Search out your inner child

He’s 73 and Living the Dream

Ken Mink as Target? Give me a Break

By Terrance Gavan

   The story here is not about Ken Mink, a 73 year old shooting guard on the Roane State Raiders, a Tennessee community college.

   It’s about the system.

   It’s about a mentality that does not reward feel good stories – even at Christmas.

   It’s about the bully mindset and all the fine and stuttered trappings that get in the way of the true meaning of sport, camaraderie and sportsmanship.

   Let me digress here just for a moment.

   Some 53 years ago, Ken Mink missed out on his second year of junior college basketball.

   It’s been a niggling sore point on his psychic backburner ever since.

   Niggling because of the circumstance.

   As the New York Times reported recently, Ken Mink is seeking redemption.

   Randy Nesbit, the coach of Roane State, took a chance on Mink shortly after receiving a letter from the septuagenarian guard.

   In the letter, Mink told Nesbit (and several other prospective community college coaches in a mass mailing of his resume) about the “incident.”

   Ken Mink told Nesbit the story ohis shortened basketball career. Mink had played at Lees College in Jackson, Ky., only to be expelled from the then-Presbyterian school in 1956 at the beginning of his sophomore season.

    Mink said he was accused of soaping the coach’s office with shaving cream, slathering the lights and even the coach’s shoes.

   To this day, Ken Mink says he’s innocent on all counts.

   “I don’t even shave,” he told the university president. All to no avail. He was expelled and was forced to join the Air Force.

   Ken has kept his hand in ever since. Back in the day he was a 6’2” shooting guard.

   Today, he is a 6’ Roane State rookie.

   Ken Mink scored two points this season, both on free throws from the charity stripe.

   His wife Emilia has donned a cheerleader outfit at home games, but admits that she was not always this gung ho.

   In 2007, Ken was shooting around on a friend’s driveway basket when revelation came via swish of fine twine. “I still have it,” said Ken.

   “Have what?” said Emilia.

   “My stroke,” said Ken. You might be forgiven for assuming that his shooting arc is not the stroke he should be worrying about.

   Emilia, like most women who have been married to the same man for four decades, took it all in stride when he started sending letters of introduction to local Tennessee colleges.

   “You do realize you’re 72?” Emilia asked Ken. “Do you think you can convince someone you’re not?”

   Ken did catch the eye of Nesbit.

   Nesbit, a former point guard and coach at The Citadel, is, at 50 in pretty good shape. And he was intrigued. Still, he wanted to meet Mink before offering him a spot on the team.

   “I think he wanted to make sure Ken wasn’t out on a weekend pass,” Emilia Mink quipped.

   And after some discussion and a few rounds of Horse in the gym, Nesbit took a chance.

   It’s paid off. Roane State has garnered worldwide attention. Hollywood is knocking. Investigators are already looking into the “shaving cream fiasco.”

   And perhaps most important, attendance is up at all Roane State games.

   NY Times reports that “Attendance, usually about 100 per game, has on occasion swelled to 400.”

   This is all pretty good, right?

   Well except for that other niggling notion.

   Teams that face Roane State are not finding it at all funny, or charming or feel good. In fact they have taken a different tact altogether.

   Before a recent basketball game, Coach Yogi Woods gathered the junior varsity at Lambuth University. He pointed at Mink like he was an abomination, a blight on his basketball stage.

   “If Mink was good enough to play, he was good enough to play up,” said coach Yogi. That sent the memorandum to the Lambuth players. “D-Up on the senior citizen or incur my wrath” was the message. He turned to his freshman Kendrick Coleman and said: “If he goes in for a lay-up, don’t let him have it. If he scores on you, we will never let you forget it.”

   If I may be so bold here. “Yogi, you make a good case for Boo-Boo.”

   Okay, okay Woodsy. We get it. You are a hapless, helpless moron, but apparently you’re not alone.

   And it’s here where rubber hits road.

   Where’s the fun? What happened to the game?

   On Nov. 3, the junior-varsity coach at King College told one of the Roane players, whom he had coached in high school, “If the old guy scores, we’re walking home.” Another two-bits we don’t really need to hear. Cut us all some slack and take this in the spirit intended. This is not a conspiracy here folks. Just a coach and a player exploring some uncharted territory. Hearken Dr Phil here coaches.

   “Deep Breath! … Now Let It Go!”

   Coach Nesbit never expected the backlash, especially since Mink never sees the floor unless Roane State is either up by 30 or down by 40.

   “I thought some teams would play along, humor him,” said Nesbit, to the Times reporter.

   It’s been the opposite. Teams seem genuinely incensed and angry that another team would deign to play a 73 year old rookie.

   It’s probably just plain wrong, but it’s the atmosphere of sports on today’s feathered plain. Young dudes and overblown coaches genuinely insulted by the mere fact that an aging player might tarnish a deluded date with destiny.

   Newsflash here coaches. If you’re coaching at a junior college in Tennessee, a berth in the NCAA finals is not on your stilted and blurry horizon anytime soon. So get over yourself and let the guy play. The fans get it. We love Ken Mink.

   He’s 73 for god’s sake. He’s not pretending to be Michael Jordan and he’s not out there to embarrass you.

   Don’t be like Thomas Hobbes, who once embraced his internal sense of ha-ha with that now famous line: “And the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

   Don’t give in to that fractured sense of abysmal pessimism. Life can be fun. Don’t believe me? Well fine, go ask Ken Mink.

   Ken Mink is having fun. He’s enjoying every day as he pull himself out of his Absorbine Juniored nightly stupor. Lighten up players and coaches in Tennessee junior college. Cut the man some slack.

   Be a mensch. Let yourself in on the joke and take some time to enjoy life. Give Ken Mink that 20-foot jumper. Hear the swish of the twine as a tubular call to arms. Revel with the fans. Find your inner child. Ken Mink has.

   Embrace every day. Get up, search skyward and float gently to your rim.

   It’s a concept we all could embrace with just a little more verve, just a little more humility, just a little more live and let live.

   “He’s not a freak of nature beating Father Time,” Nesbit said. “There’s no special diet. People pull for him because he looks like a 73-year-old man. If people stay active and healthy, a lot could do what he’s doing.”

   Amen Brother Nesbit. Amen. And Merry Christmas.n