If you have never been knocked out, you don’t know what you are missing! It’s like instantaneous sleep… one second, you are standing there doing whatever, and the next second, you are asleep, hopefully not injured from a fall.
Four times in my life, I have been knocked out. It really wasn’t all that bad, either. Each time it involved either a girl or a stupid act on my part. Once in the ninth grade, Marion (Stony) and I were playing catch during lunch break. A beautiful female calls my name, and I turn to see who she might be, and ‘blip,’ I take a hardball to the head and am out for three hours. Another time, I borrowed my girlfriend’s weed sprayer. Not being particularly educated in how to spray weeds, I had a little trouble with the sprayer stopping up the hose… so I managed through sheer force to get the top of the pressurized can off, and you can only imagine what happened. That top drove my fist right into my face, breaking my nose and knocking me out on the kitchen floor. Then there was the time I hit myself in the face with my tennis racket instead of slamming the ball back across the net!
Well, this leaves the notorious game, which is what this story is all about.
In 1955, Pampa High School Basketball was in a dogfight with San Angelo for the Bi-District ranking to see who would go to the state playoffs in Austin, Texas. It was my senior year. Pampa is the two-time defending champions in the 5-A division, and it is down to this one game to see who will continue on to Austin for the final four.
San Angelo had a massive dude, 6’7”, and probably weighed 220 pounds. I stood 6’5” and weighed in at about 180 pounds. It was my job to contain him. Contain??? I knew this evening I would have my job cut out for me. Two things were in our favor…1) we had two years of playoff experience, and 2) we had the home-court advantage. Unfortunately, those advantages didn’t seem to help us all that much in the first half of the game, as the score was never more than a two to three points difference. Well, about one minute before the end of the first half, IT happened! The big dude caught me on my chin with his elbow, and that’s the last thing I remember. The rest of this story is taken from what my teammates, girlfriend, and the game film told me. This is one of the most unbelievable games of my life, and I don’t even get to enjoy it!
When I got the elbow from the big dude, I didn’t go down but ‘out on my feet.’ The rest of the game was played by instinct only. Those close to me said I kept shaking my head from side to side as though trying to ‘remove the cobwebs.’ When the halftime buzzer sounded and we headed for the dressing room, I was very talkative and hyper, which was not my normal state of mind; I was usually very quiet during a ballgame. The team doctor, Dr. Ashby, came in to check me out, looking at my eyes, etc. He told our coach, McNeely, to watch me closely. If I started staggering or mentioned being dizzy, take me out of the game.
Back on the floor after the halftime break, my good friend, E. Jay, said I asked him what I was supposed to do. He told me on offense, I was supposed to run around in that painted area on the floor, and the others would throw the ball to me…and I was to put it into the basket. At this time, he pointed to the goal on our end of the floor. I am sure he was thinking we were in a heap of trouble if I didn’t know which end was our end of the court! I answered, “Oh, okay, okay, got it.” Well, the buzzer sounded, and thus began the second half of this close, important game.
I was one relaxed, ‘loose as a goose’ player with no recognizable pressure on me. I was laughing and having a perfect time out there. The film showed that I was waving at the crowd as we ran down the court; I was unbelievable at blocking difficult shots on offense I was dribbling behind my back and even sank a hook shot from the top of the circle! Our team gradually built a lead and ended the game with a wide margin.
As you can imagine, we did a lot of celebrating because this win sent us to play in the State Tournament. So in the dressing room, all the players were popping towels, hollering, and throwing whatever was handy at teammates. Especially me… I celebrated so much that I was the last out of the dressing room. Gary Griffin # 35!
My girlfriend, Jon, was in the parking lot, sitting in my ’48 Pontiac waiting on me. E. Jay had been standing by the side of the car keeping her company for quite a long time. The weather was cold, snowy, and very windy. The temperature was probably around 28*. Finally, the two of them decided that E. Jay should go back and check on me to see what kept me so long. When he entered the room, he found me dressed in my navy blue wool pants crawling around on the floor, looking for the vitamin pills I had dropped. Finally, he convinced me to get off my knees and go out to the car.
E. Jay had already told Jon not to let me drive. So, out to the car I trotted, so happy and excited and not knowing a thing. Jon tried to convince me to give her the keys so she could drive to Anita’s house, where we met her and E. Jay for cokes and dessert. I laughingly refused to give up my keys, and due to the freezing weather, Jon let me drive the car. All this time, from the gym to Anita’s, I was bareheaded and without gloves. Finally, we made it to Anita’s, at which point I drove up on the lawn, pulled on my cap, put on my gloves, and said, “Okay, I’m ready. Let’s go in!” Shoot, I don’t even remember any of this.
It was around 10:30 p.m. when we arrived at the Wedgeworth’s home. After accepting congratulations from Mr. And Mrs. Wedgeworth, E. Jay, Anita, Jon, and I sat around the kitchen table drinking our cokes and eating cake, visiting and laughing. I kept them entertained by telling them stories about getting knocked out. They say…but I don’t believe them… I kept saying, “Hey, did I ever tell you about the time I got knocked out in the ninth grade? Ol’ Stoney and I were playing catch….” I told that story over and over and over. Finally, almost in unison, they all laughed and said, “Yes, Gary, we’ve heard that story.”
It was after 11:00 p.m. when I blinked, and the entire world came back into focus. I looked around at where I was; then, the first words out of my mouth were, “Who won the game?” P. Jay put on his sober-sad facial expression and said, “Hey, man, we lost it.” My heart sank. And to make matters worse, P. Jay concocted this sad story that continued until the girls started laughing, and then he told me the truth…. or at least the truth about winning. The rest of his tale grew bigger about what I had done during the game. Later that evening, I asked Jon if I really did all those things he said I did. I knew I would be in a heap of trouble with the coach if I really did them.
The following week I took a lot of kidding from my teammates and the coaches. Coach Mac said he was going to start carrying a hammer with him to hit me over the head just before game time.
Going on the Austin, I wish I could say we went on to win the State Basketball Championship for the third year, but it wasn’t to be this time. However, we ended the season with a 28-4 record, which ain’t all that bad.
In playing team sports, there is a camaraderie that forms among the players. The players from those three years, and especially the six of us in the Class of ’55, are still close friends to this day, staying in touch with one another,
I cherish those years I spent in competitive sports. Those were years of character-building, learning teamwork, sportsmanship, conquering goals, self-discipline, and humility. I think young people should be involved in athletics and team sports. They are life builders.Those we
