Ken Mink Is America’s Oldest College Basketball Player
I enjoy stories about people doing things that people tell them they are too old do. My co-worker’s 92 year old father is a CPA and drives to work each day as he always has, and even my own father had major back surgery at 74 and was back at his high school teaching job in less than 3 weeks.
So, I love this story about Ken Mink. Mink is 73 years old and a member of the Roane State Junior College basketball team:
JACKSON, Tenn. — Before Sunday’s basketball game, Coach Yogi Woods gathered the junior varsity at Lambuth University. Watch out for 73 on the other team, he said. He did not mean the player’s number. He meant his age.
The visitors, Roane State Community College, had a septuagenarian guard, Ken Mink, college basketball’s oldest player, who has started a second career after his first ended a half century ago with a mysterious shaving-cream incident.
Watch him in action…
He’s a crowd favorite and has scored five points this season. Unfortunately, he’s run into some eligibility problems because of a dropped class and it looks like basketball may be over for him, but what an example for setting out to do something that most people said couldn’t be done.
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March 13th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
[...] a fun Friday story from Seniors for Living . Would you believe a 73 year old who is back in college and playing basketball for his school! [...]
March 14th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
This is great! I agree, I love hearing about people doing things that others think they are too old to do. It reminds me of my days as an activities director: one morning, during our daily “Sit and Stretch”, our usual group was surprised by the arrival of the facility’s oldest resident (I think she was about 103). She sat down in the chair and got right to it, following along almost with her eyes closed (other than impaired vision, she was the picture of health and still wore heels daily). You should have seen the looks on the other group member’s faces! One lady (about 88) summed it up this way: “Geez, guess I can’t complain about anything now!”
May 22nd, 2009 at 9:19 am
[...] sang, she was being judged on not only her looks, but her age. As I’ve said before, I enjoy stories about people doing things that they are thought too old to do, like college basketball player Ken [...]