Why Basketball?

[checkerboy]

Originally Posted by Over43

I have an acquintance who, one evening, suggested that the "men" in the Ward play volleyball instead of basketball. By the time they were done reviling him, even his gender came under suspicion. I felt bad for him because I have always prefered volleyball to basketball.

O43

It is very sad indeed that most of the guys in any ward I have ever been in seem to think that you "have" to play basketball. The problem is, despite what someone else previously posted, not everyone can play basketball. Now it is true that not everyone can play volleyball either but I prefer volleyball over basketball any day. Because for some reason jungle ball is allowed in volleyball but not basketball. Don't get me wrong I am NOT a jungle ball enthusiast, but that is for another thread. And I've noticed that whenever I have gone out to play basketball that I don't get invited back. So much for building quorum unity.

[Jbs2763]

Originally Posted by checkerboy

It is very sad indeed that most of the guys in any ward I have ever been in seem to think that you "have" to play basketball. The problem is, despite what someone else previously posted, not everyone can play basketball. Now it is true that not everyone can play volleyball either but I prefer volleyball over basketball any day. Because for some reason jungle ball is allowed in volleyball but not basketball. Don't get me wrong I am NOT a jungle ball enthusiast, but that is for another thread. And I've noticed that whenever I have gone out to play basketball that I don't get invited back. So much for building quorum unity.

check buddy...you need to stop dunking on them and maybe they would ask you back?

[IdahoJones]

My old Stake Center here had a very nice softball field which was recently paved over for parking. The Stake center where I live now has (2) softball fields and a outdoor volleyball pit. Our Stake also hosts mens and youth Bball tourney, But they also sponsor coed adult Volleyball, mens and youth softball. We even have a golf tourney in conjunction with pioneer days at the local public course. I played last year with a member of the Stake Presidency. I'm glad our stake has an expanded view on sports. Its a great way to meet members from the other wards and get out some of the non-members to the church building.

[Traveler]

Okay – I will show my age here. 50 years ago the LDS church was mostly a Utah church. Over half the members lived in Utah. The church did a lot of things in those days. The world’s largest basketball league was the Church. Each ward had a team that would play for the stake champion ship which when on to the region and then the best teams would meet in Salt Lake City for the finals. There was a great rivalry between Utah and anywhere else – especially California. The basketball was a big thing and the championship was bigger and more important than college ball.

In addition every stake in Utah had at least one softball court. Boys played fast pitch and the girls played slow pitch. I played second base in high school on for a team that won the church championship. Larry H Miller learned to play softball in the church league and was an excellent pitcher. Much of what he learned about sports goes into his ownership of the Utah Jazz.

The Church use to be very big about dances. Every ward had a Gold and Green ball once a year as well as a Gold and Green ball sponsored by the stake. Almost every week there were stake dances with hundreds in attendance. In Utah there were three famous places for dances not sponsored by the Church. There was the Apollo hall in American Fork with the KOVO record hops, the Blue Terrace in Salt Lake City – that also had a dance on Thursday night for LDS working singles (not in school), and Lagoon in Farmington (famous for the Beach Boys that had a popular song about that place).

Another big thing was Road shows and again there was a final in Salt Lake – Some road shows came from California. Our stake won about 3 years in a row because of our director. She was then given a job at BYU and started the young Ambassadors and folk dancers – her name was Jayne Thompson.

Another piece of useless information – I use to ward teach a man named Hugh Niblely and I delivered the Deseret News to another man named Eldon Ricks (who created the first LDS scripture cross reference guide called the Ricks ready reference.

One last thing – back in those days there was a singing group at BYU that called themselves the Lettermen. There was also a group called the 3 D’s and a lesser known group called “The 4 Brothers and 3 Others”. I played with that lesser group and 2 young ladies that sang with us went on to work for Laurence Welk – They became known on his TV show as Sandy and Sally.

Sorry to use up so much time.

The Traveler