Nowadays, if Bears tight end John Gilmore wanted to play basketball, all he’d have to do is step onto a court. His 6-foot-5, 260-pound frame would do the rest. But, as a 4th grader growing up in Reading, Pa., Gilmore wasn’t that persuasive yet.
“When you’re that young, you had guys in junior high and high school that overran the court,” Gilmore recalls. “So, as a kid, you couldn’t really get on the court at certain times.”
So Gilmore and his friends came up with a new game: Roof Ball.
Gilmore and his buddies would find a picnic area with a slanted roof and throw their basketball on the roof. Forming a line, the kids would jump as the ball rolled off, tapping it back onto the roof while in midair.
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If the ball hit the ground on your turn, you were out. If you caught the ball, then landed, you were out. Last one standing was the winner.
Gilmore spent many weekends playing Roof Ball in (where else?) Bear Park in Reading.
“We’re doing 360s, layups, because nobody’s dunking at that age,” he says. “But as kids, that was the game.”