Tulsa church basketball players don’t let age deter them

TULSA, Okla. (AP) - You’ve heard of Old Faithful?

The old and the faithful make sneakers squeak in perhaps the city’s longest-running pickup basketball game.

Players have been throwing up early-morning shots - and prayers - in a gymnasium at Christ United Methodist Church since 1981 or 1982, according to Vern Stefanic, who does part-time work for the church.

Stefanic is the elder statesman of the game. He said he started playing pickup ball at the church in 1983 or 1984. He figured it might be time to stop when his 60th birthday arrived.

“But then I just had one of those days,” he said. “My body wasn’t hurting. The competition was intense, but not destructive. I didn’t make too many stupid mistakes. And, best of all, the shots were falling. Anyone who has ever competed in any kind of sport will tell you that just makes you want it even more.”

Two years later, Stefanic still is playing - and he sometimes gets chided for trying to draw charges from players who are much bigger.

“Just live to fight another day, dude.”

Those words came from Rhett Brooks, who was elaborating on church ball lore. Brooks started playing at the church in the mid-1990s.

Shirts and skins? “I think that went out with the Carter administration,” Brooks said.

Brooks is old enough to remember Jimmy Carter’s presidency because, at 52, he’s among 50-somethings who are “regulars” in the games.

Does Brooks play because he wants exercise or does he just love basketball?

“It’s all of those,” he said.

The participants love basketball this much: They play twice a week before going to work. Tipoff is at 6 a.m. Crawling out of bed and driving to the gym in the dark sounds like half the battle. They’re fast-breaking when others are breakfast-ing.

And, speaking of breaking, Doug Wince, 57, was asked if he feels the mileage on his body.

“I’ve got a lot of Velcro on, as you can tell,” he said, referring to knee and ankle braces.

Brooks and Stefanic are on the comeback trail after suffering meniscus tears.

The Tulsa World (https://www.tulsaworld.com/ ) reports Paul Miller, 53, said he was once dealt a cracked rib.

“We have had probably three ACLs and two Achilles (injuries) that I have seen,” Wince said.

That doesn’t seem like a lot of carnage, all things considered. There’s a defibrillator on site, but Stefanic said as far as he knows it has never been used.

Among participants in the church’s pickup games is Joe Little, 57, a Simple Simon’s Pizza executive who, on the day a reporter was in the gym, was tossing in perimeter shots like the rims were extra-large.

Little said people give him a hard time about playing ball at his age. He said his boss calls the church games an “old man’s league.” He reminds his boss that young guys participate, too.

Patrick Kelly, 29, said he plays because he missed basketball and because his wife told him he had to “do something.”

“I was getting fat,” he said. “I needed to get some exercise.”

Kelly said he’s not built for distance running and he hates to run. Basketball was more enticing, even though running is part of the deal. The games are full-court.

“If we only have seven (players), we will all just go home,” Brooks said. “Nobody wants to play half-court.”

Group emails are sent to make sure at least 10 regulars can commit to lacing ’em up every game. If only nine players RSVP, Brooks said you can expect a follow-up email with only one word: “nine.”

“We hold each other accountable for showing up,” Brooks said. “We went through a spell a few years ago where guys were just kind of blase about showing up. … You don’t want to be the 10th guy who sleeps in.”

Stefanic estimated a couple of hundred people have taken part in the games over the years. The cast of players keeps changing, and he suggested new blood is good because it challenges older players to keep up with the young guys.

Who plays? Mostly professionals - and that applies to occupation rather than the caliber of hoops.

“There was a time when we had a bunch of insurance guys,” Stefanic said. “There was a time when we had a bunch of car salesmen. Those were chippy days when we had the car salesmen, let me tell you. We had some almost fistfights in those days, but that was a long time ago.”

If age and maturity are one and the same, participants should be “senior” enough to realize good behavior means you retain an invitation to the gym.

Stefanic said there have been a couple of times when the church considered using the facility for another purpose. He’s of the opinion that carpeting the place would be a tragedy.

“More than once I’ve gone into a church council meeting to talk about why this ministry was important for the church, which I think it is,” he said.

“Most of these guys go to their own churches or they don’t go anywhere, but when we start each morning with prayer, to me what that is doing is it is just kind of bonding us together and making us something more than just a bunch of gym rats coming up here trying to kill each other.”

Stefanic said players have gotten so close that they sometimes know what challenges their court mates are facing in “real” life.

“People are there for each other as needed, just to talk,” Stefanic said. “To me, this has been a pretty good example of what a church should be doing.”

The church doesn’t charge a usage fee, but players dig into their pockets to make a Christmas “gift” every December, and the money is used to help people in need, according to Stefanic.

One good thing about playing ball with the same group of guys is you have the scouting report down pat.

Brooks said he will run into friends away from the gym and his wife will ask “who’s that?”

Brooks: “Steve.”

Wife: “What’s his last name?”

Brooks: “It’s Steve. He fouls a lot, and he can’t go left.”

Brooks said he never imagined he would still be playing at age 53. He would love to play as long as he can, but with the competition constantly getting younger, a realistic goal is five to 10 more years.

The meniscus injury kept him out of action for two months. He said his wife suggested the injury was a sign that it’s time to stop playing before he gets hurt (again).

Brooks played the you-could-get-hurt-doing-anything card (“You could get hit by a bus”) and returned to action in time to witness history.

“About two weeks ago we had a game that was 21-0,” he said. “We all think we had never seen it before, ever. We had never had a total skunk.”

Stefanic feared his basketball career was over on two occasions before his 60th birthday.

In 2006, he underwent back surgery and wasn’t sure if, post-surgery, he would be able to walk. He said it took several weeks before he could walk to the end of his driveway and back. That was followed by six months of 6 a.m. rehab.

“Coming back for basketball became my main motivator,” he said.

“Vanity? Probably. But it worked.”

In 2010, he was trying to play with “at least one” broken finger. He was also worn out because multiple projects were causing him to work long hours. Waking up at 5 a.m. to play ball started to feel like a chore.

Feeling completely miserable, he went to the gym anyway. One of the players wanted to talk about some problems. That was followed by a group conversation about sports. And that led to what Stefanic said was a funny, passionate, pointed and engaging trash-talking session that touched on culture, politics and art.

“And I realized that it might be something more than the basketball that kept me there, and others, as well,” he said.

Stefanic described the experience as tribal. “But it was also diverse, inclusive mayhem in action.”

That translates to pickup basketball in this way: Never mind differences of opinion and different lifestyles, the old men and young men in the gym showed they could willingly co-exist “in a game that never ends.”

Said Stefanic: “I’ve always thought life should be that way. And I realized that, there, it was (that way). So why would I want to leave?”

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Information from: Tulsa World, https://www.tulsaworld.com