Backyard Games
Alfonz24
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in Sports Talk
Batavia Illinois late 1960s.
Ken Anderson - future 1st round draft pick of the Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL. 1981 NFL MVP.
Dan Issel - Averaged school record 25.7 points per game at Kentucky. Seven time ABA and NBA All star.
Anderson and Issel families yards adjoined against each others.
Another neighbor and teammate, Byron Von Hoff, who was a 1st round selection by the NY Mets, but injuries kept him from the majors.
Another friend and teammate at Batavia was future NBA announcer Craig Sager.
I imagine some pretty intense games, whichever they played in the neighborhood.
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Gosh, this certainly brings back memories, I lived in a huge suburban neighborhood as a kid, we used to get together and play baseball, football, basketball, you name it, we played it. I remember a lot of kids had those basketball goals in their driveways, the kind you buy at sporting goods stores and fill the bottom with sand or whatever, and one time we were playing a pickup game, 4 on 4 or something like that, and it was getting pretty rough. So anyway, I shot the ball and missed and my friend went up for the rebound and took an elbow to the nose real hard, busted him up real bad, blood started coming out of his nose all over the driveway. We had to help him home and his parents took him to the emergency room, and his eyes started to blacken a while later, it was insane.
Mumbly Peg; and wet towel snapping contests (where kids wore swim suits and where the only rule was no snapping of the towel on your opponent above the neck) were a couple of the games my buddies and I played growing up.
Lots of fun, even with the blood loss and welts.
Likely would not be allowed today.