There were regular lunch time games between Teachers and Pupils. The P.E dept. plus ex pro footballer, now Maths teacher, Jack Gilroy and a few others would play against a team of pupils.
It was always fiercely and evenly contested.
The teachers did have a couple of secret weapons though:
1. Jack Gilroy was so hairy and sweaty that nobody wanted to guard him!
2. John Ward was shall we say vertically challenged but used his stocky build to stand under any pupil that jumped above him in the hope that when you came down you’d think twice the next time! Ouch!
This is known as a ‘Submarine’ and would normally be deemed foul play but as there were no referees he got away with it every time…. well until big Rab came down very hard with his elbows connecting with JW’s head!
Rab cleverly made it look accidental but we all knew it wasn’t.
One day the teachers were short of players and I was asked to play on their team.
There was a teacher called H. Samsami, I never knew his 1st name, but he was known throughout the school as Sammi!
He made up for his complete lack of skill by running about a lot.
He had the annoying habit of getting trapped in a corner by two bigger opponents and then launching a ‘Hail Mary’ shot at the basket. It always missed!
I spotted him running into a cul de sac so I cut towards the basket so that he could find me with an easy pass for a layup. But the pass never came.It happened again. And again no pass! When it happened a third time, I stopped and shouted:
‘Sammi! Pass the Fu@#ing ball!!’
There was an audible gasp from the other players and the few spectators sitting high up on the wall bars.
He didn’t take too kindly to my outburst, but I was now a cocky 14 year-old and very confident in my own ability. Plus, I was in the right and the other laughing teachers knew it!
However, Giff had to curtail this growing cockiness by myself, Rab and Sandro.
When you’re winning games by 40+ points, it gets difficult to respect your opponents. The three of us were showboating: behind the back and no look passes; mazy dribbling, shooting from halfway etc..
We were leading 33-7 after only 10 minutes of one game.
Suddenly Giff subbed all three of us off and sat us on the bench until well into the second half! By then the opposition had cut the gap to 5 points.
We got the message loud and clear! He put us back on with a couple of minutes to go to see out the win.
We never ‘pissed’ about or disrespected the other team again.
_____
Big Jake, an ex-Army PT instructor, also played in the lunch time games. He had a notorious ‘party piece’ where he’d pick up kids by their ears! Not on the basketball court but in general around the school. He would actually grasp the boy’s head in both his large hands and only pretend to lift them by the ears but it looked very impressive and terrified the victim.
Jake was 6’2″ and broad shouldered so any smallish kids were hoisted high in the air above Jake’s head.
Until one fateful day when he selected a victim in a busy corridor.
The boy immediately panicked and thrashed about, swinging his feet. On his third kick his Dr. Marten clad foot connected perfectly with Jake’s family jewels!
He grunted, dropped the boy, and went down like a felled tree! The giant had been slain!
There was a stunned silence then the corridor quickly emptied of boys scattering in every direction laughing and shouting.
To my knowledge that was Jake’s last ever attempted ‘ear-lift’
At the beginning of the next term one of the Science Dept. Techies had acquired a reel-to-reel tape of Boston Celtics v LA Lakers in Game 7 of the 1969 NBA Finals.
At lunch time about 40 excited staff and pupils crammed into a small lab to watch the game. The flickering, black and white images projected onto the screen were grainy and blurry but absolutely magical.
The aging Celtics beat the much-fancied Lakers 108-106 to clinch the title!
That began my 50+ year long love of The Celtics!
_____
In 1972 Rab, Jim and I all joined our local basketball club, The Clydebank Hustlers. Our home court was The Hub, a state-of-the-art facility (for its time) It had one of the best sprung wooden floors around and clear Perspex backboards.
The club was run by a truly inspirational couple Al and Maisie MacCrae.
Not only were they superb coaches they mentored all the young men and women at the club.
There were already familiar faces from St Pats at the club: Pat Boyce, Gerry Fallon, Jack McGinn, Tony O’Donnell and Desy Hone. Also, seasoned Scottish International players, Jim Harte and Terry McGeadie and local entrepreneur Gerry Wan.
Both Jim and Terry would return to the club to coach in the 1980’s.
The current team were very successful playing in the local league and Scottish Cups.
It was a great academy for us young-uns but we knew we’d need to bide our time before securing a place in the team. By the following season some of the older players had retired so there were now opportunities opening up.
Talented and tall guys like, 6’6″ powerful centre, Bill Fraser; 6’5″ scoring machine Alex Paterson; 6’4″ Gerry Coll and sharp-shooting Frank Fallon at 6’3″ all joined the club and were soon challenging for playing minutes.
As Ray Docherty, a lifelong friend, who played for our nearest rivals The Bearsden Bruins once said:
‘You can teach the basics but ye canny coach (create) height!’
Soon more talented youngsters like Michael O’Rourke; 6’3″ Laurie Skuodas (whose party piece was to hold 9 tennis balls in one of his massive hands); Brian Niven; Gordon Clark, and Gerry Durning joined the club. St.Pat’s teammates, Sandro and Eddie also joined.
More older guys left due to work and family commitments, and it was decided that we now had enough players to play in the U/19 as well as the senior leagues.
The club was totally self-funded. Gerry Wan used his Chinese connections to supply playing and training kit.
We also greatly benefitted from free training and playing facilities at The Hub.
The U/19 team went from strength to strength winning local leagues and cups and also reached two Scottish Cup Finals in ’75 and ’76.
Unfortunately, we lost both games but the club continued to thrive.
We had a great social side too. Fund raising dances and regular nights in the pub (maybe too many!)
_____
And that’s what I want to finish on.
The sporting side was truly great, but the main thing is that after 50+ years a lot of us are still in regular contact and meet up when we can.
We had a reunion game in 2018 and everybody who could attend was there. It was a great occasion with lots of laughter and tall tales.
That is the true legacy of Basketball.
Dedicated to friends and teammates who are sadly no longer with us:
RIP:
Al MacCrae
Bohan Saksida
Brian Niven
Bill Kerr
Bob Taft
Desy Hone
__________
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Superb. The Hub and our club were my life for so many years,from a fourteen year old in ’67 until final retirement ( and feeling very old ) in 1989, when my wife said , her and our baby son or The Hustlers/Team Legend……It was a close call. As an individual, to find something I enjoyed and became reasonably sufficient at has been one of my life’s great joys. The feeling of freedom gained from running and jumping ( even remembered to take Mr Spalding with me on occasion !!) and the physical fitness and development that came with it was immense.Equally important was the wonderful feeling of camaraderie which came from being part of a team(s). Running out on to that wonderful floor on a Friday night with teammates and friends, to a packed Hub was something I anticipated with relish so often . As a benchwarmer and eventually a starting five place along with some real characters was brilliant fun. Someday I will put together my memories of all those people and the tales of their prowess and , always, banter. The lessons learned from coaching ,both men and women were transferred into other areas of my life and added to my professional skill set. I will always be so grateful for the pleasures of playing the game and the lessons learned . A mention of the two men who became so important to a young teenage boy. Johnny Ward who first put a note on the St.Pat’s P.E. department door ” Anyone interested in playing basketball ,come to the gym at 4.oo on Thursday “. Then three weeks later took myself and two others to The Hub to meet Mr.Clydebank Basketball Club, the remarkable man who became coach,mentor and friend , the irreplaceable, Al McCrae, …God bless him.
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Cheers Jim! I look forward to reading your basketball memories both at St Pat’s and at the Hustlers. Your era predates and then coincides with my own 70’s experiences.
Then of course our very successful 80’s Team Legends era needs to be written down and recorded somewhere! 😁 🏀🏀
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You’re dead right about being able to transfer the communication skill set from sport into a working environment. Sport has so much more to offer than ‘sport.’ 🙂
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This is amazing! I came across this by sheer chance and it brought back so many memories. I was at St Pat’s from 1967-72 and was captain of the basketball team probably a couple of years before the dates of this blog. I remember some of the names mentioned who were in our team, and also the teachers – big Jake, Ward and hairy Jack Gilroy. Also great to hear about the Hustlers, where I played too for a few years. Wonderful too to see a picture of Al McRae, I can only agree he was a top bloke.
Another abiding memory is first year PE lessons with big Jake in a class of 40 boys. He made us play crab football for the whole period, which involves crouching backwards with legs out front and arms on the floor behind you, all chasing a ball in a cramped gym. More like crowd control for adolescents than physical exercise, but that was the St Pat’s ethos 🙂
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Thank you for your kind words. I’m glad you liked my posts 🏀😁
Great memories of St. Pats 🍀
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PS There’s a Clydebank Hustlers Page on Facebook if you’d like to see more photos and articles. It would be great to hear of your own Hustlers memories.
Just send a request to join and I’ll include you immediately 🏀👍
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