harbor for the unveiling of the repaired Statue of Liberty. He made the charter deal a year in advance and then built a sales promotion around the unveiling with a big party at the Hyatt to announce the program. Between the party, the boat, and all the travel arrangements to New York we spent several hundred thousand dollars, but we wrote new revenue business of several million dollars. If profits exceeded budget, bonuses were very generous. Warren was one of the best managers I ever worked for and I learned a lot from him. I learned that cost control is essential and that you can often make more money with a #2 ranking than a #1 audience ranking. Warren left Cap Cities with a couple of million or more. Warren confirms the premise of mangement style matching politcal governing style.
Warren was followed by John Hare. I don't know anything about John's political leanings so I'll leave him out. I will say he was one of my "bad" bosses.
Scott Ginsburg was an active behind the scenes Democrat, active in raising money for candidates and using his connections for his personal benefit. On the whole, Scott left day to day things alone but, every now and then he would want to totally control certain things. He was also prone to sudden, knee-jerk decisions. Usually, that meant disaster and a whole lot of wasted money. For example, when we paid millions for a new station in Los Angeles the research studies said the format hole was Urban. Scott wanted to do a rock format in a market already crowded with various rock formats. He orchestrated a $1.2 million advertising blitz over 3 months for the new rock format, the largest launch for a radio station up to that time. It failed miserably, producing a 1.0 share. Facing technical default on our loan covenants we quietly and quickly converted to an Urban format that immediately generated 4 times the audience, revenue, and profits. He repeated the mistake in Dallas when he decided to take Y95 out of the unprofitable CHR format. I won't get into the details of why it was unprofitable but it had much to do with his direct involvement. Research said to do a Young Country format but Scott wanted to do Oldies becasue he like the music better. We went Oldies, went broke within a year, and had to sell the station. Another company took the Young Country format to #1 and several years of strong audiences and strong profits. Scott wasn't done, though. Before we sold the station he decided to have a Beach Boys concert. He said it would only cost $25,000. It turned out that the $25,000 was just the deposit for half of the Beach Boys appearance fee. Scott added the Four Tops, the Temptations, and a Texas Stadium venue. He also hired a big time producer to stage the whole thing. Before it was over we lost $150,000 or more but Scott had a big party. Through astute dealings, good fortune, and the strong work by CFO Matt Devine, Scott stayed one step ahead of bankruptcy and eventually had a compnay that he sold to Clear Channel. Scott walked away with more than half a billion dollars in cash and stock. Budgets were a farce. Corporate prepared them with no input from the stations. Compensation and bonuses were arbitrary and based on how Scott felt about the person. He proves the premise - micromangement, uncontrolled spending, compensation based on feeling - that mangement style matches politcal governing style.
Next came Heritage Media with Jim Hoak as the Chairman, Jack Robinnette as the TV President, and Paul Fiddick as the Radio President. I'll discuss Jim when I get to Hoak Media. Jack was an outspoken Republican supporter and contributor. Upon the sale of Heritage he received several million dollars for his stock. As a boss he was essentially a carbon copy of of Warren Potash and, as such, proves the premise.
Paul Fiddick basically disproves the premise. Paul was a staunch Democrat who later served as Undersecretary of Agriculture in the Clinton Administration and for the early months of the Bush administration. While he carefully monitored and directed the market managers, he generally gave them a job and let them do it. The budgets were carefully crafted by Paul and the GMs and then followed. Expenses were controlled and bonus compensation was totally predicated on measurable performance - sales, ratings, and profits, especially profits. I know Paul left Heritage with several million after the sale of the company. Up to this time, Paul was the best boss I ever had. However, his management style was totally different that the above stated Democrat governing style.
John Borders and Don Tuner of Sunburst Media were my next and now current bosses. Both are Republicans but not overtly politically active. With a very small company, necessity requires a lot of involvement by the top management. Even so, they gave their managers the goals and the means to complete the goal and allowed them to manage their markets. There was no micromanaging. I developed budgets with the market GMs using profit targets provided by Don. Compensation was based on achieving measureable goals, costs were controlled, and there were no knee-jerk decisions. Integrity was a key, so much so that when they started up again I came back to work with them on a handshake. Both are millionaires. Their management style fits the premise of their political party.
I'll skip Radio One and Rodriguez Communications since I was never much involved with the Alfred Liggins or Mark Rodriguez and I was only with each company a very short time.
First Broadcasting brought me Ron Unkefer and Gary Lawrence as bosses. Both were Democrats, but like John and Don, not overtly politically active. I've never been in a company that was more micromanaged. We lost several deals because the person tasked with making the deals was given no leeway to negotiate terms. For example, we had a project to acquire a particular station and move it to a larger city. We could make a very good profit if we could acquire the target station for $1.0 million and even make the deal work at $1.5M. However, our person was only authorized to offer $500,000. The seller countered with $1M but our guy (girl) couldn't accept it even though we would have made several million because she didn't have the authority and said she'd call back. In the meantime the seller found out who we were and deduced that we must be doing a move-in. His price went to $2M, deal dead. This happened over and over. It was a small company and no one was safe from the micromanagement and criticism (mostly unfounded but done to put you in place). Bonuses that were tied to objective criteria were replaced with subjective bonuses. Definitely one of my bad bosses. Both are millionaires. Management style equal political style - premise proved.
My next stop was Hoak Media with Jim Hoak as Chairman. Jim is an active Republican fundraiser. Jim gives his managers a job and lets them do their work. He sits in on a weekly management conference call but seldom injects his opinions and never bypasses the President to go directly to the station with directives. Bonuses are paid on measurable performance criteria, costs controlled, and budgets developed primarily by the stations and are followed. Jim is a mulit-millionaire and proves the theory.
The last one on my list is Tom Castro of BMP Radio. Tom was the Texas Campaign Chairman for John Kerry. He is an outspoken Democrat supporter and very active in political circles. He is heavily involved in the operations of BMP. No decision is made without his approval. The markets and senior management spent 2-3 weeks developing annual budgets. During the process Tom had to sign off on the preliminary revenue numbers. After the budgets were completed, Tom went through them station by station with senior management for 3 or 4 weeks finally making several admittedly arbitrary decisions regarding additional revenue and expense changes before they were submitted to the board for approval. Operationally, the budgets were quickly dismissed if it was felt that circumstances had changed. Bonuses were subjective based on Tom's evaluation. The thought was more work may have gone into a bad profit year versus a good profit year due to circumstances beyond our control, the economy, 9/11, etc. Tom wanted to be able to reward people based on his evaluation of their effort. Station openings were accompanied by extravagant parties for prospective clients. Direct results in the form of direct revenue was difficult to guage from these parties but the community was definitely made aware that BMP was there and not a small mom and pop operation. It gave the station credibility. Tom is a millionaire. On the whole, Tom's management style reflects his political party's style.
Regardless of party affiliation, all of these guys have been successful business people and are now millionaires. So, from that aspect you can't claim that one way is better than the other. From my own personal point of view I prefer to work for a boss who gives me a job, the resources to the the job, and leaves me alone to do the job. That and the opportunity to make more money is why I am back with John and Don at Sunburst. Does that mean I am a Republican?
Monday, March 19, 2007
My first basketball team.
I was 8 years old when I joined my first basketball team. Our church, First Baptist - Arlington, had a 9-10 year old RA (Royal Ambassadors) basketball team that played other churches in Tarrant County. I turned 9 during the season.
Our coach officially was my Dad, but my Mom was real active as well. She had played high school basketball in Sudan, Texas. Dad had never played any sport. He checked a book out of the library to learn the rules and how to set up an offense and defense. This is a prime example of my Dad's selflessness and his desire to see that my brother Gary and I had all the best opportunities. He recognized that the athletes got better treatment in school and wanted us to have that advantage.
Before the season started against the other 9-10 RA teams we played in a 12 & under tournament against other Arlington churches. We lost the championship game to our church's 11-12 team. We won our other games. The games were played on "The Slab", an outdoor concrete court a the church. My Dad and Mr. Schrader had to paint the free throw lane and other markers because, prior to then, it was just a concrete slab that had basketball goals at either end. My one memory of the tournament was Cary Don Risinger totally wiping me out across the court on a charging foul in the last few seconds of the game. It scratched up the face of my watch and skinned me up pretty good. I missed the free throw because I couldn't see well through the tears.
We played our 9-10 league games in Fort Worth, mostly at the Southside Recreation Center on East Rosedale. Our uniforms were cotton gym shorts and white cotton undershirts that my Dad had painted on black numbers in our garage. The first team we were to play was Broadway Baptist Church. At that time they were the largest Baptist church in Fort Worth and they had fancy red uniforms that were all shiny and definitely not numbered in the garage. They also had one real tall kid. "We're gonna get killed," was what we were all thinking. Our players included Tommy Pope, my brother Gary, Mike Manire, Verne Hargrave, and me. There were others but I can't remember their names.
As I said, Broadway had these fancy, shiny uniforms and we thought we were going to get killed. The final score was 42-1, we won! The tall kid made their only point on a free throw that he threw like a softball throw.
We won every game but one. We lost 18-17 or 17-16 to Lake Worth in a game where we got ripped off by the Fort Worth refs. We were winning until the calls all started going against us. For example, Mike and Tommy ran into each other at mid court and knocked each other down. The ref called a double foul against us and gave them 2 free throws. In the last minute or so with us up by one, I was driving for a game clinching, fast break lay-up. I slowed down a little to make sure of the shot and got absolutely obliterated by the Lake Worth guy from behind. No problem, I was a very good free throw shooter and would make the free throws. The only problem was the referee called the foul on me! How absurd! They scored a basket, went ahead by one, and the scorekeeper said the time was now out. The last minute lasted forever until they scored, and the zip, it was over.
My Dad was also our coach in the 6th grade YMCA league. Our main players were Mike Nicole, Gary, and me. We lost 1 game in league play to Rankin when I was out sick with 102 fever. Rankin also failed to play all of their players one full quarter as required by the rules, but they were given the win anyway. That was our only loss and Rankin had a couple so we advanced to the playoffs. Rankin's coach was Dalton Walker, a great fast-pitch softball pitcher. I'll tell you other stories about him later. The championship game was played at Kooken Elementary against South Davis. I don't remember the score but we won. City Champs!
My Dad's coaching got me started in basketball and I went on to play in Junior High, High School, one year of college and many years of intramural and city rec leagues.
Our coach officially was my Dad, but my Mom was real active as well. She had played high school basketball in Sudan, Texas. Dad had never played any sport. He checked a book out of the library to learn the rules and how to set up an offense and defense. This is a prime example of my Dad's selflessness and his desire to see that my brother Gary and I had all the best opportunities. He recognized that the athletes got better treatment in school and wanted us to have that advantage.
Before the season started against the other 9-10 RA teams we played in a 12 & under tournament against other Arlington churches. We lost the championship game to our church's 11-12 team. We won our other games. The games were played on "The Slab", an outdoor concrete court a the church. My Dad and Mr. Schrader had to paint the free throw lane and other markers because, prior to then, it was just a concrete slab that had basketball goals at either end. My one memory of the tournament was Cary Don Risinger totally wiping me out across the court on a charging foul in the last few seconds of the game. It scratched up the face of my watch and skinned me up pretty good. I missed the free throw because I couldn't see well through the tears.
We played our 9-10 league games in Fort Worth, mostly at the Southside Recreation Center on East Rosedale. Our uniforms were cotton gym shorts and white cotton undershirts that my Dad had painted on black numbers in our garage. The first team we were to play was Broadway Baptist Church. At that time they were the largest Baptist church in Fort Worth and they had fancy red uniforms that were all shiny and definitely not numbered in the garage. They also had one real tall kid. "We're gonna get killed," was what we were all thinking. Our players included Tommy Pope, my brother Gary, Mike Manire, Verne Hargrave, and me. There were others but I can't remember their names.
As I said, Broadway had these fancy, shiny uniforms and we thought we were going to get killed. The final score was 42-1, we won! The tall kid made their only point on a free throw that he threw like a softball throw.
We won every game but one. We lost 18-17 or 17-16 to Lake Worth in a game where we got ripped off by the Fort Worth refs. We were winning until the calls all started going against us. For example, Mike and Tommy ran into each other at mid court and knocked each other down. The ref called a double foul against us and gave them 2 free throws. In the last minute or so with us up by one, I was driving for a game clinching, fast break lay-up. I slowed down a little to make sure of the shot and got absolutely obliterated by the Lake Worth guy from behind. No problem, I was a very good free throw shooter and would make the free throws. The only problem was the referee called the foul on me! How absurd! They scored a basket, went ahead by one, and the scorekeeper said the time was now out. The last minute lasted forever until they scored, and the zip, it was over.
My Dad was also our coach in the 6th grade YMCA league. Our main players were Mike Nicole, Gary, and me. We lost 1 game in league play to Rankin when I was out sick with 102 fever. Rankin also failed to play all of their players one full quarter as required by the rules, but they were given the win anyway. That was our only loss and Rankin had a couple so we advanced to the playoffs. Rankin's coach was Dalton Walker, a great fast-pitch softball pitcher. I'll tell you other stories about him later. The championship game was played at Kooken Elementary against South Davis. I don't remember the score but we won. City Champs!
My Dad's coaching got me started in basketball and I went on to play in Junior High, High School, one year of college and many years of intramural and city rec leagues.
Why am I doing this?
After posting a reply to Jack's (my son) blog, my son Ben said I needed to get my own blog. Since then Jack and he keep asking me if I've started a blog, so I guess I might as well.
My blog will focus more on life events, primarily to put into writing stories I've told my kids, even if they don't believe it really happened quite this way.
First, here is a quiz about me. The answers are 56, 36, 27, 20, 17, 10, 6, 5, & 3. Some of the answers can be used more than once.
1. How old am I?
2. How many years will have I been married as of 6/11/2007?
3. How many kids do I have?
4. How many grandchildren do I have?
5. What is the highest number of points that I scored in a college basketball game?
6. What is the highest number of rebounds that I got in a college basketball game?
7. What is the highest number of assists that I got in a college basketball game?
8. What is the highest number of points that I scored in a high school basketball game?
9. What was my scoring average as a senior in high school?
10. What was my uniform number in high school?
11. How old was I when I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior?
Here are the answers.
1. 56
2. 36
3. 3
4. 5
5. 27 and yes Ben, it really is true
6. 20 in the same game as I scored the 27 points
7. 20 in the same game; 27 points, 20 rebounds, 20 assists in the same game. We won 130 something to 40 something. We only had 6 eligible players because so many guys flunked the first semester and our oponents only had 5.
8. 17 I did it twice, against Arlington Sam Houston and I.M. Terrell
9. 10 Technically 9.5 but that statistically rounds to 10 and I like 10 better
10. 10
11. 6 And, that was the most important decision of my life. Without that decision the rest of my life is meaningless.
Basketball, family, and my faith in Jesus Christ have been the driving forces in my life and will continue to be so. Although I have loved my 35 years in media (newspaper, radio, & TV) accounting it has to follow the other 3 in importance. Hopefully, I can tell some memorable stories of my life that won't totaly bore you and offer a few opinions in my future posts.
My blog will focus more on life events, primarily to put into writing stories I've told my kids, even if they don't believe it really happened quite this way.
First, here is a quiz about me. The answers are 56, 36, 27, 20, 17, 10, 6, 5, & 3. Some of the answers can be used more than once.
1. How old am I?
2. How many years will have I been married as of 6/11/2007?
3. How many kids do I have?
4. How many grandchildren do I have?
5. What is the highest number of points that I scored in a college basketball game?
6. What is the highest number of rebounds that I got in a college basketball game?
7. What is the highest number of assists that I got in a college basketball game?
8. What is the highest number of points that I scored in a high school basketball game?
9. What was my scoring average as a senior in high school?
10. What was my uniform number in high school?
11. How old was I when I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior?
Here are the answers.
1. 56
2. 36
3. 3
4. 5
5. 27 and yes Ben, it really is true
6. 20 in the same game as I scored the 27 points
7. 20 in the same game; 27 points, 20 rebounds, 20 assists in the same game. We won 130 something to 40 something. We only had 6 eligible players because so many guys flunked the first semester and our oponents only had 5.
8. 17 I did it twice, against Arlington Sam Houston and I.M. Terrell
9. 10 Technically 9.5 but that statistically rounds to 10 and I like 10 better
10. 10
11. 6 And, that was the most important decision of my life. Without that decision the rest of my life is meaningless.
Basketball, family, and my faith in Jesus Christ have been the driving forces in my life and will continue to be so. Although I have loved my 35 years in media (newspaper, radio, & TV) accounting it has to follow the other 3 in importance. Hopefully, I can tell some memorable stories of my life that won't totaly bore you and offer a few opinions in my future posts.
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