Two of My Personal Sports "Glory Moments" Vintage Fourth Grade

I have two "greatest sports moments." They were exciting because I was so young and they both occurred when I was in the fourth grade.

I went to a grade school that only went to the sixth grade. That was because we had a junior high school. The first time you were eligible to play on the school's teams was when you were in the fourth grade. Needless to say you did not get to start and rarely got to play. In fact it was rare for a fourth grader to get on teams. However, I loved sports so and had mentally been playing them so long that I was able to wheedle a spot on the roster of both the basketball and football team. I was on the baseball team too but never had a dynamic moment.

We were playing a tough football game. We played "flag" football where the ball handling players like the backs and ends had red flags in the backs of their jeans hanging out 18-inches and you had to pull them out.

It was the fourth quarter and we had one defensive end very tired and another got hurt which left me. The coach thought about it for about 20 minutes and then finally gave in and put me in.

He put me on the left side. That was the weak side. Teams mostly ran to the right.

Sure enough the team ran to the right but they got around our defense on the right and they also got past our secondary.

I was slow, really slow and to this day I do not know how I did it. I ran across the field at an angle caught up to the runner and dove at the flag. I got it. The runner was about five yards from scoring. The game was over at that play and we won six to nothing. I was a hero.

Exciting play number two was in a close basketball game. However because it was so intense once again we had tired players. I was put in at guard even though I was a forward because in a zone I was tall so they would have a little more trouble throwing over me.

Sure enough they did and I leaped into the air about two inches and intercepted the ball. I dribbled the length of the court but because I couldn't dribble well the defensive guy trying to catch me ran into the back of me and the referee called a one-shot foul.

Remember I was nine and in the late 1950s we were taught to shoot free throws underhanded.

I let it go with my best "Wilt-the-Stilt" touch and it hit the right side of the rim then rolled along to the back then hit the back and rolled in.

I went jumping down the court but that was my total glory for the game and the season as I was removed from the game. My coach wasn't happy that I celebrated in such an unabashed way.

In the fifth and sixth grades I became a regular and had some glory moments. Nothing ever matched the fourth grade accomplishments.

Well, there was that time I made a three-and-a-half-foot high jump at camp in front of a really pretty girl when I was ten-years-old but that is a different story.

Reference:

Personal Glory