At age 12, I was introduced to sports. We had baseball and basketball at Hatley High School, no football team at that time but it didn’t matter to me. I was not used to sports at that point. I certainly got involved during basketball and then baseball season! We cheered our teams on and most games were during the day because folks didn’t have transportation (not many cars) and night travel for the majority was limited. Away teams came to HHS and we attended the games.
BASKETBALL: I truly enjoyed (& still do) the game of basketball. Billy played on the basketball team and gained the name of “Slick” (which lasted long past high school days) by some of his ‘Slick’ moves. It is fast paced and the players are excellent athletes. Some of my grandchildren played in high school and I knew a wee bit about the game because I had watched at Hatley. We made many friends with the opposing team members.
BASEBALL: In the spring, we had baseball and it was so exciting. The only thing I knew about baseball was vacant lots or homemade diamonds where we played by the rules of the oldest players. That was a great year all round.
When we moved to Gordo for my last four years of school, Billy played football and basketball. I don’t recall if he played baseball. I never missed a football game that last four years. Being in the band, we were taken to the game in the ‘band bus’, just a school bus. WOW! What fun. Of course, basketball was great, too. Billy was again called “Slick” and even Chief (Lollypop) Hood called him Slick when he stopped him when he was headed for Valeria’s when on leave. Chief Hood was so excited to see his buddy Slick. The Hoods had no children but I guess every kid in Gordo loved them because they loved the kids.
Of course, I didn’t get to see a ballgame on TV because we didn’t have one but sometimes listened on the radio and we cheered for Auburn because my Davis side of the family (Uncle S.L.) had graduated from Auburn. We cheered for Alabama (when they weren’t playing Auburn) because several of Gordo’s boys were playing for Alabama. Ronnie Davis was one player who was drafted to play for Alabama. A few years after I graduated, Larry Blakeney (a cousin of Thomas) went to Auburn on scholarship. Larry played and later was assistant coach there. He retired as head coach at Troy State. We were all proud of Larry’s success in athletics.
That’s about it for what teams I was a fan of as a child. Until age 12, none. Thereafter, Hataley High School, Gordo High School and Auburn, Alabama.
No comments:
Post a Comment