Mink, 73, ready for shot at hoops history
Ken Mink’s ready for his shot.
The Roane State (Tenn.) senior may become the world’s oldest college basketball player on Monday. He’s no ordinary senior. The last time Mink played college hoops, Dwight Eisenhower was President.
The 73-year-old hoopster has garnered plenty of attention in his return to the court. Newspapers, TV and Internet stories have popped up about Mink. “The Today Show” wants him as a guest. A Hollywood screenwriter reportedly wants to capture his story.
When the Raiders open their season against King College, the Guinness Book of World Records will be paying attention. “Inside Edition” will have a film crew on hand.
The attention’s nice, but right now, Mink’s more concerned about how he’ll fare. He last played college hoops at Lees College (Ky.) in 1956. If Mink does see the court, he knows he’ll be a little nervous. It’s been a while since he’s been on that stage.
“Fifty-two years,” Mink says. “Can I retain that memory? Can I recapture that? I don’t know. It’s going to be a mystery for me.”
Thankfully, there won’t be a lot of pressure on Mink. Roane, a community college about 35 miles west of Knoxville, is expected to be among its league’s better teams this season. According to its coach, Randy Nesbit, the Raiders are a deep, fairly talented team. If Mink does play, it’ll probably be for a few minutes. But don’t expect him to be left behind.
“He does have his physical limitations,” Nesbit says. “But he’s also got this moxie about him. He’s going to hit his shots if he’s open. You think ‘Oh, he’s 73, he’s going to freeze up. Nope. He’ll hit that 20 footer.”
That shooting ability keeps Mink from being a publicity stunt. He’s extremely mobile (his 40-yard dash is 6.6 seconds) and agile (he sports a 20-inch vertical) for a septuagenarian, but isn’t in the same class as some of the team’s other players. That’s not the point, though. He just plays his game.
“I don’t profess to be as good as these guys,” Mink says. “But I do know they can’t let me roam free.”
Besides, he’s seen plenty of stiff defense in practice, usually because of his teammates’ pride.
“They don’t want to be the guy who has their buddies say ‘The old guy took you to the bank!’ ” Mink says. “I’m not getting anything easy.”
Nesbit wants other teams to approach Mink the same way. His spot on the roster isn’t a publicity stunt, even if it could seem that way.
“We’re not trying to show anyone up,” Nesbit says. “I’m trying to put myself in the opposing team’s place. We’re not a juggernaut, but we’re going to be pretty good. There are probably going to be some games where we have comfortable leads. All of a sudden, there’s a 73-year-old guy coming in? What’s the other team going to think?”
Nesbit said he’d try to tell other coaches about Mink in an effort to avoid any kind of embarrassment, though the media attention has alleviated some of that pressure.
Besides, Mink’s sure to become a fan favorite. How many other players will have their own cheering squad?
Mink’s wife, Emilia, was skeptical about his hoops dream. (“She was a little dubious about the idea at the beginning,” Mink says.) Now, she’s trying to convince some of their friends to form a ’50s-style cheerleading group, complete with poodle skirts and personalized cheers. He’s become quite the “Golden Oldie.”
“They might use ‘Ken, Ken, he’s our Medicare man,” Mink says. “That might be a moniker the other kids pick up.”
Actually, various cheers have already been a hit. Mink’s become a bit of a local celebrity at Roane, usually in the form of well-wishers and enthusiastic hoops fans.
“People have recognized me around campus,” he says. “Everywhere I go, it’s ‘Ken!’ like in the old ‘Cheers’ episodes where they’d go ‘Norm!’”
If Mink hits a jumper on Monday, the crowd will probably make a “Ken!” cheer bring down the house. Expect nothing less with a bit of history on the line.
