Basketball John

 Basketball John 

I tried to trace today, the beginning of the

Love for basketball

For in Sopchoppy

All I wanted to be was Walt Dickson

Halfback for the Yellowjackets gridiron 

I recall going to a basketball game

In the old native rock gym

The mighty Jackets taking on

The Crawfordville Panthers

Maybe that was the planting

Of the seed

And by the time we moved to

Monticello

Daddy built my first goal and 

Backboard in the back yard

To which Walt and Bart Starr

Aspirations 

Turned somehow to wanting

To be a Hondo Havlicek Celtic 

So when the Fourth grade A

Was scheduled to play the

Fourth grade B at halftime

Of a Monticello Tiger game

I was the go to man

To face the talented 

Bobby and Butch Plains twins

Marc Bishop and I did the

Best we could

And when half time came to an end

I was high scoring man on the losing

B team with three points

Sinking my first free throw ever.

The love of hoops was fully born

The next year when we were to

Move to Wilmore, Kentucky

Just twelve miles south of

Mecca Lexington 

The epicenter of basketball

A Wilmore Cub

I became a Rupp Runt

And have been ever since.

In the shed hangs the original iron

My father hoisted in long ago

Monticello

The goal still glows hot

From years of swishing.