About this episode
Spike Boarts Stories Part 1. Spike Discusses: The 1962 USVBA Nationals in Philadelphia where his team finished 5th, watching the Hollywood YMCA led team there that year coached by Harry Wilson compete against Gene Selznick's Westside Jewish Community Center team in the finals, and not getting to see Dick Clark's American Bandstand :) , the 1963 USVBA Nationals when he played for the Hollywood Y Stars alongside all the legends when he was an 18 year old kid against Stockton in the finals, and how coach Harry Wilson inserted him in game 2 ( after they lost game 1, in a best of 3) and they were down 8-13, and he served several points in a row and they ended up winning game 2 and the match and championship, Bill Olsson and how amazing he was as a hitter, Gene Selznick and how he was such an otherworldly talent on the court as the best all around player - hands down, some classic stories about Mike Bright ( including getting Bright drunk at the Panther Room on a Saturday night before his match the next day at Laguna in '62, and how Bright was so hung over, it helped Dave Bordwell and Gordon Evans win the Laguna Open, , some great stories about Pete Ott, Mike Anderson, and Nate Parrish, and playing at Shattuck's in Hermosa beach as teenager growing up, including a story when Mike Bright bounced a ball over the house one day, and how he had too much to drink one another time there at the age of 18 on Bourbon ( first time he drank hard liquor), then puked his guts out in the 9th street alley, and couldn't go out for his date that night and had to have his parents call his date to let her know, meeting Keith Erickson at the age of 14 at the El Segundo Rec center and setting him balls that he pounded , the best hitters he ever saw ( Olsson, Suwara, and Chamales), and his recollection of Bill Imwalle, Buzz Swarts, and Matt Gage as young upstarts in the south bay.... - Support the show