#5 - Open Hoops 1988
Jeff and I played a lot of Hoops in college. We were a formidable 2 on 2 team because of the way our skills meshed and the chemistry that we had together. Each year we would enter the Intramural Tournaments and do pretty well in the recreational division. In 1988 we took it to another level. We entered the Open Division.
We expected to get out butts handed to us on a platter. Instead we kicked some serious bootie. We won round after round. During that span we beat teams consisting of every member of the UC Davis hoops team. I was battling like my life depended on it in the post against guys 6'4", 6'6", 6'9" and so on. Jeff was harassing cat-quick guards and we continued to advance. I eliminated everything outside of 5 feet from my game and simply used my strength and large butt to dominate the much taller players in the post. Jeff kept them honest hitting shots from 3 point range. We reached the finals.
In the finals we, 6'0" Phil and 6'1" Jeff, played the Conference Player of the Year, a 6'11" center for UC Davis, and the all-conference starting point guard who stood 6'4". We took it to them hard. If any of you recall the movie White Men Can't Jump and the 2 on 2 tournament in that movie where the battle for position inside was like a heavy weight wrestling match, well then you may be able to picture the battles we were fighting in this game. The match was the best 2 out of 3 games to 10 points. Amazingly, despite a couple of dunks from their team, Jeff and I won the 1st game 10-8. The 2nd games was a truly classic game. I was using moves in paint never before seen from a short white guy, Jeff was rifling me precision passes and I was using my big butt to move the 6'11" guy around. We took the lead 8-4. Then unfortunately we went cold. We had good shots but they didn't fall. We ended up losing 11-9. The 3rd game was not as close as we were beaten 10-6 in the 3rd game. However, we had the tournament in our hands, if only 2 shots had fallen in that 2nd game when we were up 8-4.
In the course of that tournament we'd played to the oohs an aahs of large crowds of spectators. We won the respect of most of the great players that we ran into at the Rec Hall. It was like being in "The Zone" for a two week period. The funny thing was that Jeff and I also entered the "C" division (under our real names) and lost in the 1st round. If we'd won the open division our pictures would have went on the Rec Hall wall with the names "Luis Granados" and "Dwight Carlson" under it.
This is my greatest sports memory. Not accomplishment, that was winning County, but my greatest sports memory.