In 1974 graduates of Palo Alto High School came back from Colleges and started the Saturday Afternoon Football and Ice Cream Social League at El Camino Park across from Stanford. This pick up game, anyone who comes by can play, will now start its next contiguous season October 1 and play until first Saturday in April at said High School. With a Tahoe Bowl each year at Truckee High last weekend in July. You cannot beat this. Some of us are on the verge of having grandsons playing.
Played many Sunday mornings at that perfect hidden field behind the band shell in Central Park, the Rumsey (spelling?).
Recall once playing guys who showed up who spoke only Arabic but knew the game. Lots of disputes too, including once with a cop on horseback who wanted to use the field to train her horse. It got ugly and she rode off only to return later and apologize, to everyone's astonishment.
Recall once playing guys who showed up who spoke only Arabic but knew the game. Lots of disputes too, including once with a cop on horseback who wanted to use the field to train her horse. It got ugly and she rode off only to return later and apologize, to everyone's astonishment.
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Through the seventies...we were all college baby boomers via the GI Bill, transitioning from blue collar roots to whatever else might be out there with one constant in our lives: Saturday morning touch football. The same core players for years, games taken seriously to a point, followed by lunch, cold ones and a recap at a local clam bar. It was ritualistic and comforting and I realized when reading this terrific piece, it's still comforting....I can see the ball spiraling down against a perfectly blue, October sky and feel the pebbled leather settle onto my outstretched hand with just enough friction to stick there like velcro...priceless.
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I guess I "forgot" to stop mountain biking, another bruising sport when done correctly (i.e. borderline recklessly). The other day someone on the trail said about my bike "wow you're kickin it old school!" To which I replied "old rider, old bike."
Even though I'm not a team sports fan (I've always preferred solo sports where I go against a clock), I see the appeal of the weekly game. You play hard against the other players, argue hard over the plays, and the score is meaningless an hour after the game. The aches and pains, the camaraderie of the moment: that's what counts. Great read. Gary, keep playing, keep those micro fractures going, and keep enjoying the game. And remember, ice, ice baby. 10 minutes on, 10 minutes off.
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I have been playing summer shinny for 25 years with a group that was started 40 years ago. It's a diverse group whose members share a common love for the game and enjoy the camaraderie.
Thank you for the great article!
P.S. shinny is an informal pick up hockey (the best kind if you ask me)!
Thank you for the great article!
P.S. shinny is an informal pick up hockey (the best kind if you ask me)!
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I'm 59, played in school, still have legs, and a very good arm. I live on the UWS. Any spots open?
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@NA Find me on Twitter and DM me with your email. I'll add you to the list.
For all the diversity mentioned, it seems the league is completely composed of knowledge workers and creatives. Maybe upper middle to upper class? Is that fair to say?
Really wish I could join you all. Curious though, are there many chipped/broken teeth or torn ACLs? I don't mind an injury, if no medical bills expenses are incurred.
Wait so is the league still accepting new walk-on members or...
I played in a very competitive, somewhat dangerous (both because of the players and that we played on concrete) touch league in The Bronx. It was diverse only if diversity is defined as having both Irish-Americans and Italian-Americans play. One year, the league admitted two teams, one all-black, the other all-Jewish. Being less-than-forward-thinking, we feared the former and scoffed at the latter. The former disbanded after a few games, while the latter won the league!
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Saluting you from ATL, where I've found some great games at Piedmont Park. Will play til I die.
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Sports are to be PLAYED, not watched on TV. I cannot stand talking to sports "fans" because 99% of them can't be bothered to go outside and work and compete.
Thirty-some years ago, on the West Side of Chicago, a group of family and friends met every Tuesday evening at a public Community Center across Glass Park (we named it due to the broken glass), less than a block from my house. We played co-ed basketball, full-court. The priests, brothers and deacons were the most aggressive players. I often stood my ground in the key as a cleric soared above me for a layup! On one special evening, the parish priest called to my wife for the ball. She, not knowing her strength nor where to aim the ball, threw it full force into the priest's groin. He lay in the fetal position for several minutes, trying to breathe. Just one other time, my brother-in-law was dribbling around my wife, when she extended her hip in his direction, and he fell hard on the wood floor. Next time I saw my brother-in-law, he had the strangest-looking cast on his arm, wrist to shoulder. We did not have a newsletter. Most Tuesday nights, after we exhausted our weekend-warrior selves, we walked a block to a small, corner tavern and had beer or soda or coffee around a table in back. Ours was a neighborhood, a close community to remember fondly, and with many laughs. Just one more reminder: the girls played alongside the guys. We didn't need a Congress to drag its feet and give us permission.
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I have had similar experiences playing hoops at a local church gym where all comers were welcome, regardless of race, sex or religious affiliation. One former WNBA player joined us regularly, until she moved on to a coaching job in another state. I retired from play at age 60 but I have very fond memories of the good times so many of us shared, on and off the court. Rec sports rule!
"represents a rare and meaningful opportunity for cross-cultural-religious-ethnic-socioeconomic interaction."
Can't you just play football? Does everything have to be wrapped in layers of other stuff?
Can't you just play football? Does everything have to be wrapped in layers of other stuff?
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To borrow from a poet and lift totally and shamelessly out of context:
"But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near..."
Keep on keepin' on...
"But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near..."
Keep on keepin' on...
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Gary,
Absolutely LOVED this article. When we lived on the UWS from the 70's though the mid-90's I was a regular on the hoops courts in the park at 86th Street and played rough touch all over the place. The interaction with players of all colors, religions, socio-economic strata, etc. is one of the great humanizing experiences one can have. BTW, we were briefly colleagues at the old Time Inc. and occasionally I would run into some of my fellow weekend warriors while walking to and from meetings and luncheons with colleagues from the company (who were mostly from the Connecticut suburbs). When one of my teammates or opponents from the park would great me by name, inevitably my colleagues would say: you know that guy? And it was with great pleasure that I would say you bet, we are buddies from the park!
Absolutely LOVED this article. When we lived on the UWS from the 70's though the mid-90's I was a regular on the hoops courts in the park at 86th Street and played rough touch all over the place. The interaction with players of all colors, religions, socio-economic strata, etc. is one of the great humanizing experiences one can have. BTW, we were briefly colleagues at the old Time Inc. and occasionally I would run into some of my fellow weekend warriors while walking to and from meetings and luncheons with colleagues from the company (who were mostly from the Connecticut suburbs). When one of my teammates or opponents from the park would great me by name, inevitably my colleagues would say: you know that guy? And it was with great pleasure that I would say you bet, we are buddies from the park!
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Ditto from the West Coast!
@BB Only just saw this. Hi!
No, no, no. You cannot write this whole thing and not give any examples of the trash talk in this league. Is this football?
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I had a similar experience playing pick-up basketball at a local church for over 25 years, except we had access year round. The fees were so nominal (someone had to pay to keep the lights on!) that anyone and everyone in the community could afford to participate. Although the games go on without me at this point, I kept playing full court with and against people of all ages and backgrounds (including a former WNBA player) until I retired at age 60. I miss the games but I still maintain many of the friendships I made over the years. When it comes to friendship, playing team sports offers incomparable insight into your own character and the character of others.
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I'm currently on IR with my second broken finger this year, earned from water polo with players 20 years younger and older than me. I "remembered" to stop playing in my 20s and then "forgot" in my mid-30s. Keep at it.
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What fun. If only my knees would allow it. So, in this day and age... what YouTube channel are these games on?
I did try a game of pickup beach soccer (futbol) in Rio, once. And would encourage others to do the same.
Surfing can have an analogous vibe- it's diverse and competitive out there at those all-ages NYC breaks; watch out for the grey beards; they'll beat you to the peak more often than not.
I did try a game of pickup beach soccer (futbol) in Rio, once. And would encourage others to do the same.
Surfing can have an analogous vibe- it's diverse and competitive out there at those all-ages NYC breaks; watch out for the grey beards; they'll beat you to the peak more often than not.
Gary, the Prospect Park Football League, celebrating its 20th year, hereby challenges the Fourth Down League. We're near the picnic house in Prospect Park every Sat from 2 PM Oct- April. Ages 16-60. We've got lawyers construction workers students unemployed architect security guard black white latino asian and a few females. Methodist Hospital conveniently located nearby just in case. :) Bring it on, Fourth Down League.
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@Kenny Only just saw this.
Thank you, Gary. Love it.
I'm 78 now, living in California, but I remember with joy (and tears in my eyes right now) playing in a great game in Central Park every Saturday and Sunday for many years. And, yes, one of the great rewards was exposure to so many cultures and life experiences. It was a beautiful part of my life.
I'm 78 now, living in California, but I remember with joy (and tears in my eyes right now) playing in a great game in Central Park every Saturday and Sunday for many years. And, yes, one of the great rewards was exposure to so many cultures and life experiences. It was a beautiful part of my life.
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This is a nice piece about how desire (to compete) outlives performance. Here is a pick-up "soccer" (or different kind of football) version of that story
http://prairieschooner.unl.edu/blog/333-sports-short-21-pick-soccer-city...
http://prairieschooner.unl.edu/blog/333-sports-short-21-pick-soccer-city...
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Had a standing game on Sunday mornings for many years after HS. No matter who went away, or who traveled where, there was the game.
Are there any places to play that are coed (where a 36 woman could play)?
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You may want a shorter title. Seriously though, one may get the impression you have too much time on your hands...
Where do I sign up? I miss playing rugged non-lethal football.
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"people will put up with a lot to have access to a dependable game on a decent field."
This. What I wouldn't to find a consistent game with decent people.
This. What I wouldn't to find a consistent game with decent people.
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Any game, really.
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There may be an app for that. A friend was developing an app that would enable would-be pick-up basketball players to find a game.
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Head to Rufus King Park by the now closed Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica early on a winter Sunday morning. You may be overjoyed as I was in 2009 to see Pakistani men dressed in shalwar Kameez and wearing their pakol caps playing touch on the rubber turf. Now, that's football in America.
Keep on keeping on, Gary.
Keep on keeping on, Gary.
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I've seen you guys out there when I use to take my boys to the field to play. Glad to learn the story behind the guys who hogged the field. BTW, You guys don't argue that much.
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In my view adult team sports are a perfect metaphor for aging. As you get older, in the workplace your responsibilities an income (typically) rise, on the sports field the opposite is true. When you are 50 playing with 25 year olds, the distinction is palpable, unavoidable. You are a step slower, you have one less sprint in you. So how does one respond when you know in most cases you will lose? Give up or carry on? As in most areas of life the challenge is find and use the skills that you do have to succeed.
What I find at least as rewarding as the challenge, is the people who choose to participate. The common trait is not skill or strength but disposition: a desire the play the game of life and answer life's questions with an enthusiastic YES!
What I find at least as rewarding as the challenge, is the people who choose to participate. The common trait is not skill or strength but disposition: a desire the play the game of life and answer life's questions with an enthusiastic YES!
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Where do i sign up?
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@Brian J. Corby FInd me on Twitter and DM me your email address. We'll put you on the list.
Gary! I just turned 55 last weekend and I'm the oldest player in OUR Sunday touch game, which has seen many "fields of dreams" (if I can steal that imagery from baseball) over the past 35 years, from school playgrounds to city parks. I'm the "last man standing" of the original crew who began in the fall of '81 or so. Thank you so much for this. It's hard to explain my obsession with Sunday touch football to people who didn't grow up loving the game. I blame Darrell Royal and James Street and the '69 Longhorns along with Don Meredith and Staubach, my childhood football heroes... but when I was a kid, we all played football, it was "tackle the man" every recess in elementary school, and I have noticed that fading over the years (my kids toss the ball with me but never play with pals). I'm now trying to outjuke guys half my age, which is sometimes painful... but when you work out every morning for weeks to get in shape and then finally throw a TD to a speeding 30-year-old in the Super Bowl, all the aches of aging melt away for that one shimmering moment.
If you're ever in Austin on a Sunday, give a holler and we'll show the youngsters how it's done!
If you're ever in Austin on a Sunday, give a holler and we'll show the youngsters how it's done!
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Count me in!
This is the kind of natural exchange between different socio-economic and ethnic groups that has long created the diverse community many of us longtime New Yorkers have always considered one of the city's best, most important - and most permanent - qualities. It's exactly the kind of thing we see being lost due to gentrification homogenizing neighborhoods across the city, and illustrates well why gentrification fills so many long-time New Yorkers with a kind of existential fear that goes beyond fearing our rents might rise. I grew up in a relatively affluent environment in a nice neighborhood, and my childhood experiences on the street, in the park, on the court or field, wherever, were exactly along these lines - something that would be impossible in the suburbs. Those people living in say, Dumbo, who now complain about "loud" unwanted brown people hanging out at their beautiful new basketball courts, should consider what New York is and why they want to be here.
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When was NYC ever like that? In Edith Wharton's novels, it's not like that. People talk sentimentally about NYC's ungentrified past, but I don't know when that was. My hunch is that it was ages 14 through 18. It wasn't a period in the city's history, but a period in our personal history, which we confuse for a period in collective history.
I lived in Williamsburg in 2001. Back then it was 65% Puerto Rican , 25% white hipster, and 10% Hasidic. But even in 2001 you knew that Williamsburg would be 90% white within several years. All the businesses on Bedford were full of only white hipsters (and a few black and Asian hipsters).
I don't think NYC has ever been as integrated as people make it sound. I think there've always been clearly delineated ethic (and linguistic) groups living in near proximity, but often not in the same buildings, and these groups never fraternized with each other or hung out together.
I lived in the East Village in 1992 when I was 21. I felt poor, because I had a small trust fund. Really. Not big. But having ANY sort of trust fund made me very different than the Puerto Ricans around me. I talked with a few about their dogs (I had dogs). We always said "hello" to each other, but we never hung out or went to the same bars. Also, I was 21, my gf was 20, and they were 40. I was 21 and on the same income footing as 40 yr old latinos.
I lived in Williamsburg in 2001. Back then it was 65% Puerto Rican , 25% white hipster, and 10% Hasidic. But even in 2001 you knew that Williamsburg would be 90% white within several years. All the businesses on Bedford were full of only white hipsters (and a few black and Asian hipsters).
I don't think NYC has ever been as integrated as people make it sound. I think there've always been clearly delineated ethic (and linguistic) groups living in near proximity, but often not in the same buildings, and these groups never fraternized with each other or hung out together.
I lived in the East Village in 1992 when I was 21. I felt poor, because I had a small trust fund. Really. Not big. But having ANY sort of trust fund made me very different than the Puerto Ricans around me. I talked with a few about their dogs (I had dogs). We always said "hello" to each other, but we never hung out or went to the same bars. Also, I was 21, my gf was 20, and they were 40. I was 21 and on the same income footing as 40 yr old latinos.
We had it in the suburbs too. Sports are an equalizer - someone may have had the new Jordans, but it didn't mean he was any good.
Also, seeing different kinds of people on your street every day and saying hello - the brief, relatively anonymous interactions that make up much of a City community - actually are pretty darn important! It means that you grew up understanding that different kinds of people are a part of the fabric of your life, city, country, world, that there are different ways of being (some by birth, others by choice), and that differences can survive together.
That may sound blindingly obvious, but I don't think everyone who grows up in a gated community understands those things. A lot of people who chose to live in New York in previous decades did so exactly because of those considerations. Others did so for other reasons, but absorbed that benefit nonetheless.
That may sound blindingly obvious, but I don't think everyone who grows up in a gated community understands those things. A lot of people who chose to live in New York in previous decades did so exactly because of those considerations. Others did so for other reasons, but absorbed that benefit nonetheless.
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An excellent article!
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It's been thirty years since my last game but I have vivid memories. In one game a bystander asked if he could play. Spence was an older but very fit specimen. At one point he and I met in mid air and I found out more precisely how fit he was. After I was carried off we found out that Spence had some football experience- with the Rams.
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