Isaac
Years ago

Basketball at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games

Was just reading about this and found it all a bit amusing. At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, the basketball competition was played outdoors on lawn tennis courts.

The weather ("driving rain") was abysmal in the gold medal game between the USA and Canada meaning that the "court" turned to mud and prevented players from dribbling. The final score was 19-8, favouring the USA while the leading individual scorer had only seven points.

There was no seating either so the 1,000 spectators all just stood there in the rain for the entire game.

Here's the full event page from Wikipedia.

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Anonymous
Years ago

And Isaac I know where the ball from the Gold medal game is hidden.

10 years ago we had a Canadian exchange teacher come to our school. Her Father was a member of the 1936 team. One night at a dinner party her son a teenager at the time let out a family secret, when we were talking basketball (they followed the 6ers, when they were here). At the conclusion of the game most of the spectators ran onto the court and his grandfather just happen to be holding the ball at the final siren. His wife ran up to congratulate him and he placed the game ball up her dress (so she looked pregnant) to hide it and she ran away back into the crowd, and disappeared from the court.

They still have the ball hidden in the top of a wardrobe back in Canada. His mother and father both verified the story (as they were listening at the time) and described the ball as hand sewn with a section of lace up, like on a football where the bladder was inserted.

Strange but True.

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Isaac
Years ago

I hope that's true!

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