Great idea on the book of stories, I don't think mine story qualifies for the true early days but during the late seventies my seven brothers and I (height 6'2" to 6'9") played hoop for local charities for 3 years, when we were 50 lbs younger...
against the 76-79 Patriots in their offseason....Andy Johnson, Matt Hasselbeck, Stanley Morgan, **** Conn, Rod Shoate, Ray Hamilton, Steve Grogan, Tim Fox, Mike Haynes and some other teammates.
It was great fun for us to meet, play against them and party with them at our home after a few of the games. More importantly, they were all a great bunch of guys that were accessible and spent alot of time with their NH fans By the way, we beat them by 5 points the first year. We knew from playing them the first year that they definitely DIDN'T like to lose at anything...so they recruited better talent the second year with Stanley ( My knees are in your face when I shoot over you) Morgan, Don ( By the way...Did you know I balled ball at Kentucky with Rick Robey?) Hasellbeck, and Andy( I was a tri-sport all state high school athlete in high school) Johnson, and ....yep, they beat us by 5 the second time... the third year?......By the way, how do you keep a Pats fan in suspense?......