Page 47 - Sorghum

Dr. E. W. Branyon’s Bio
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courts on which daddy had built backstops and line them with lime. In track I ran the quarter mile, the hurdles and did some pole vaulting using cane poles cut from bamboo.
We’d play basketball at nights on an outdoor court with a string of lights hung up and down the middle. If it’d been raining we’d put sawdust in the mud holes to absorb the water. Needless to say we weren’t too success- ful in basketball as some of the neighboring schools had indoor courts. My senior year we got an indoor court, but even then it was a converted auditorium from the grade school. It had a low ceiling, no spectator lines on the sides, and was just two-thirds of a court. You couldn’t run and shoot the ball cause you’d hit the wall, and couldn’t shoot an arc because you’d hit the ceiling.
The basketball score would rarely exceed ten points on either side. Our coach, Mr. Bentley, was an outstanding person and also coached football and track, as well as teaching physics and chemistry. He forced us to pass the ball around for at least a minute before we either shot a lay-up or a two-handed set shot. I’d hurt my elbow playing football and so some- times shot with one hand. The coach would sit me down.