Terry Woster: My, how sports have changed - AG Week
This was the middle of the 1950s, and the teacher was trying to interest a group of 10- or 11-year-old all-American boys in (gasp. The finer points of the sport failed to gain traction with my classmates. We were far more interested in “real’’ sports, the ones played by the likes of Mickey Mantle and Paul Hornung and Bob Cousy. What did we know 60 years ago. (Just so you know, I’ve learned more about the game as an adult. I appreciate the skill and athleticism involved in playing it well. Maybe that’s because I came to appreciate ice hockey as an adult, and the two sports have some similarities. I didn’t understand hockey as a kid, no more than I understood soccer. I liked the Montreal Canadiens in those days, but I liked them because they were an NHL dynasty, not because I had a clue what a great team they put on the ice year after year. What I did like about soccer back in my phys-ed days was that it wasn’t dodgeball. If we were outside trying to kick the ball around, at least we weren’t in the gym being pelted by some of the more sadistic guys in the class. Some kids found dodgeball to be a wonderful public school experience. When we played dodgeball in the old gym under the high school, I had very vivid out-of-body experiences. I’d be floating above the play, watching as if in slow-motion while the physical me watched a hard-thrown ball coming at his face but failed to move so much as half an. Source: www.agweek.com
