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Pick-up basketball games
March 18, 2005
CARROLLTON, GA - For most people, Saturdays are a time for cutting grass and catching up on household chores. But for the past 35 years, a dedicated group has been meeting almost every Saturday morning just so they can play a little basketball.
The
idea for the game came from retired University of West Georgia philosophy
professor Burdett Wantland in 1968. Other faculty members joined him in
playing basketball about three times per week at various places.
“We played on Monday and most Thursday nights at an old school in Burwell,” Wantland remembered. “They had a very low ceiling out there and you had to shoot flat to get the ball to go in the basket. We played on campus on Saturday mornings. We had a few faculty members play during the week but the faculty mostly played on Saturday.”
Wantland and Dr. Tom Sills, dean of the College of Education at the time, coordinated the Saturday group. The original West Georgia players included Jim Sisson, Paul Philips, Jim Thomas, Dano Faires, Larry West, Dan McBrayer and Ed Krebs.
“Several of have passed away and others have retired or moved on,” Wantland said. “We loved to get out and knock each other around a little bit but it was always a friendly game.”
Through the years, Wantland had to look around on occasion to find a facility where the group could play. In addition to the Burwell location, they played at the old Alabama Street gym, the Bonner Gym at the old Carrollton Junior High School and at the campus HPE gym.
Wantland recalls that the group “was a dedicated bunch that couldn’t stand to miss the game.” So dedicated that occasionally they provided their own lighting system.
“I remember one night at the Burwell school they were renovating the gym and turned off the lights,” Wantland said. “We brought Coleman lanterns in and hung them on the wall so we could have light to play. Another time we drove a Volkswagen Beetle to the door and turned the headlights on so we could play.”
Although faces in the group have changed over the years, the spirit of camaraderie remains intact.
“We have managed to remain friends. Our games are not what you would call confrontational,” said Cliff Perkins, a Carrollton attorney who has been playing since 1980. “We work on the honor system. If you foul somebody, you call it on yourself. It probably came from the guys who started this. Burdett is a calm, pretty centered guy.”
Throughout his retirement from UWG, Wantland remained active in the game until last year when hip-replacement surgery sidelined him. He’s not sure if he’ll play again.
“I haven’t decided yet. If I do, it will be a least another year,” he said.
Dr. Julie Bartley, associate professor of geosciences, was a former Division III basketball player at Bryn Mawr College outside of Philadelphia. She still enjoys playing and learned about the pickup game from some of the participants. She’s been passing the word to other faculty members.
“I’d hoped that UWG could have some informal faculty/staff sports,” she said. “Now we have some current faculty and staff playing. There’s no skill requirement here. We’re just having fun.”
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