A Life In Sport

Mid March. Late on a Thursday afternoon. Outside, it is damp and grey. Low, scudding clouds threaten rain. The wind swirls. However, for...

“To play is good, to win is better, but to love the game is the best.” Early March, 2024. Langley, British Columbia. The city readies to...

The coffee shop hums with conversation. Cups and saucers clink invitingly, the latte machine whirrs. A delightful aroma wafts through the...

It looms on the horizon. Just over two weeks to go. Basketball junkies get twitchy. “It” is the 2023 FIBA Men’s World Cup. 32 nations...

Together, we watch. An old friend, wise beyond his years, does not say much. Yet, when he speaks, I listen. “Pressure is just the shadow...

A restless, sleepless night. A coach tosses and turns, his mind swirling. Processing information. “What ifs,” intangibles, game planning,...

2023. An early January evening in Salt Lake City. A professional basketball savant puts on a dazzling display, the capacity crowd’s...

The 2025-26 Canadian university basketball season winds down. Two traditional powers, Victoria and UBC, get set for a February 27 showdown. At stake are bragging rights, a Canada West Men's conference title, and probable top seed at the ensuing national championship. The mouthwatering clash takes me back nearly 50 years to my own "participation" in the long and storied rivalry. ----------------------- Summer, 1977. Up early each morning, I am at work on a municipal watering c

Our family sits around the kitchen table. Dinner reaches a conclusion. It is 1969, a lazy summer evening at the lake. The sun slides...

A one-year Covid induced absence, for better or worse, is now just a memory. Indeed, despite some bumps in the road, the 2021-22...

The 2026 Canadian University (CIS) Men's Basketball playoff finals loom on the immediate horizon. Set to be played March 5-8 in Calgary. Media coverage of the event takes me back nearly 50 years ago, to my own appearance in the same competition. ----------- Victoria. March 1976. An impressionable 18-year old, I sit mesmerized, high up in the bleachers. Down below, on the floor of the McKinnon Gym, players ready for the Canadian Senior “A” Men’s Basketball tournament. One capt

March 15, 1980. Calgary, Alberta. But this is no regular Saturday. The clock strikes 9pm. Outside The Refinery, a popular nightclub, the thermometer indicates 15F. An icy wind rushes down the street, but the Victoria Vikes don’t feel the cold. Rather, eyes sparkle, grins stretch from ear to ear, laughter is ever present. Giddy with excitement, we prepare to celebrate, hard on the heels of dropping the Brandon Bobcats 73-65 just five hours earlier to claim the Canadian Univers

March 1975. The sports section in British Columbia’s main daily newspaper highlights an upcoming basketball game. Stags, Knights meet in...

For me, as a young boy growing up, he is the stuff of legends, his story one that stands the test of time. An American gridiron star, he...

For those who enjoy travel and love hoops, there are worse ways to spend a summer. It is late August 2013. I journey to Puerto Rico and...

With his team’s NFL season teetering on the precipice, the Dallas coach has a novel idea. In advance of a recent game vs Minnesota, he emphasizes the need to “hit” certain key strategies. To reinforce his point, he and several players take a sledgehammer, then smash a selection of defenseless watermelons. They must have made a hell of a mess. Still, the unusual, even bizarre, ploy comes up trumps. The Cowboys scramble to an unlikely victory, giving a brief spark to their flic

The phrase "spend a lot of time together" is music to my ears. Six simple words...

Suddenly, he makes his way over. He looks fit and wiry, with sharp features. He introduces himself, then moves along to the next group.

And so I make my decision. “Sorry, this mess is on you” I reply. “RUN!!”

It’s all part and parcel of BC high school hoops. Which, over 75 years, at its very core has stayed the same.