<Begin Segment 9>

TI: So when you walked in the door today, I commented that you're pretty tall, you're like five-ten. You talk about basketball, so did you play a lot of basketball growing up?

GN: Oh, yes.

TI: When I played basketball, if we had someone on our team that was five-ten or more, that was unusual. And so were you generally taller than people?

GN: All my friends were five-ten.

TI: Really? Japanese?

GN: Yeah, they were all my height.

TI: They grow up taller here, then. [Laughs]

GN: They're all in our Boy Scouts, they're all tall.

TI: So you must have had, when you played other teams, a taller team, then, no?

GN: Yeah, we were a taller team.

TI: So what position did you play?

GN: Forward, sometimes center. But we took a lot of championship.

[Interruption]

TI: We were just starting to talk about basketball and how your team was really good. But so, your team was, was it like a church team, was it sponsored by the church, or at this point, was it more of a community team? Talk about that.

GN: Boy Scouts, the parents, so we had a very good parents association, they were a hundred percent behind us. They furnished the uniforms, equipment, transportation, the parties and everything else.

TI: So when you say transportation, did you guys travel very much beyond San Francisco?

GN: Oh, yes, all over the Bay Area.

TI: So you had this Boy Scout team, what league did you play in?

GN: It was a, of course, a Japanese American basketball league.

TI: And the scope of this was the whole Bay Area or was it San Francisco-focused?

GN: The whole Bay Area. It was as far as the Sacramento, Petaluma and San Jose.

TI: And then so you had this Boy Scout team, how many other teams were in that league from San Francisco?

GN: Oh, plenty, there were a lot of clubs. There were some Boy Scouts that I recall, they were in Troop 12 and Troop 29, there were also church group sponsored basketball teams, Buddhist church. The clubs, so quite a few teams from San Francisco, of course.

TI: So how was it structured? Was there, like, different levels, like I'm not sure...

GN: Triple A, double A.

TI: And so what level did you play at?

GN: We played in triple A.

TI: Triple A, so the highest level.

GN: Yeah.

TI: And to give me a sense, so in San Francisco, how many other triple A teams would there be? Still quite a few?

GN: Quite a few, yes, or else, we couldn't compete.

TI: But then you would then travel to, like, San Jose and Oakland, Sacramento?

GN: Or they'll come here and play.

TI: And so every once in a while you guys probably had big tournaments where you'd get a bunch of gyms and you'd all play in a tournament?

GN: Yeah. It was a league, so it wasn't like a tournament all at one time, it was a league, winner, so played the other winners. That's the way it was. At the end, the last two would hash it out for a championship.

TI: And then from these leagues and stuff, did you guys sometimes form all-star teams that would go play other all-star teams?

GN: No, we didn't.

TI: Okay, we did that a lot in Seattle.

GN: We didn't do that. Maybe they did, I don't know, but I don't remember. But that was good for us, because the parents association, they furnished everything. They even cleaned the uniforms for us.

TI: Oh, they did?

GN: Somebody owned a cleaner's, so they would clean all the uniforms after the game.

TI: Wow, we didn't have anything like that. [Laughs]

GN: Yeah, and then the uniform was, the uniform that we had was the same uniform that the Olympics used.

TI: Wow, you guys were really, really first class.

GN: Yeah, oh, the parents association was fantastic.

TI: So you guys must have had the best uniforms in the league.

GN: I don't know, that's what he gave us. It's a red, white and blue uniform, had the tops, white, either white or red, right? Then we had a sweatsuit on that's nice, too. We were first class. That's why everyone wanted to join our troop, they wanted to join us because we had all these...

TI: Wow, so it's almost like a recruiting type of thing.

GN: Yeah, a lot of people that was other teams, we remembered, they somehow ended up being in the Boy Scouts with us. So they were playing for us, they're in the Boy Scouts with us.

TI: Interesting.

GN: Yeah, they, like I say, envy us, and the program was so good, Boy Scouts had a good program, going camping, things like that. Again, the parents association, they were right behind us, we'd go camping across Marin County, and there was a Japanese trucking company, they will come and take us on a truck whenever we go camping or whatever. We'd go to a parade, they'd put us on a truck with our equipment and take us to a parade. So it was a great, great association.

TI: Was there much emphasis on the boys becoming Eagle Scouts?

GN: Oh, yeah, lots of Eagle Scouts.

TI: Now, were you an Eagle Scout?

GN: No, only one that's not, not too good.

TI: Okay, but there were a lot of your fellow Scouts were, became Eagle Scouts?

GN: A lot of Eagle Scouts. Oh, yeah, they used to have ceremonies and all that.

TI: And so, today, many years later, are you still close to some of these guys that you would play basketball with the Scouts with?

GN: Now I don't see them anymore. While we were playing basketball league, old timers, then we had, we were close, we would see each other, but not after we quit. I don't see any of my friends, I don't speak to them. That's why I have this phone, that's what I need, I don't need anything else except one phone, just flip phone, that's it. I don't text, I don't email, nothing.

TI: But you talked about playing basketball, I think, close to being sixty years old, so that was about twenty years ago. Did you play basketball with the same guys, or did you play with other people?

GN: It was mixed, mix of the old teams that used to play against us, whoever wanted to play would get together at this high school gym that we rented. It was fun.

TI: Did you guys still use, when you were in that old-timers league, did you guys still use refs, or did you just call your own fouls?

GN: Oh, we had refs, you have to have refs, otherwise it gets out of hand, you know.

TI: Yeah, you play with these competitive basketball players, you need to have refs, right? Because otherwise you'd argue.

GN: Right, right, frankly.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.