Blast from the basketball past
Receiving a letter in the mail has become a thing of the past, so when one comes my way, it feels like I’ve been given a little gift.
And when a particularly great letter comes my way, well, it feels like a grand surprise.
Such was the feeling earlier this week when I received an envelope with my name scrolled on the front and a Portland, OR, postal mark. I opened it to find a letter sparked by an interview that I did several weeks ago with the former Harlem Globetrotter Hubert “Geese” Ausbie.
It was too good to keep to myself:
When Hubert was in high school in Crescent, Oklahoma — about 1954 or so — I was the basketball coach at Mulhall High School, which is about 15 miles or so from Crescent. We had a reasonably good team — won-lost 19-9 — and this was the first year that the all-black schools of Oklahoma were allowed to compete in the playoffs at the end of the season.
As it turned out, Mulhall and Crescent were placed in the same district tournament held in Guthrie, and both advance to the finals. We had won our first two games rather handily, and Crescent had overwhelmed both their opponents by scores such as 100-20 and 120-55.
After our game in the semifinals, which we won, the boys on the team and I were in a restaurant in Guthrie, and one of the fellows asked, “Hey, coach, do you think we can hold Hubert down?” I remarked, “I can tell you one thing, boys. Hubert will not score 60 points and Crescent will not score a hundred. We’ll just play our game. We’ll be all right.” We finished our burgers and went on home.
The game began, and Hubert scored at will. Everything he threw toward the basket seemed to be on radar. The score at the end of the first quarter was 25-3, halftime was 56-9, and it never got any better.
Sure enough, Hubert didn’t score 60 that night. He scored 72.
And sure enough, Crescent didn’t score a hundred. They scored 111.
What an exhibition of shooting we saw that night. … Thank you for helping me remember Hubert “Geese” Ausbie.
Phil Carrier
Actually, Coach Carrier, I think we’re the ones who should be thanking you for sharing your memories and writing this letter.
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