“The Geezer Game” – a virtually 50-year-old pickup basketball game – reveals its secrets to longevity

Donald Trump's polarizing political rise within the last decade has drove many groups – and a few families – apart.

But a long-standing pickup basketball game during which I participate, involving people of various political leanings, including Trump supporters, stays. I I explored the group's dynamics in my 2020 memoir. In March 2025 we’ll rejoice its fiftieth anniversary.

As former psychology professor WHO has written concerning the impact of participation In team sports, I feel considered one of the secrets to our longevity is straightforward: we don't talk politics.

Development of the sport

Our semi-weekly pickup game has undergone several changes. It began in 1975 as a teacher-student game Guilford Collegea small Quaker school in Greensboro, North Carolina. And we played in an old gymnasium often called the cracker boxonce the house stadium of former NBA players Bob Kauffman, ML Carr And World B. Free.

Over the subsequent 35 years, the sport moved to a more moderen gymnasium, transitioned from half court to full court and back to half court again. Students and college moved on while others joined in the sport, including many individuals from the Greensboro community.

As we grew older, our game became often called the “Geezer Game.” Today, the typical age of players is 64, with the age range being 32 to 79.

Since 1975, other than an 18-month period once we didn’t meet attributable to COVID-19 restrictions, the sport has been played thrice per week before COVID-19 and twice per week for the reason that pandemic restrictions were lifted.

Everyone plays

I imagine we lasted this long for quite a lot of reasons.

From 1975 to around 2013, the sport was played together, but normally only with one woman, a former colleague within the psychology department. With a Ph.D. A Yale graduate, she was 6-foot-1, athletic and competitive.

More importantly, it gave the court a civilizing influence. It stopped the boys from expressing their macho tendencies. Because of her presence and the occasional presence of other women, I felt we were all less prone to behave atrociously.

This phenomenon is well documented. As scientist Gerard J. Degroot has shown, women's social skills have a chilled effect on groups of men. He told The New York Times Here's what men within the military say: “When female soldiers are present, the situation is more realistic and men therefore tend to behave.” Any conflict where there’s an all-male army is sort of a vacation from reality. When you place women in that situation, they really have a civilizing effect.”

Another secret of our longevity is definitely the undeniable fact that everyone plays.

In many other pickup games, winning teams stay on the sphere and losers sit on the sidelines. But if we have now extra people, we rotate them every 10 points. If we have now 14 players, we split into two games, a 4v4 game and a 3v3 game. Since we don't must win to maintain playing, the likelihood and intensity of arguments is reduced.

The writer Thomas Beller said this in his book “Lost in the Game: A Book About Basketball.” In it he writes: “The thing about these street games is that when you win, you play again.” If you lose, you have to watch. Considering how much time and effort it took to even get to the playground, there was a lot at stake for victory.”

Here's one other approach to reduce conflict: Whenever we have now an argument – was it a foul or an accusation? – We call a jump ball and rotate possession. No need for long arguments which might be never resolved.

We haven’t completely eliminated conflicts – we have now had some skirmishes – but they’re very rare. We had a number of injuries, but only a few were attributable to overly aggressive play.

Just a few months before we took our 18-month break attributable to COVID-19, I wrote the book “Geezerball: North Carolina Basketball in its Oldest Form“based on what sociologists call a “participant observation” study of the sport. Some people, particularly my colleague, served as necessary role models, I wrote within the book. And among the rules we implemented, corresponding to those who governed when recent players joined the sport and the way we handled disputes, proved necessary.

policy

The game has survived the last decade because we don't discuss politics.

However, in other settings, and maybe particularly on college campuses, it could reduce divisions to share conflicting political viewpoints with othersWe are there to play along, not to coach one another.

In the autumn of 2016, there was talk of the presidential election campaign. One guy, a die-hard Republican, admitted he didn't like Trump. But as he put it, “I could live with him.”

Another Republican player proudly announced that he planned to spend Election Day getting Trump supporters to the polls.

Of course, Trump won, but many players, probably most, didn’t reveal their political opinions.

Due to COVID-19, we didn’t play within the 2020 election.

Unlike in 2016, there was virtually no talk concerning the election last fall. But as someone who sees Trump as an authoritarian threat to democracy, I truthfully don't need to know whether the people I'm twiddling with voted for him.

By avoiding politics, and Trump particularly, the sport was capable of proceed without the animosity it’d provoke.

But the political climate has also impacted the group off the sphere.

Before 2016, we had regular get-togethers, sometimes with our spouses. We ate pizza, drank beer, gave out joke prizes and celebrated birthdays. We enjoyed one another's company. Although some smaller groups have continued to fulfill for lunch or a beer since then, we at the moment are less prone to meet socially.

So evidently the greater community spirit has been weakened by the polarized political world we now live in.

But the sport continues.