Basketball in the IC

My first memory about the game of basketball is owed to a friend I had in grade school at Longfellow elementary in Iowa City. It all started sometime during the mid 1970's. Basketball was the favorite sport of my friend "Big Red". At that time my favorite sport was football. Sunday's and the NFL were almost as good as Saturday morning cartoons. Walter Payton was my sports hero ("Sweetness" was introduced to me by one of my mom's boyfriends named Rick). Big Red thought Dr. J was the greatest. One time when I was at his house I told Red and his older brother that I liked Magic Johnson better then Dr. J. They duly thwarted my absurd notion. Now, some 30 years later I know that Doc and Magic were both two of the greatest players ever and through the years I molded my game in each of their forms. We had basketball in gym class when I was in the sixth grade, which was my only formal experience being taught the game at an early age, and by a former high school and college wrestler of all people - but he deserves his props, Mr. Lepic was a great P.E. teacher. I had ball skills and more than held my own against all competition including older kids at the grade school age dodge ball, kickball, football, baseball, and soccer games and leagues I played in, but we didn't really play basketball in my neighborhood during elementary. It wasn't until I attended Central Junior High (which was the last year the 100 plus year old school was open in the downtown ICE) and went out for 7th grade basketball that I had a chance and a reason to practice, compete, and be taught the game. Around that same year an older kid from the neighborhood started teaching me to dunk at the low rims at the old Longfellow grade school hoops. That kid was four years older than me but ended up becoming one of the biggest influences and best friends in my life. "Jam ball" entered my life and became an obsession as I grew and entered high school. Sometime around the age of 15 the kid that taught me to dunk had me go with him to noon time open rec at the Robert A. Lee Community Rec. Center. It was actually only open for adults but he told the other guys that I was his little bro. On that Mon., Wed., or Fri. I was introduced to "noon ball." I was hooked. We played from noon until after midnight during the summers when I was in high school except for one week each summer (after the age of 16 for me) when most of our crew would all go on Ragbrai which was a 500 mile bike ride with around 10,000 others across the state of Iowa; this was one of our secret weapons for jumping. Basketball in the IC was one of the best things in my life. We played at the schools, in the parks, at the rec centers, at the U. of Iowa Field House, in our driveways, in my basement... I have written all the stories of my personal slam dunk life history from the IC and including most of the legendary basketball memories from my childhood and young adult years. What has not been written yet is the stories from what I call "The Dubuque Years." This is where I took my game that I learned from playing on the streets of the ICE and put it to the test against and with a vast talent pool of players from such places as Chicago, Gary Indiana, and New Orleans. This was possible for the reason that somehow through the long trail of twists and turns and fate that make up our life I, and an old friend from the ICE crew, a friend going all the way back to Longfellow elementary and the Robert A. Lee rec center, ended up attending a small Division III school called the University of Dubuque. We both played on the basketball team which was our only official NCAA experience. My dream, like so many other young basketball players, was to play Division I college basketball. At the Div. III level I had to attend a private school and thus had to take out a huge amount of student loans due to the fact that Div. III schools don't give out athletic scholarships. This was my only option to play college ball for a four year school in the state of Iowa. In retrospect UD in Dubuque was the next best thing to playing for a Div. I school. The roster for the basketball team was littered with D. I caliber athletes that for one reason or another ended up at this small obscure school. The coach had connections in the above mentioned urban areas was one reason for this, and it was a big reason. I went on a recruiting trip to the school with a teammate from a Wisconsin junior college I was attending (another story already written). The JC teammate had mad game and was a point guard from inner city Milwalkee. We saw a dunk fest on our recruiting visit, which happened to occur right after part of the movie "Field of Dreams" was filmed on the UD campus. I wanted to be at a school where I could compete and learn the game from some real hungry and talent ridden urban city athletes, and also from talented small town athletes too, who were good usually because they felt they had something to prove. UD was the place for this.