Second Wind
In case you missed it in Sports Illustrated, the latest “too old to be doing this” is doing it anyway: Ken Mink. At 73, he’s the oldest hoopster in college basketball—if that’s not a record, then George Burns didn’t play God. Mink reminds me of Mike Flynt, kicked off his college football team for brawling—what to you expect from a linebacker?
Flynt quit school, bided his time, returned to Sul Ross State 37 years later, tried out for his old position and got it back at 59. He played the whole season (2007) under a coach eight years his junior, all his teammates younger than his own kids.
Ken Mink, like Flynt, had a gnawing sense of unfinished business, and a bad rap he waited a half-century to make up for. Back in his ancient history, Mink was booted from the basketball team and kicked out of college, for two offensive fouls: soaping the coach’s desk and squirting shave cream in his shoes. He pleaded innocent—still pleads innocent, telling SI: “I wasn’t above pulling a joke, but they had the wrong man on that one.”
He got on with life (newspaper reporter, editor, three grown children), played neighborhood hoops along the way; then, at 72, out on the faux court in the driveway, made 20 three-point swishes in a row. It all came back to him, jock star interrupted, so he emailed a bunch of colleges—seasoned player seeks team—got one offer, Roane State, and took it. Now he’s a celebrity on the court, the six-footer, 192 pounds, with the white hair, the “blow-out specialist” and the Raiders’ “twelfth man” brought into games where the outcome is no longer in doubt. On the rare occasion when he scores, via free throw, the crowd erupts, and the screenwriters keep calling.
