Won a championship in this gym. An intramural championship, but still a championship, no less.

 ”This is not Burger King! You cannot have it your way!!”

I had actually been recruited- for the first time in my life!- to Penn State Altoona before my sophomore year. At Altoona I would play for two coaches and on two helplessly bad teams that, paradoxically, had plenty of workable talent available.

When I first came into the gym on campus to play pickup, I could see that there were several other good players around, and the preseason pickup crowds were pretty thick. We’d play for 3-4 hours at a time, and the “replacements-” my tag for the bball players on campus that were not on the basketball team nor wanted to be- that year were of the best quality, by far, of any of my three years at Altoona.

My skills put me on the proverbial map in Altoona just as they had in Abington. Once again, however, my lazy practice habits hurt my ability to produce in (or get into)  games. Our coach lost his job after my first season in Altoona, a season that saw us start the season with an 18- game losing streak. Macklin probably didn’t deserved to be fired- he had been working part time and the position was to become full time the next season- but fell victim to office politics within the athletic front office. The next coach- retired NBA player Armon Gilliam, was a lot worse coach than Macklin (blame a clueless Athletic Director for that); he was dismissed after three years on the job.

Upstairs all-purpose room in the gym, aka the Brown Room. Armon Gilliam's 'Player Interest' meeting occurred here and was attended by a record number of hoop-team hopefuls in 2002. Many campus parties happened here also.

Gilliam and Macklin had some sort of unspoken beef  after Gilliam’s hiring; one of Gilliam’s power moves  was to cut all but three returning players form the previous season’s squad (of which I was one). With no transfers coming in, we were left with a bunch of not-ready freshman and no size to speak of (I was our starting power forward. If our center subbed out, I became the center). I lasted 8 games into Gilliam’s regime- he tired of me not playing like a post player on top of not trusting many of the turnover-prone freshman he put on the floor. (There was a point early in the season when Gilliam claimed I led the team in turnovers. But look at the season box score- 75 total games started would equate to 15 games played, and our team somehow played 150 more total minutes than our opponents. I think we could win a couple of games playing five-on-zero.)

Though I could’ve come back to the team the next fall, I decided not to and instead played intramurals my senior year and won a championship (and averaged 30+ppg & double-digit rebounds, FYI). Even while being relegated to mere spectator during college basketball season, I knew I was gonna be playing pro ball soon- college be damned.

Spring Run Stadium, a very impressively designed field on campus. I did some sprints and bleacher runs here to burn off energy.

Music of the Moment:

I’ll go with the Best Of Both Worlds, end of my sophomore year. Good times.

Best Memory:

My senior year there; all the long nights of partying & bullshit wit Wes, B, Tone, and the rest. Too many memories to write on a website.

Worst Memory:

I enjoyed all of my time at PSU Altoona, even the time I was off the hoop team. All of it was/ is part pf the journey, and well worth it.