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Downtown 1958

Downtown 1958

Friday, November 15, 2019

Basketball Follies

November 27, 1905, Oshkosh Northwestern
From the sound of it, it appears the Menasha players were up to some shenanigans on the court with fainting and stall tactics.  I was taken with the phrase "playing for wind" and did a bit of research on the term.  It appears in early 20th century sports-related news items and I even found it in a 1923 book devoted to "physical culture" which was the term for physical fitness or lifestyle back then.  Essentially it means taking a break, an odd use of a phrase when one word would do.  And I could be wrong but the low score makes me think they were still playing with closed bottom peach baskets; it was around this time or a year or two later when nets were finally introduced.  This ended the era when the game needed to be halted to summon a janitor with a ladder to retrieve the ball.

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