Fountain Run Upsets the Mighty Summer Shade

My name is Oscar Crawford. This is the biggest sports moment of my life. It came during the spring of 1965. It was the end of basketball season and tournament time. I was a basketball player, the point guard, for Fountain Run Elementary School in Fountain Run, Kentucky.

I had arrived at Fountain Run only a year earlier when integration had totally disintegrated the only way of life that I knew. All the colored children had been farmed out to the schools closest to where they lived and we seldom saw each other anymore except at church on Sundays.

Fountain Run Elementary School had not one a game in the two years since our arrival but I never lost hope. I never quit playing hard.

In the spring of every year, Summer Shade Elementary School hosted an elementary school tournament. Four teams participated; Summer Shade, Temple Hill, and Austin - Tracy and Fountain Run. The Mighty Summer Shade was expected to win. They always won the tournament.

We had played them earlier in the year and lost. When we took the floor on opening night, my team was ready. Our coach Junior Lane had prepared us as much as possible.

Then Summer Shade came on to the court looking like Roman Gladiators. We looked like little Davids to their Goliaths. They were inches taller than all of us and looked like they should have been playing football. They were intimidating.

I was not discouraged. I was going to leave it all on the floor. There was nothing to lose and everything to gain.

For three quarters, we played them so hard they were stunned. This had been no run away. The game had been a virtual tie the entire night.

The last quarter became physical. They had not had to play like this before. We continued to trade basket for basket.

With 10 seconds left in the game, Summer Shade had taken a one point lead. The ball is thrown in to me. It is my job to do what Michael Jordan would later do many times in his career.

I am driving the ball hard and fast down the floor when I run over a player. Time stops in my personal world. I alone can see everybody in the gym. I look at them all.

I wait for the referee's whistle. I look at my dad in the stands. He is on his feet. I look at everybody who has come from Fountain Run. There are three seconds left on the clock.

The referee's whistle blows. I am back in real time. He calls the foul. He has not called charging on me. He has called blocking on the kid who went to the floor. I help him up. I am going to the free throw line.

The referee announces we are in the bonus. I will shoot the one plus one. If I hit the first shot, I will get another.

When I get to the free throw line, time stops again. All eyes are on me. The place sounds like the finals of a state tournament with a state championship on the line.

If I hit the first shot, the game is tied. If I stay frozen in time, I do not have to find out if I am successful or not. I don't like not knowing. I choose to shoot.

I look up at the goal. I bounce the ball at the free throw line a few times. I hold it in shooting position. I take a deep breath and shoot.

The ball hits the rim. It bounces. It rolls. It seems to do this forever. I have to get out of this time warp. It drops in.

The Fountain Run crowd goes wild. I see pride in my dad's eyes. The game is tied with only three seconds left to go.

I must repeat the ritual. I look up at the goal. I bounce the ball at the free throw line a few times. I hold it in shooting position. I take a deep breath and shoot. This time, there is nothing but the bottom of the net. It is the sound of the sweet swish.

There is no time to enjoy the moment. There are three seconds left. We put up a press.

They get the ball in to the kid I had just plowed over and drawn the blocking foul. He has the ball. He is headed straight towards me with fire in his eyes. I get out of his way.

He launches a shot before getting to half court. It doesn't come close. Fountain Run has upset Summer Shade. What could never happen has happened and we are guaranteed at least a second place finish in the tournament. Winning this game was the biggest sports moment of my life.