‘Competitiveness is still there’

In years past, Jerry Talley had a special someone to help keep him grounded during Hoopfest. Each time he left the house to play in the world’s largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament, his wife, Roberta, would advise him to “be careful, and don’t hurt yourself.”

But this year the 71-year-old Talley will be on his own as he attempts to navigate Spokane’s uneven and unforgiving downtown streets during Hoopfest 2010, which kicks off its two-day run on Saturday.

Roberta, Talley’s wife of almost 50 years, died unexpectedly last month at the age of 68 after collapsing in the living room of their home with an irregular heart beat. Paramedics and doctors worked for over two hours to save her life, but failed.

“It was a real shock,” said Talley, a former Marine and this year’s oldest registered Hoopfest participant. “We would have been married 50 years on Sept. 22, and losing her has been terribly difficult. I’m still having trouble dealing with it.

“I have some good days, but I have some bad days, too – and the bad days are horrible.”

It was shortly after his wife’s death that a grieving Talley initially decided to pass on playing in another Hoopfest. But his son, Scott, didn’t see how missing the event would help his father’s attempt to deal with his loss.

“So I told him, ‘If Mom was still here, she’d kick your ass for not playing,’ ” Scott said.

“And he was right,” Talley admitted. “She always said I was her gym rat, and I realized she’d want me to keep playing basketball.”

So come the weekend, Talley will team up with his 47-year-old son and a couple of friends to compete as the Black Top Ballers in the recreational division of Hoopfest 2010, which is expected to draw more than6,700 teams and more than 200,000 players and spectators to the downtown area.

According to Talley, it will be his “seventh or eighth” Hoopfest event, having once played in the family division with his two sons, Scott and Mark, and his grandson, Garritt.

“Having three generations on the same team was fun,” Talley recalled. “But that family division, believe it or not, was probably the toughest division we’ve ever played in.”

Despite his age, Talley expects no favors from his Hoopfest opponents. Nor will he grant them any.

“He’s just a different kind of 71-year-old,” Scott said of his father, who has played basketball throughout his adult life, having competed in inter-service tournaments during his six-year Marine Corps stint (1958-64) that took him to places such as Okinawa, Laos and The Philippines. “He’s been very active all his life and has managed to stay in shape.

“I look at him and hope I can be like him when I’m his age.”

Standing just a little over 6-feet tall and weighing 195 pounds, Talley still plays in regular pickup games at various gyms and playgrounds around the city.

“Sure, he’s lost a step,” his son added, “but he still has a nice outshot shot, and he’s a good passer.”

Talley, who moved to Spokane in 1971, retired from his job as foreman of a plastics injection molding company nine years ago. But his competitive drive did not.

“He’s still as competitive as anyone I know,” Scott said. “I even have to look away sometimes when were playing at Hoopfest, because he’ll be out there diving on the asphalt after a loose ball. I know last year, he had all kinds of scrapes and bruises.”

That probably didn’t set well with his late wife, but Talley insists he plays “responsibly” – most of the time, at least.

“I usually don’t try to do the things I used to could do, you know, something stupid,” he explained. “But then the adrenalin gets going, the instincts kick in and you end up doing something stupid, like trying to take the ball to the hole.

“I guess the competitiveness is still there.”

Talley refuses to think about the day he might finally give up on basketball for good.

“I’ll play as long as I can,” he said, “and let my body decide.”

And until that day arrives, Jerry Talley plans to continue playing against guys half his age and being the gym rat his late wife loved for almost 50 years.