This is the time of the basketball season when, back in my day, everything was still possible.
High schools started basketball practice late in October or maybe the first of November half a century ago. It was after the football season ended, anyway, and I don't think the football guys started games until the first part of September. Shoot, school didn't start until first part of September.
I looked in my old yearbook just now and saw that the Chamberlain High School football team played seven games in my senior year (1961-62). The team opened with three wins, lost two, including homecoming, and finished with two wins. So, yeah, they'd have been done by the late October. That's about when the cross-country season ended, too, although we only had the one meet, so it was mostly practice and go to Brookings to lope from green to green on the golf course north of the college.
I know Bill Miller and I couldn't talk the coaches into letting us into the gym before basketball practices officially started. That was a huge disappointment to us. We thought we'd be light years ahead of the other guys if we put in some extra time. We could have used the basket on the pole across from my house, I suppose, and from time to time we did play HORSE and a few pick-up games there. It was an OK workout, enough so that we could pretend to be Jimmy Rayl from Indiana or Tom McGrann from Minnesota or - if we were really feeling it - Tommy Heinsohn from the Celtics.
But the rim was more than a regulation 10 feet from the floor, the floor was packed dirt and a few tromped-down weeds. The floor slanted slightly toward the east, which is where the edge of a deep gully was located. Shooting from that area meant not only aiming for a rim that was higher than regulation but also launching the shot from a floor that was lower at the spot of the shot than at the standard (an old telephone pole) holding the basket. Maybe I developed some rebounding skill keeping the ball from rolling to the bottom of the gulch.
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Even if it had been regulation, it was outside, man. Sure, we knew Jimmy Rayl and those other Indiana schoolboy superstars went out and shoveled a couple of feet of snow from their driveways and then shot in the chilly evening shadows until their hands no longer closed around the ball. That's why they were starting for Big Ten basketball teams. We just wanted to play for the Cubs.
Well, eventually the seasons cycled, as they do whether you want them to or not. The gridders turned in their equipment. The cagers-to-be checked out practice shirts and shorts. Coach Byre threw a few basketballs onto the tiled floor of the National Guard Armory, and it was hoops time.
For some reason, the school yearbook for my senior season lists the dates, opponents and scores of each basketball game but the football page doesn't have specific opponents, scores or game dates. That why I'm not sure when the football season ended. That's why I'm not sure when the football season ended. I do know, based on the yearbook, the basketball season started on Nov. 21, 1961, at home against the Gregory Gorillas.
It wasn't a great home opener. We fell 47-32. Lost the next game, too. To Lead. By two points. I came off the bench in that one and tipped in the winning basket for the Gold-diggers as I tried to get a rebound in the final seconds of a tie game. Won a starting spot for trying. Beat Deadwood by six. We were on our way.
Actually, by this date in 1961, we also had defeated Miller and lost to Pierre. We were 2-3 on Dec. 10, with the bulk of the season ahead and no limit on our potential. Anything was possible.
In the blink of an eye, it was March. We were sitting in a locker room in the Parkston gym, eliminated from the playoffs by Mitchell.
Turned out, anything wasn't possible. It was sure a good feeling, though, when it still was.
