Ken Hambleton, sports writer: Like all kids, we went to the city parks to see how high we could swing.
Nebraska basketball assistant coach Craig Smith: I grew up with a backyard that was fenced. As a fourth- through sixth-grader, I would take this big, red bat and a big Wiffle ball and play my baseball game. The game was nine innings long. We didn’t have cable TV or daily newspaper or Interne…
P.R. Farmer, Geneva (reader submission): The games we played were determined by the season at hand. Weekdays in the summer were the same, with pickup basketball at one of any friends' driveway in Geneva, from sunup to long after dark if we could get a light on.
Submitted by Bill Eddy, retired Journal Star regional editor and assistant city editor:
Bernie Tushaus (reader submission): Growing up in Chicago in the 1950s, we played a lot of softball, but not with the 12-inch ball that most people around here are familiar with. Our softballs bore the brand name “Clincher” and were 16 inches in circumference. No gloves were used, even thoug…
Doane volleyball coach Gwen Egbert: "Growing up in the Kalamazoo, Mich., area there was an empty field across from our house and all of us neighbor kids, boys and girls, would get together and play softball over there. And if we didn’t have enough to play a game, we’d play '500,' where one p…
Gerald McAuliffe (reader submission): Back in the late '30s we played baseball in the backyard. We were 9 to 10 years old. A regular hardball was not an option, and since Wiffle balls were yet to be invented, we played with stocking balls, which were made by stuffing one stocking with more s…
Ron Powell, Journal Star sports writer: Every Sunday in the fall during high school meant full-contact tackle football games (with no protective gear), either in the park or at the high school practice fields. Every Monday night, we played a miniature version of it in someone’s backyard — kn…
Lorri Petrzelka, Prague (reader submission): My two older sisters, younger brother and myself were born in the 1950s and early '60s, so our childhood memories were without video games, 300 TV channels, shopping malls and today's organized youth sports or classes in the arts that consume wint…
Kevin Prusia (reader submission): In the early days of a golf obsession that would last well into my 40s, my best friend and I (both about 10 at the time) set up a golf course in my backyard that consisted of one hole: The tee was down by the garden and the hole was up by the house, where my…
Brent C. Wagner, sports writer: I can’t remember what our team’s record was that summer playing youth baseball back in about the fourth grade. What I know for certain is our uniform was a light blue T-shirt and we were sponsored by the local grocery store.
Kevin Scheef, Wahoo boys basketball coach: "In high school at Waverly, a lot of us got together at our elementary school, where they had an outdoor court. We would take our boom box, crank it up, and play for hours on a nice spring or summer afternoon, playing dunk ball on 9-foot hoops. We h…
Reader Phil Heckman writes about a game he played as a kid in an eastern mill town in the 1930s: "Last Man Over."
Johnny Rodgers spent a lot of time around the garage when he was a kid, but it had nothing to do with cars.
Hannah Applebee, Lincoln (reader submission): When I was a kid, my brother (Taylor) and I would be outside from sunup until the street lights came on. We knew Mom's rule was "be home by the time the street lights are on."
They call dog "man's best friend." So what does that make a goat? In some cases, apparently, "man's protector" works just fine.
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From Nebraska men’s basketball assistant coach Craig Smith didn't just play basketball by himself in the family living room. He did it with a rulebook seemingly the size of "War and Peace."
Ken Hambleton, sports writer: Like all kids, we went to the city parks to see how high we could swing.
Sometimes the tennis rackets were used for things other than tennis.
Former Nebraska men's basketball coach Doc Sadler used to swing a mean wiffleball bat in his younger days.
The children of Blessed Sacrament School had a special way of starting the school day back in the 1970s, and it wasn't with prayer.
Lincoln native and national broadcaster Kevin Kugler reflects on his days playing catch by himself in the front yard of his Washington Street home.
Reader Andy Newton had a sometimes-contentious relationship with the neighbors . . . and with good reason.
Journal Star prep reporter Ryly Jane Hambleton reflects on her days as the tag-along in western Nebraska.