A Loyal Fan's Thoughts

Greetings Tony,

It's an honor to be invited to make some comments on Howard Pulley summer league and our Minnesota Golden Gophers. This old timer got started on basketball back on a small farm in western Wisconsin, almost 66 years ago. Dad tacked up an old iron hoop at one end of the hay mow.and we would work hard at throwing down the hay from under the basket so we would have a clear floor to play on. The floor got bigger as the winter went on and the cows used up the hay. The only problem was that then quite a few of the longer shots had to be made over the Roof braces. Got pretty good at trick shots at a very early age. Also remember how excited this six year older got when dad took us to the Montevideo High school gym for "open gym" on Saturdays. Could hardly tie the shoe strings on the $1.98 tennis shoes. By the way those old tennis shoes never lasted very long. They either got holes in the toes right away or you outgrew them.

Watching the Gophers over the past 10 years has been a tremendous enjoyment for this old duffer. Never realized how deeply my love for basketball is and how much I love the young people who have brought the game to a level no one my age could ever have envisioned. I somehow experienced the ups and downs the Gopher players went through over the past four years with the abrupt coaching changes and the miraculous procuring of Tubby Smith. This was indeed prayers answered for all of Minnesota fans and particularly the players themselves.

The Howard Pulley summer league that I began attending this summer was the perfect followup for a fan that was really down to see the season end both for the women and the men. I got introduced to a whole new environment of basketball. Yes, from the huge diamond ear rings to the handshakes to the Mercedes in the parking lot to the eager young high school players to the little two year olds that can dribble the ball better than I did in high school to the intense level of play to the tremendous control those dedicated referees were burdened with, I could go on and on with the cultural encounter I experienced this summer at the Salvation Army Gym on west seventh in Hockey Town St. Paul.

The players themselves have a magnetism that is hard to explain. My gratitude to our creator for what has happened for the black athlete in sports and all areas of our society goes very deep. I do not mean to single out only the black athletes, but isn't it ironic that it took sports for many of us in this country to realize the magnificently talented people we whites chose to enslave over the centuries. I weep at the tragedy of slavery and the effects it still has on many of our people's lives. A recent mission trip to Africa confirmed in my heart the level to which Black People raise every aspect of life. We've got a lot of Tiger Woods in this world. But I digress.

Watching the play this summer I was impressed with the talent we have had and the talent that's coming for the Gophers. Rather than make this first e-mail too long, I will list as many names as I can recall and later with your approval Tony, I will give you my amateur diagnosis of how I see each of these young fellows. There was Khalid El-Amin, Dan Coleman, Vince Grier, Quincy Lewis, Colton Iverson, Ralph Samson III, Al Nolan Jr. and Sr., Damian Johnson, Devron Bostick, Travis Bush,Blake Hoffarber Kevin Payton, Jon Williams. Also had some out state players and then those high school kids on the select team. There's a lot to talk about and look forward to.

Sincerely Dave Glasspoole