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'Granny shot' aptly named at these Olympics
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Senior Olympics at the Carlisle of Naples
There were more events at the Carlisle of Naples today for the Senior Olympics. Events included basketball, darts and rummikub and poker.
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Carlisle Senior Olympics: Day 4
The Senior Olympics continued at the Carlisle in Naples. Events included a wide variety of events that the residents participated in.
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Carlisle Senior Olympics: Day 3
The Senior Olympic competition continued at the Carlisle in Naples. Participants competed in various events such as Wii Bowling and the bean bag toss.
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Senior Olympics Carlisle: Day 2
The Carlisle Naples Summer Olympics were held at the Carlisle Naples as part of a week long event celebrating the Olympic spirit. Residents are taking part in a variety of events such as golfing, bowling, scrabble and walking.
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Carlisle Naples Olympic Challenge: Opening ceremony
The opening ceremonies of the Fifth Annual Carlisle Naples Olympic Challenge was held Monday, July 21, 2008.
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It’s known in layman’s terms as “the granny shot.” Stand facing the basket, bend your knees, swing the ball down between them, and toss it up — underhand — in a wobbly arc toward the basket.
The granny shot has come out of fashion in basketball nowadays, overshadowed by Tim Duncan’s baby hook and Kobe’s jumper.
But on Friday, the final day of the Senior Olympic Challenge at the Carlisle in North Naples, the granny shot — perhaps aptly named in this case — had its day in glory.
Friday’s Foul Shooting Contest at the Carlisle marked the end of four days of 22 events for more than 120 participants in the fifth annual Senior Olympic Challenge.
The shooting competition featured some Olympic Challenge favorites: last year’s MVP Fred Newman, Wii superstar Fred Kranz, crowd favorite Joe Johnroe.
All the participants but one stepped up to the foul line and tossed up a granny shot. Cliff Bransby, the one participant not using the “granny,” explained it this way.
“When I played in high school, everyone shot that way,” Bransby, who graduated from high school in 1942, said. “No one ever shot one-handed.”
That was just 50 years after Dr. James Naismith invented basketball in 1891, and just 40 years after the bottom of the “basket” hoops were removed, so that the ball didn’t have to be taken out each time a basket was scored.
It’s a history few young ballplayers of today would recognize, when joking around using the granny shot in a game of H-O-R-S-E.
“As a result of watching (basketball) on TV, I saw that things had changed,” Bransby said. “So I tried to change with it.”
While he didn’t play basketball after high school, Bransby taught himself how to shoot in the modern style, with one hand propelling the ball overhead toward the basket, and the other hand serving merely as a guide.
It has served him well in the Senior Olympic Challenge. He has participated all five years in the foul shooting contest.
“I’ve won the event before ... I’m not sure about that every year bit,” Bransby said, laughing.
The crowd was on his side Friday, clapping as he made his way to the foul line.
“He even looks professional,” crowed fellow participant Dick Collins, telling a man sitting next to him: “I think you should do it like Bransby ... get the ball up there!”
Bransby’s next shot swirled around the basket and finally went in. A woman let out a little scream, then smiled and clapped.
“Bravo!” The granny-shotters didn’t fare quite so well, as a group.
Collins went 0-5, telling a newcomer to the room: “Terrible ... I’m a substitute, and I’m terrible!”
Fred Kranz, a star in the Wii bowling earlier this week, missed his first two shots.
“Well, now I know he’s human,” Collins laughed.
Kranz missed the next one, too, but he banked his fourth shot home.
“We’re gonna call you Shaquille,” referee Sue Dumas said.
A few minutes later, the competition ended. Bransby’s team won. The granny shot would be shelved another year, coming out only among basketball beginners in crowded courts around the country.
Little would they know of its proud history, the history of the Olympians who who once used it in high school gyms across the country, as World War II raged overseas, and our country’s “Greatest Generation” came of age.
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I love these photos!
These residents are so real as athletes!
They make me smile...as I would have the same look at any age trying to catch a ball.
WAY TO GO!
Great work activities director and team, too!
#1 Posted by beetlejuice on July 26, 2008 at 3:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)
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