Athlete?

[jollystomper]

I have always enjoyed sports, even though I have not been good in them.

I ran track in elementary and junior high (sprinter), and in two years came in third in our school districts 100 yard dash competition.

I played HS football but was a backup so did not play much (which may have been a blessing in disguise as I have no health issues from that time). I played linebacker/defensive back. My only claim to fame was scoring 2 defensive touchdowns in one game (interception and fumble returns). Of course my coach had me start the following game, but after giving up 2 touchdown passes in the first half that was the end of my career as a starter.

In college I played intramural sports (they had regular leagues between the student dorms) - baseball, football, basketball.

After college and thru my mid-40's I played on various work/sandlot/church leagues year round - softball, flag football, basketball, racquetball, volleyball. Also, coming from a big family, family gatherings always involved sports activities.

Currently I mainly do gym strength training/aerobic/cardio workouts (something I started in college and have maintained throughout the years),
biking, hiking, and golf. I will occasionally play basketball when challenged by my sons, nephews, or their friends, but the old man can only make it through one full court game before calling it a day.

Once I retire I may investigate any "over 60" sports league in my area.

 

[imoldernu]

Now, I get to tell my story...

As a very young child, I was extremely bright, but very ugly. At the age of four, my dad and mom, tried to drown me, by throwing me off the bridge, into the Rosebud Canal... a wastewater stream that originated from the Saylesville Bleachery. It was then, that I learned to swim, saving myself from those toxic waters.
The ugliness curse continued, however, and my life was miserable... an outcast, looked down on by children of my own age, and befriended only by the blind boy, who lived up the street. (BTW... I posted a picture of myself, age 1 on the "Recent Pics" thread, some time ago.)
I did belong to the YMCA, which had a tiny pool... a little bigger than a large hot tub. Scotty, the man in charge of the pool, taught me a little more about swimming, and by the 8th grade, I spent my summers at the YMCA camp, as a junior counselor, then a senior counselor on the waterfront.

Still without a lot of friends, and terrified of girls. Still more or less an outcast.

Then:
At age 15, was a senior in Junior high, and joined the Boys Club of America. the beginning of my swimming career. Coach said I was a natural, and for the next four years our Pawtucket Boys Club Team won tha national swimming championship.. and each year I won the 100 yard backstroke, and the individual medly in National competition.

Along the way, on entering High School as a Sophomore, swam on my HS team, and in my first year, won every event I was in, and in the off season, swam in the State, and New England AAU meets, winning gold medal in the back stroke, and silver in the Ind. medley. That continued for all three years.

Back in those days, the All American High School Championships were based on the fastest times across the nation... five members appointed to the All American team in each stroke. (not so any more... almost anyone can get in...based on time brackets.) There I came in second, and third, and then in my senior year, took first place in the nation.

Swimming changed my life. I was a hero... in my school, in my community, in the state, and finally in the nation. Strange... but at the same time, all of a sudden I had friends. Yeah... and girlfriends too. Five or six years of coming out of the shell. Name and picture in local and nationwide newspapers and interviews on local radio stations.

Then in Senior year of HS, the dam broke... A brand new romance. Colleges and Universities... Because I was also a good student, offers came for scholarship... full scholarships, for all over. williams, Dartmouth, Ohio state, Univ of S. Carolina, Colgate, Brown.. too many to name. During my Christmas Vacation in my senior year, I spent the week, living with Bob Kiputh, the legendary coach of the yale swim tweam... and practiced every day for four hours, with the then National Intercollegiate Swim team Champions. Finally lured to my beloved Bowdoin College, which doesn't give athletic scholarships, so I had to keep a B average to keep my full scholarship. For the four years I was there.

As to the college career... Freshmen at the time, were not allowed to be included in the NCAA Championships, but for my last three years I was elected to the NCAA All-American team... 4th, third, and second places... never Number 1. It was in-between Olympic years, so while I would have qualified, never went. I was scheduled to go to the Pan Am Games in Mexico City in the off year, but as luck would have it,the only semester I dropped below a B average, and had to work thru the summer to earn the $250 that had been temporarily reduced from my scholarship.

Along the way, I earned about a hundred medals, mostly from AAU meets, since no medals were ever earned in dual meets. ..... Speaking of which... In my specialty, the backstroke... over the full swimming career, I was defeated only once. Thereby hangs another tale:
It was at Phillips Exeter Academy, Junior year in HS... What a god awful day. The pool, back then, was a disaster. Concrete block building... no insulation and one side of the pool was 13 ft high glass windows, that went right down to the edge of the pool. temperature that day was 12F, and the windows were frozen solid, with... honest... four inches of ice that went down to the edge of the pool. Water temperature 44 degrees. the inside of the pool room was painted pure white, with no place to look up to locate my place in the pool. (backstroke). Third turn I crashed...Nearly killed myself. Recovered, but the guy on the Exeter team beat me by 1/10th of a second.

Oh... before I finish... I also earned a red ribbon award for track, when I went out for the team , senior in HS... It was for third place in a relay event. (there were only three teams in the event). My teammates said I ran like a duck. My only foray into other competitive events, during my schools days, 'cept for the sailing team in college.

The rest of the athletic career was limited to sailboat racing, 25 years in the Boy Scouts... backpacking, camping, hiking, climbing, orienteering, canoeing. Many, many years of biking in seven states. Still do canoe and bike, but don't do hills any more.

Apologies for the long ego trip, but this is a special day... my birthday, and Jeanie and I spent several hours looking back over 8+ decades of our lives, and for the 75 years we've known each other... and 59 years of marriage.
I waited to post' cuz I'm used to closing off so many threads. We'll just let this one die a natural death.

 

[scrabbler1]

I hated gym in school. I was always the last kid picked for the team sports, even when I was in 12th grade and there were some nerdy kids younger than me. The only good thing about gym was that there was no homework.


I remember in 7th grade my gym teacher gave out a lot of Cs and my homeroom teacher (also my math teacher) saw that it would keep dozens of kids (including me) off the honor roll. She bugged the gym teacher to boost the grades to Bs so all of us in the honors classes wouldn't be kept off the honor roll.


In high school, the one time I got an A in gym was when we had square dancing. The best part was that it was in the winter and we didn't have to use the freezing cold and stinky locker room.


I was the ace chess player and Mathlete (not athlete) in high school, winning trophies for the school and myself.


Years later, in adult square dance groups, it was very refreshing to be chosen FIRST when we had an odd number of dancers including one more woman than man, and the extra woman dancer chose a man sitting out to fill in to be her partner. And they have always chosen ME! Nice little payback after all those years being picked last.

 

[UnrealizedPotential]

Athlete,no. Well, I could play basketball decent when I was younger. I really wasn't good enough or tall enough to pursue it though. I hated football. For one thing, I didn't have the build for it. I kind of like the idea of not having some guy 250lbs tackle me.

I tried tennis when I was younger, but I didn't have the knack for it. But I do watch professional sports from time to time on TV. I bowled a 160 average ten years ago. For a 160 average, the good bowlers wouldn't even consider letting you join them. Well, maybe for a laugh. But I always enjoyed watching despite knowing that was all I could do.

 

[Lsbcal]

....

Apologies for the long ego trip, but this is a special day... my birthday, and Jeanie and I spent several hours looking back over 8+ decades of our lives, and for the 75 years we've know each other... and 59 years of marriage.
I waited to post' cuz I'm used to closing off so many threads. We'll just let this one die a natural death.

I think you earned the bragging rights here. Somehow though I don't believe your parents tried to drown you at the age of four. A bit too tall of a story even for this guy.

Happy birthday!

 

[MichaelB]

Apologies for the long ego trip, but this is a special day... my birthday

Happy birthday

 

[CoolRich59]

Got on the high school gymnastics team, and then broke my arm in a schoolyard fight which ended that.

Got on the high school swim team, until I realized that practice was every day at 7am and quit.

Was on the worst baseball team in my league for 2 years running (0-12, 0-11-1). (This was before the "everyone-gets-a-trophy" days and the other teams feasted on us and gleefully ran up the score.)

After that, I decided I was meant for more intellectual pursuits.

 

[6miths]

It seems like all there was to do was play sports when I was a kid. Really no TV until I moved to a middle size city near the US border at age 12 so consequently played many sports depending on age. Canada before global warming and globalization so needless to say was playing hockey almost as soon as I could walk and still play twice a week at 56. Also coached and refereed. Baseball, lacrosse and football in the warmer weather but almost all just pick up. Football through high school. Tennis starting at age 12 and went pretty far in high school but we are talking Canada. Ran cross-country and distance in track in high school and was pretty good but not exactly glamour events. Started cycling in high school as well and continue but never competitively. Golf a few times a year and not good at it. Probably my biggest disappointment as both my father and his brother were scratch golfers and I had the build for it.

 

[Scuba]

Now, I get to tell my story...

As a very young child, I was extremely bright, but very ugly. At the age of four, my dad and mom, tried to drown me, by throwing me off the bridge, into the Rosebud Canal... a wastewater stream that originated from the Saylesville Bleachery. It was then, that I learned to swim, saving myself from those toxic waters.
The ugliness curse continued, however, and my life was miserable... an outcast, looked down on by children of my own age, and befriended only by the blind boy, who lived up the street. (BTW... I posted a picture of myself, age 1 on the "Recent Pics" thread, some time ago.)
I did belong to the YMCA, which had a tiny pool... a little bigger than a large hot tub. Scotty, the man in charge of the pool, taught me a little more about swimming, and by the 8th grade, I spent my summers at the YMCA camp, as a junior counselor, then a senior counselor on the waterfront.

Still without a lot of friends, and terrified of girls. Still more or less an outcast.

Then:
At age 15, was a senior in Junior high, and joined the Boys Club of America. the beginning of my swimming career. Coach said I was a natural, and for the next four years our Pawtucket Boys Club Team won tha national swimming championship.. and each year I won the 100 yard backstroke, and the individual medly in National competition.

Along the way, on entering High School as a Sophomore, swam on my HS team, and in my first year, won every event I was in, and in the off season, swam in the State, and New England AAU meets, winning gold medal in the back stroke, and silver in the Ind. medley. That continued for all three years.

Back in those days, the All American High School Championships were based on the fastest times across the nation... five members appointed to the All American team in each stroke. (not so any more... almost anyone can get in...based on time brackets.) There I came in second, and third, and then in my senior year, took first place in the nation.

Swimming changed my life. I was a hero... in my school, in my community, in the state, and finally in the nation. Strange... but at the same time, all of a sudden I had friends. Yeah... and girlfriends too. Five or six years of coming out of the shell. Name and picture in local and nationwide newspapers and interviews on local radio stations.

Then in Senior year of HS, the dam broke... A brand new romance. Colleges and Universities... Because I was also a good student, offers came for scholarship... full scholarships, for all over. williams, Dartmouth, Ohio state, Univ of S. Carolina, Colgate, Brown.. too many to name. During my Christmas Vacation in my senior year, I spent the week, living with Bob Kiputh, the legendary coach of the yale swim tweam... and practiced every day for four hours, with the then National Intercollegiate Swim team Champions. Finally lured to my beloved Bowdoin College, which doesn't give athletic scholarships, so I had to keep a B average to keep my full scholarship. For the four years I was there.

As to the college career... Freshmen at the time, were not allowed to be included in the NCAA Championships, but for my last three years I was elected to the NCAA All-American team... 4th, third, and second places... never Number 1. It was in-between Olympic years, so while I would have qualified, never went. I was scheduled to go to the Pan Am Games in Mexico City in the off year, but as luck would have it,the only semester I dropped below a B average, and had to work thru the summer to earn the $250 that had been temporarily reduced from my scholarship.

Along the way, I earned about a hundred medals, mostly from AAU meets, since no medals were ever earned in dual meets. ..... Speaking of which... In my specialty, the backstroke... over the full swimming career, I was defeated only once. Thereby hangs another tale:
It was at Phillips Exeter Academy, Junior year in HS... What a god awful day. The pool, back then, was a disaster. Concrete block building... no insulation and one side of the pool was 13 ft high glass windows, that went right down to the edge of the pool. temperature that day was 12F, and the windows were frozen solid, with... honest... four inches of ice that went down to the edge of the pool. Water temperature 44 degrees. the inside of the pool room was painted pure white, with no place to look up to locate my place in the pool. (backstroke). Third turn I crashed...Nearly killed myself. Recovered, but the guy on the Exeter team beat me by 1/10th of a second.

Oh... before I finish... I also earned a red ribbon award for track, when I went out for the team , senior in HS... It was for third place in a relay event. (there were only three teams in the event). My teammates said I ran like a duck. My only foray into other competitive events, during my schools days, 'cept for the sailing team in college.

The rest of the athletic career was limited to sailboat racing, 25 years in the Boy Scouts... backpacking, camping, hiking, climbing, orienteering, canoeing. Many, many years of biking in seven states. Still do canoe and bike, but don't do hills any more.

Apologies for the long ego trip, but this is a special day... my birthday, and Jeanie and I spent several hours looking back over 8+ decades of our lives, and for the 75 years we've known each other... and 59 years of marriage.
I waited to post' cuz I'm used to closing off so many threads. We'll just let this one die a natural death.

Happy Birthday and congratulations on your long marriage!