Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission: Impossible! music, please!):
(1) What sporting activities did you participate in as a youth and as an adult?
(2) Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or on Facebook or Google+. Please leave a comment on this post with a link to your post.
Thank you to Lisa Gorrell for suggesting this SNGF topic.
Sports, huh? Never one of my strong points.
I don't remember any organized sports from when I was really young. I know I had a sports uniform (which I have kept all these years), worn one day a week, when I attended 5th grade at Woollahra Demonstration School (in a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales). I think Friday was sports day. I can't think of what sports we played at school, though. I recall having the opportunity to play soccer, cricket, and rugby while I lived in Australia, and I strongly disliked the first two. I doubt I was particularly good at any of them.
When my family returned to the United States, I was able to be bad at more sports. The only F I ever received in my life came in physical education. My teacher, who looked a little like Crystal Gayle but whose name I don't recall (I can still picture her in my mind), didn't believe that I couldn't do a cartwheel and failed me for that. She thought I was faking. Sorry, lady, I still can't do a cartwheel. But I'll always remember you (and not in a pleasant way).
I had various attempts at archery, basketball, volleyball, baseball, and softball, all of which I was very bad at because I can't aim well. (My father learned this when he tried to teach me to shoot a gun.) Even trying to compensate for how I missed didn't work. One thing I was reasonably good at with baseball and softball was catching, but I never learned how to use a glove properly, so I always caught barehanded.
I did some bowling, mainly during summer breaks, but that was another thing where aiming was almost a prerequisite. I was the queen of gutter balls. I think my lifetime high score is in the 70's.
I was long and lanky, so I should have been good at running, but nope, I sucked at that also. It wasn't until I was in college that I learned I had totally flat feet. (One healthcare person told me they were so flat they almost went the other way.) At least that explained why I was so miserable at running.
I am pretty sure there were Girl Scout badges for sports stuff, but I don't remember if I earned any of them. I know I saved my uniform and badges, but I have no idea where they are in the house.
My brother and I used to play sandlot football in Villa Tasso with some of the other kids living out in the sticks. I always wanted to be a quarterback (I dreamed of playing for the Minnesota Vikings when Fran Tarkenton retired), but that whole problem with aiming bit me again. I was a good lineman, though. The guys had trouble moving past me, because it was like my feet were planted in the ground.
The closest I ever came to playing football was, many years later, being an assistant coach of a professional women's football team. I can't remember the team name or how I found out about it, but I drove from near the USC campus out to Van Nuys for the nighttime practices. This was not long after my knee surgery (see below), so I couldn't do a lot, and there was no pay. But I was thrilled to be part of it.
In college, however, I did find a few athletic activities at which I was at least adequate. I got into weightlifting about the summer of 1982, when I really, really wanted to try out as a walk-on for the USC football team. I had a couple of friends on the team, one of whom was a walk-on himself (Rick Vasquez, a quarterback), who encouraged me, and wide receivers coach Nate Shaw thought I should at least be given a chance. But John Robinson refused to talk to me. I competed in a couple of local weightlifting contests and even won two prizes.
During the time I was working out with weights, I also started bicycling as exercise and part of my training regimen, not just as a means of transportation (because I didn't have a car at the time). I used to ride laps around the USC campus. I think I built up to 11-mile runs, and then fall semester came and I was taking classes full time and working half-time in an office. Between that and wrenching a knee (which eventually needed surgery), boom!, there went the exercise routine. Because of the way I injured my knee, now I can't even ride a bicycle half a mile.
The other sporting activity I got into and enjoyed a lot was swimming. I had been swimming since I was a kid, but nothing major. USC had an Olympic-size swimming pool in the old PE building. I did lap swimming and built up to a mile at a time. I found it very relaxing and enjoyable.
At this point in my life I'm mostly fat and lazy. I walk, and that's about it. As a fan, however, I love the NFL and root for the Minnesota Vikings and Oakland Raiders. I enjoy baseball (see Lisa Gorrell's post on this topic) but haven't gotten really enthusiastic about a team since the Montreal Expos ceased to exist. And I will always love the Boston Celtics.
Thanks for the shout out. I think the best fans are those who can't play well. I totally forgot about school sports such as kickball, jumprope, and sacket(a silly 3 base game). I used to attend Raider football games with my dad in the late 60s and early 70s. They had some really great players.
ReplyDeleteI remember kickball, but never heard of sacket before. I'm not sure I would qualify jumping rope as a sport, though.
DeleteI didn't attend a professional football until I was in college. My family did see a minor league game in Florida when I was a kid, though. And the classic Harlem Globetrotters actually came to Fort Walton Beach once, so we got to see Curly Neal, Meadowlark Lemon, and Geese Ausbie in person.