Seniors take love for competitive basketball into golden years

Eddy Birrer loves basketball. It’s that simple. Age is irrelevant to the 70-year-old Gonzaga University accounting professor who has shot hoops since about age 7, when he got a sports set that included a rubber football, baseball and basketball.

“I sometimes ask if anyone knows CPR before a game begins,” Birrer said in his dry tone.

Basketball, at least full-court play, is not generally considered a lifelong sport. It’s rare for many people to play regularly – and consistently – into their 50s, much less 60s and 70s.

Birrer doesn’t care. He has no secret other than to keep playing, at least three days a week with younger ballers. He doesn’t stretch. Doesn’t lift weights. Doesn’t do core exercise. He just plays basketball.

“I just enjoy the game,” Birrer said. “I suffer back pains just like anyone else but I just keep playing. If I keep playing I’ll be OK.”

He’s not alone. Jon Heimbigner, who was on the Spokane Regional Sports Commission Board for 34 years, also lives basketball at age 67 with no plans of stopping. He also spends two days a week in the gym doing an 18-station circuit and walks at least three miles a day with his wife. In the winter, he plays on rec and intramural basketball teams three times a week – always the oldest athlete.

“God gave me some good body parts, but that’s also because I take care of them,” said Heimbigner, who’s only missed three Spokane Hoopfest tournaments in 25 years and won his bracket 10 times. One year he played with his two sons and daughter and won the coed bracket.

Heimbigner was also instrumental in bringing 3-on-3 men’s basketball teams to Olympia to play in the Washington State Senior Games in July. The games recognized Heimbigner in 2011 with the “Spirit of the Games” award.

“Basketball is not our biggest sport, but Jon makes it special,” said games president Jack Kiley.

The games attract about 2,000 athletes in 22 events, with about 50 basketball players compared to 600 softball athletes, Kiley said.

Normally, Heimbigner hoops it up with younger players. That’s why he likes the senior games and promotes it as part of his belief in senior wellness and exercise to ward off aging.

“The senior games are the one time out of the whole year I get to play against someone my age,” he said. “It’s kind of refreshing to do that.”

The age breakout of players during Spokane Hoopfest, touted as the biggest 3-on-3 on Earth with more than 7,000 teams, shows a tapering in the number of athletes in the 2014 tournament starting after age 30.

Age 13 is the peak with 1,727 players. By age 30, there are only 267 players. From there the numbers decline almost yearly with a small spike at age 50 with 74 players. By age 60, there are 18 players. The single digits start at age 65 with 6 players. There were two players age 70 and then single players for age 71, 74 and 90.

Birrer doesn’t like the small court, 3-on-3 games and has only participated in Hoopfest once. He calls it a “bangers” game, meaning it’s more about strength than finesse. He describes his style as “tactful awareness.” Besides, he likes playing with students and connecting with them outside class.

Birrer isn’t considered an “old man” by anybody at the three-day-a-week noon pickup games at the Martin Centre on campus where he plays with students a half-century his junior, including some former Gonzaga men’s basketball players, and a few young staff and faculty. More often he’s called “Fast Eddy” for his speed and defensive skill.

“You can’t leave Eddy open because he will usually make it,” former Gonzaga men’s basketball player Mike Hart wrote in a recent email describing Birrer’s game. “Eddy is a special guy not only to play hoops with the young guys at his age, but to play sooo consistently.”

Hart said he knows other older guys who play but usually only once a week or every couple of weeks, not at least three times a week, every week like Birrer.

“I have no idea what his secret is, but it’s very impressive,” Hart wrote, adding he would love to play into his 70s.

Birrer says he’s slowed to three-quarters of his younger speed and makes conscious decisions to stay safe.

“If one of the young kids sprints down the court, I’m not going to pull a hamstring just to catch him,” he said, yet proudly acknowledging the youngsters guard him vigorously and respect his shooting ability.

Growing up in Billings, Birrer played basketball for Carroll College and was co-captain when the team advanced to round 16 in the 1966 NAIA national tournament. He was inducted into the school’s basketball hall of fame in 1984 and his 1966 team was inducted in 2013.

Basketball has changed over his lifetime. Today athletes are bigger, stronger and spend hours lifting weights. In his day, jumping rope and calisthenics were it. He believes there is less focus on fundamentals of dribbling and passing and that today’s game is more about individuals than team-oriented.

Yet he thinks Gonzaga head coach Mark Few has embraced teamwork and that’s put Gonzaga on the map among much larger schools. Birrer, along with another Gonzaga professor, even wrote an academic paper in 2011 concluding that the successful management of the men’s basketball program has sustained the Sweet Sixteen presence in the NCAA tournament.

Perhaps Birrer’s wife of 47 years sums up his basketball interest. “He’s an addict,” said TerryKay Birrer.

She doesn’t play basketball. She reads and prefers watching Gonzaga games at home where there is less noise.

Even fewer older women, at least in Washington, play basketball than men. It’s obvious at the senior games where Kiley can hardly get any 3-on-3 women’s teams.

“One of my biggest shortfalls so far is finding women’s basketball teams,” Kiley said. “Sometimes teams will come up from California but I can’t find any women’s team here (in Washington state) or I can’t lure them.”

Nobody quite knows why, whether it’s a lack of venues or that women have more time commitments.

None of this concerns Birrer. All he wants is to play basketball.

“My dream is to die while making a reverse slam dunk,” he said. “If I did, I would die.”

Then in his typical dry style, he causally mentions that he can still touch the net.

“I can’t touch the rim,” he adds with a laugh. “I’m a legend in my own mind.”