Hoopfest sticks to Gum

There is almost an innumerable group of numbers associated with the previous 19 Hoopfests.

There are the thousands of participants, the hundreds of thousands of dollars given to charities, the millions of volunteer hours dedicated to making the biggest 3-on-3 basketball tournament in the world work.

As we count the days to the 20th Hoopfest, the numbers dwindle. Only 70 men and women have participated in all, a hardy few who have braved heat, elbows and all those bricks to finish 19 of the best weekends Spokane has to offer.

But let’s limit that number even more. All the way to the lowest prime number, one. One person who has played in each Hoopfest, starting when he was nine, his paths crossing, Forrest Gump-like, with all that Hoopfest displays on Spokane’s downtown streets.

It’s appropriate, then, our guide though 20 years of Hoopfest history has a last name only one letter from Tom Hanks’ legendary American character. We give you Ryan Gum.

Gum, who lived at Newman Lake when Rick Betts and Jerry Schmidt decided to start Spokane’s answer to the Gus Macker street-ball tournament, came to Hoopfest originally as kids have been doing for 20 years: with his buddies.

“The AAU team I played on, one of the other kids on the team just put together a team,” Gum said in a recent phone interview from the Denver area, where the 28-year-old works as a physical therapist. “So we went down there and played.”

Though Gum and his teammates didn’t walk away with a championship T-shirt he, at least, walked away with something more important.

“You kind of got bit by that bug right away,” Gum said. “Every year, I remember when I was a little kid the things I was excited for were holidays, birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, then I always remember being excited for Hoopfest to come around.”

It was a disease that would grow as the years wore on, just like the event.

“I remember just walking to the court with my family, and you could actually get to your court easily, with no problems,” Gum said. “There was no foot traffic, no congestion at all. A little different then it is now. I remember how much smaller it was in scale.”

That first Hoopfest included 512 teams and 2,009 players and filled just a few blocks of downtown.

The current event will have more than 6,400 teams, 26,000 players and use 449 courts.

One of them will be Gum. And will be as long as he can.

“Right now I have no intention of stopping,” Gum said. “I’m going to play, basically, as long as I can. It’s really one of my vacation times. When I put in for vacation, it will always be Hoopfest.”

And if you think life will interfere, nothing, not even a little thing like a marriage, has been able to yet.

Gum and his wife Jill were married last June. Early June.

“The date ended up being June 7,” he said. “It was kind of funny. We got married back in Spokane. We were meeting with the wedding planner and we were picking out dates. The lady at the Convention Center was talking about how the end of June was always a good time because the flowers start blooming around the Convention Center and it looks real nice.

“Jill thought that would be a good idea but I told her it probably wouldn’t work because Hoopfest was the last weekend in June every year. She understood.”

After all, most of the wedding party was committed to playing together.

Gum has been playing with his buddy Kelvin Bacon since they were juniors together at Gonzaga Prep. Two years later, Gum met Tim Martin at Gonzaga University and he joined the team. The trio has played together for almost a decade, rotating a different fourth player in every couple years.

Two years ago that fourth became Gum’s older brother Chris.

It’s a quartet that will gather in Spokane from around the nation and play together on Saturday. Though, like most Hoopfest participants, playing isn’t the only activity on their agenda.

“One of our favorite things is just walking around and people watching,” Gum said, laughing. “Obviously, every year it’s the same, but last year we were giving our wives a hard time because they weren’t able to come to Spokane with us, so we told them, if they don’t want to come this year, that’s perfectly fine with us.”

Maybe Jill wants to avoid another incident like her first Hoopfest.

Though Gum said he hasn’t been able to avoid arguments, he’s been able to avoid one of the perils of Hoopfest, the dreaded on-court physical confrontation. However, Jill became involved in the periphery of one.

“She ran to bathroom … at the Flour Mill,” Gum related, “and a lady walked into the bathroom with blood all over her face. My wife was like ‘oh my God, are you OK?’ She said ‘ya, I’m fine.’ That lady’s husband got into a fight with a guy on the court and the guy head-butted him. It wasn’t her blood, it was his.”

Such incidents aside, Gum has played in enough other 3-on-3 tournaments to appreciate how well Hoopfest is run.

“Around Denver they have a Hoop-It-Up, the national one, and we’ve played in that every year since I’ve been out here,” he said. “Tim and I always talk about how crazy it is to us how much bigger Hoopfest is and yet how much better run it is.”

Though Gum and his buddies have won their bracket before, they’re not into playing just for the champion’s shirt. Especially not this year.

The past few years Gum, Bacon and Martin – all of whom live outside the area – have stayed at Gum’s great-uncle Mike’s place in Spokane. It’s their home base for a weekend in Spokane getting together with family and friends.

“Our biggest memories of Hoopfest is coming to stay with Uncle Mike. After Sunday, we go to my grandparents’ house and they have this huge barbeque where all my family and my team come,” Gum said. “Friends I see (all weekend), I invite them and they all come as well.”

A family reunion that will hold a special significance this year. When Gum and his buddies take the court on Saturday, their T-shirts will bear a special name.

“This year our team name is ‘Uncle Mike,’” Gum said. “He’s been battling cancer for the last five or six years and this year it’s kind of turning. It’s a little rougher for him.”

It’s another example of time flying by, one Hoopfest at a time. But so is this: “My little cousin, who is 9, she’s playing in Hoopfest,” Gum said. “My younger cousin is getting ready to play. We go watch them play and obviously they come watch us play. Then, like I said, we all meet up afterwards.”

And celebrate another year of Ryan Gum surviving the streets of Spokane. An original member of a dwindling fraternity.