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Who did you play against (or almost play against)

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@Jaxbuck 's post above reminds me of two types of events at EMU.
I mainly played basketball for years as I'm 5'9" and for the longest time hovered between 150-165.
Playing pick up basketball games in the Rec was always a blast. After building a little bit of cachet by dispersing the ball to the players, being decent on D, and being able to knock down periodic shots, I would find myself getting asked to join in some of the higher level games with some of EMU scholarship athletes. One memorable time, I get asked to join up with some of the football players.
For those that aren't aware, EMU is 5 min east of that whore up north and about a half hour west of Detroit. Thus, there were athletes for days.
I'm standing on the left side of the arc with the ball, and one of Eastern's DEs is on my team. He's at the foul line, we make eye contact, and he goes toward the goal. I just throw it up, he catches it 3-5 feet from the goal, and just slams it home for us to win.
On the flip side of that, my fraternity made it to the intramural finals. The comp that day is the EMU football squad.
So, I got to enjoy the sense of victory with some of the same guys that flat out destroyed us in the championship. :lol:
 
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My first round of golf in South Africa. A colleague invited me to join him and a friend "who thinks he's hot shit". For a round, both had tried to get on the PGA tour and the friend was about to go to the US and try again. I played off a 3 handicap with MacGregor Tourney Custom clubs that arrived from Columbus in a shipping crate the week before.

I was one stroke up after three holes, largely due to a very lucky shot. The 4th hole was a dogleg toward the ocean. I had a great drive and then hit a 9-iron into the green from 125 yards. The ball went up and up and up and then started coming back. It landed 5 yards behind me. The rout was on. My friend beat me by 6 strokes.

The other guy beat me by a whole lot more. About two months later, I was in a shopping mall and saw him playing on TV. I got my ass handed to me by Nick Price. They must have laughed for weeks at the looks on my face as he nailed shot after shot.
 
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I wasn't cool enough to play against anybody.
But my younger brother played offensive line against Andy Katzenmoyer. While way more gifted than me athletically, he was no match for Katzenmoyer.

My grandfather had a story of golfing on one of the OSU courses. He and maybe my dad (as a kid), but maybe it was someone else - they're going to the tee box. "Can this other pair join you to make a foursome?" "Sure." Some college kid was in the other pair - incredible golfer. Maybe you can guess who that was? Spoiler alert - it was Jack Nicklaus.

The Treg Lee story reminds me of a somewhat similar story, but without any "Treg Lee"-type people. Intramural basketball in college - the other team had a guy who was at least 6'8". I'm 6'3", and again, no athletic ability. This guy was a monster - probably not much more athletic ability (he didn't even play for a Div 3 team, afterall), either, but how much do you need when you're at least 5 inches taller than anyone else? So I'd always heard if you get the offensive rebound just put it back up, right? A couple of those attempts and I quit trying any more shots that night. I think we had some good outside threats and I don't remember who won, but it was at least competitive. I can't imagine playing against someone who could/would play for a Div 1 team.
 
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CMic said:
Didn't play against anyone.
But I remember going to a HS baseball game (my buddy was playing) and seeing Paul O'Neill hit a line drive home run which made everyone's mouth drop.
Lowest liner I ever saw for a HR.
To this day, when my buddy talks about it, he says the 2nd baseman tried to jump and catch the ball (maybe a bit of exaggeration).
Click to expand...
I may have been the outfielder who watched it go over the fence without moving an inch.

we faced him in HS and he threw a couple innings at the end too. Not a polished windup but he threw bullets down the pipe probably in the upper 80s

We had a very good team with a couple pro prospects but he stood out above everyone
 
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I played in a pickup ball game with a couple of guys who played in the NBA. Walt Piatkowski had a brief NBA career, and Butch Komives had a 10-year NBA career after leading the NCAA in scoring one year. I stayed on the outside and don’t remember if I even took a shot, I was there with my brother-in-law, who could actually compete with those guys, although he couldn’t shoot.
 
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BB73 said:
I played in a pickup ball game with a couple of guys who played in the NBA. Walt Piatkowski had a brief NBA career, and Butch Komives had a 10-year NBA career after leading the NCAA in scoring one year. I stayed on the outside and don’t remember if I even took a shot, I was there with my brother-in-law, who could actually compete with those guys, although he couldn’t shoot.
Click to expand...

Piatkowski broke the NBA color barrier didn't he? First white dude? 1946?
 
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I do have a couple of indirect stories.

My kids swam growing up. In one meet the older swimmers went against a kid who qualified for the Olympics the next year. That swimmer was just casually swimming and finished roughly 20 yards ahead of the runner-up and it was only a 50-yard event.

Also, a friend of mine played with LeBron in high school. Or as he tells it - they were on the same team. He has some great stories from Lebron's freshman year. The message was LeBron was a man amongst boys even at that age and if you talked trash he would go Ivan Drago and just break you.
 
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I was a distance runner for Van Buren Jr. Hi and competed in the Troy Invitational. Bob Ferguson won the hundred and 200 and anchored the Troy 4X100 team. Jerry Lucas won the disc for Middletown. Tony Hall, brother of Olympian diver, Sam Hall, all time Rushing leader at Denison, and later US Representative from Ohio from 1979 - 2002, was a year ahead of me at Fairmont High School.
 
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Man, talk about a stroll down memory lane. I was fortunate enough to grow up in Middletown, Ohio which at the time was home to the Carters and Calhouns. Playing on the same asphalt courts as Cris Carter was insane but looking back at how many studs went through there is ridiculous. The Rosedale summer league basketball was the best around and we had guys from all over playing on Tuesdays and Thursdays including Jerry Lucas, BJ Lucas, JB Reafsnyder, Keith Gregor, Bill Edwards and his brother Robert. And all the other guys from local high schools that lit it up back then. Jerry was more the mentor for the league and just talked to everyone or did a demonstration. He was impossible to beat at HORSE. Closest we ever saw him getting beat was against a guard from the area who ended up going to D1 school somewhere, Boston College maybe. Both had HORS and Lucas calls this shot from the foul line: Off back rim, off front rim, off the backboard and in. Then nonchalantly nails it. Half the people just got up shaking their heads and left and the rest of us rolled on the ground laughing at how ridiculous it was that we saw that. Amazing.

Sophomore year of track I was throwing shot and disc, kind of. What I got to see was the fastest human being I'd ever witness in person, Chris Nelloms. I was in awe watching him run around that track. Fastest man I've ever seen in pads, in person, Teddy Ginn just to be clear.

Freshman year of baseball I watched Mark Lewis hit a ball so so far over the left field wall at Hamilton High. It hit a house across the street behind the stadium. What a talent.

Sometime during high school football, forgot specific years, I got to play against Dana Stubblefield from North Bend Taylor high school. Had a good pro career with the 49ers and destroyed the middle of our Oline. Marc Edwards at Norwood High School/Notre Dame and a short pro career. Dudes legs were crazy strong. DJ Jones at Lebanon High/Ohio State scored the winning TD against us and knocked us out of playoff contention. Safety wanted nothing to do with him on a post route and he just smooth smoked the LB. We scrimmaged CAPE who had All Timer Carlos Snow at tailback. He was frightening from the sideline so I guarantee he was nasty in between the lines. Couple moves and GONE!

Amazing bunch of athletes in Ohio so I'm sure everyone on this site has played with or against at least one professional at some point.
 
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Robert Smith

I went to Cleveland South and Smith was a senior at Euclid my junior year. We played a pre-season scrimmage against Euclid that year.

Smith was already well known in HS football circles by then, having won the Mr. Football award his Junior year. He was probably the most famous recruit in Ohio that year.

A lot of us on the team were curious about what him and I remember looking over at him during warm ups, initially a little star struck I'm sure. But I also remember thinking that he was way too skinny to be this all star running back. "That can't be Robert Smith, too skinny." (think of a similar line from Braveheart). He was built way more like a wide receiver in HS, tall and thin, and without pads in warm-ups, you'd never have guessed that he was who he was.

I played DT/DE depending on the formation and I was very much a backup my Junior year so most of the 1st half I was watching from the sideline. As most of us know now, he was deceptively fast in person. Two or three steps and he's eaten up about 8 yards already. His feet were also much quicker than you would expect for such a tall guy. He also had a devastating first plant that was a beauty to behold. There were a few times when our whole sideline would gasp/laugh when one of our players got de-cleated. It was just a scrimmage.

I did manage to get in the game for a series in the 2nd quarter while he was still in. One play went my way and I managed to grab and ankle along with linebacker so I have a 1/2 tackle credit. It was still about a 7 yard gain because Robert Smith. He was out of the game shortly after that and the rest of the game was backups (like me) vs. their backups.

I think Smith scored like 3 touchdowns and the final score was something like 35-12, but I don't remember exactly.
 
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I played middle school lacrosse with George Cooper (son of former Ohio State fullback George Cooper Sr.) in 8th grade for the Westerville Bulldogs, back before lacrosse was recognized as a school sport. George was a full foot taller than the 2nd tallest person on our team and we both played defense together. When we would pull up to an away game, George would be the first person off the bus and it would intimidate the crap outta the other team. He was a gentle giant back then, incredibly swell guy then and now. It was an absolute hoot seeing "Big Coop" and his family on the sidelines cheering for all of us while we played. George Cooper went on to play TE at Georgia Tech (I'm almost certain he had a scholarship to Ohio State and spurned the Bucks) and went on to the NFL as an UDFA

Also played pick-up basketball one time against former Toledo Rocket & long-time New Orleans Saints WR Lance Moore and former Toledo Rocket WR Steve Odom. My dad and I were shooting hoops at a park in Westerville, and Lance & Steve walked up and asked if we wanted to play a 2-on-2 game to 11. Me and my dad gave them a good game (we scored 4), but they were ridiculously athletic and beat us soundly. Played a lot of soccer with Steve going all the way back to elementary school... another really swell dude. I ran into Lance quite a bit in college at UT... Lance is as giving a person as I have ever met in my life. Lance Moore became a Super Bowl champion with New Orleans and converted the most amazing 2-point conversion in Super Bowl history. Lance was the purveyor of the Hingle McCringleberry dance after TD's, post-debut on Key & Peele



I'm also sure at some point in my life, I played soccer against former Columbus Crew defender Danny O'Rourke. We were the same age and grew up right next door to us in Worthington
 
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