School-Shot

A Story by Abishai100

A fan-representation of what can make a 'moment' in American college sports fanfare reflective of the dice.

I've decided to sign-off with a sports-fanfiction after all, but with no specific ties to any team/school/group. Inspired by The Program (James Caan). Enjoy (and thanks for your readership/comments),

----

====

Now, we all know in this great USA that the greatest college basketball team of all time is John Wooden's UCLA Bruins, winner of simply too many titles and a 'few' with the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. However, it's an entirely different game that many sports-writers in the great USA consider 'the' greatest college basketball game of all time, and many of us who lived in the area where the March Madness regional-final game was played boast about seeing the game on live-TV or in the Spectrum stadium.

I'm a pirate-fan of the team that won that legendary college game, and I continue to think of it as a gem-toast to what makes sports/college-athletics in the media-broadcast era reflective of a terrific socialized form of fanfare/spirit. It was this game that forever cemented me as a fan of the winning team in that special/winning season.

Don't get me wrong --- the team that almost won that game was nothing short of bright/brilliant! Then again, isn't that what made the outstanding game a symbol or diadem of American greatness/fanfare? In fact, many cheerleaders from both sides of that game serve as legacy messengers of what made that late-20th Century game a mark on the quality of social activity, for generations of students/fans to admire...and celebrate!

Both teams came out with stunning talents poised to offer the audience(s) a 'real' experience. Both teams had come from the depths of purgatory, one having struggled for years to finally get to that winning season/feeling, while the other toasting outstanding older-class players returned from a suspension and looking for that 'rare' sportsman's retribution.

No one would therefore doubt that such a 'game' would reach the heights of an Overtime (OT) buzzer-beater moment in time. This was a proverbial 'wrinkle-in-time' that many educators/schoolteachers might present to pupils as a USA-toast to what makes organized/sportsmanship activity in the broadcast-era a sign of real democratic affairs. After all, isn't sports a reflection of human distances?

I'm not going to mention the actual 'name' of that fave-team that won that truly unforgettable college game, but I can say that whoever was there to witness the event will just tell you, "I'd not seen anything like that since those old demo videos/broadcasts from the time of Babe."

The valiant coach of the eventually losing-team during that unforgettable USA-game miraculously rallied/motivated his really gifted athletic college players to strive to rise above the cream and offer a distancing challenge to the team that eventually won the game, the team that is still my fave-college team in the broadcast/media era!

My college pal from Dartmouth has this amazing sports-memorabilia collector's item (card) of one of those gifted retribution-players from that unforgettable American college game, and I consider that certain player a 'ghost' haunting my thankfully/ultimately triumphant fan-experience for me.

The team that won, my fave-team, managed to pull of a shocker at the buzzer with an OT-thrill shot which is just called The Shot now by many magical sports-writers who wish to account for what can make USA college athletics worthy of all this media confetti. This is cool dance.

My wife wears a commemorative team sports fangear sometimes during March Madness now, to remind me how that winning-game made me a lifelong fan of American dreams. It wasn't the John Wooden team that achieved that rare and unforgettable design.

Pull up a typewriter, from your attic, and watch this American classic on YouTube/Internet and you just might find yourself thinking about what makes the 'American experience' of storytelling so reflective of the overall democratic experience. Maybe America will be remembered mostly for its military prowess by historians/anthropologists of the future, but to this USA-game fan, that unforgettable college game will always serve as a 'quill' for detention.