This date in Slice history (1997)

(Here are a few snippets from a bonus Slice that ran in the sports section. It was dedicated, top to bottom, to Hoopfest coverage.)

Out of the way or you’ll get vaporized: In places, the sidewalks were so crowded it was hard to move. But 3-year-old DiMaggio Brown had a system for clearing a path.  He leaned forward in the stroller pushed by his grandmother, Sonia Brown, and fired at will with a lime green toy ray-gun that emitted an other-wordly woo-woo-woo sound.

Our favorite lost-child announcement included: “She has blue hair…”

Overheard on Sprague (a mom with family members playing on different courts at the same time): “I can’t be in two places at once, but nobody in my house has ever understood that concept.”

Most ridiculous gesture: A guy in front of the STA Plaza was talking on a cell phone when he made a “quiet down” hand motion toward a crowd cheering the end of a girls’ game.