Thanks to all the readers of BDN “Off the Rim” Column & BLOG & MBR’s Posts & CIM’s BLOG

After going over 300,00 views this past week on my Bangor Daily News “Off the Rim” Column and Blog. I  wanted to thank all the 300,000 plus viewers/readers over the past 7 years as I started writing for the Bangor Daily News in November of 2011.

I started posting on MBR when Tom Noelette started it years ago and have had my own BLOG since last May which is approaching 49,000 views.

I hope that my BDN column, BLOGS and  MBR posts and CIM’s BLOG have been of interest and of some value to basketball players, coaches, parents and fans here in Maine. especially in the greater Bangor area.

If I have been able to give the readers just a tenth of what the game of basketball has given me in my life then I know I have met the objectives of the BDN columns, BLOGS and MBR posts and BLOGS..

I have tried to base my BDN columns, BLOGS and MBR posts and CIM’s BLOG on my experience of 73 years in the game since I started playing the game in 1944 as a 7 year old second grader at the old Abraham Lincoln Elementary school here in Bangor.

I watched the 5th and 6th graders playing basketball at recess and lunch time and the game really fascinated me because you could practice all the offensive skills by yourself, a ball and a basket.

I asked my Dad to put up a hoop for me off our garage an eventually after seeing me use the basket so much that my Dad hung another backboard of a big tree at the end of our driveway. Had the first 2 basket court in the city of Bangor at a private residence which also had lights.

I started playing organized basketball as a 5th grader on the Abraham Lincoln Elementary School team that played in a 4 team city elementary league with Mary Snow, Hannibal Hannibal  and Larkin Street elementary schools.

Then as a 7-8-9 grader played on the Garland Street Junior High School team, followed with a year on the Bangor High JV team as a sophomore and then on the Varsity as a junior and senior.

Then played at Husson College for 3 years, before going into high school basketball coaching for 29 years.

Joined the Eastern Maine IAABO Board 111 in 1968 and this year is my 50th as a member of that officials board. Was president of the board in 1972, a member of the executive board for many years.

In 1978 wrote the first basketball assignment program for the board and was the first basketball official assigner in the state in 1977-78.

Reffed at all levels of basketball from middle school, high school, prep school, D-1 and D-1 college, men’s league, semi-pro and even was a substitute official for the old CBA (Continental Basketball Association the farm league for the NBA) when the Maine Lumberjacks played at the old Bangor Auditorium.

I was also a radio/TV color commentator for the tournaments for WABI Radio/TV working with George Hale, John Small and Lori Gott for 10 years.

Also, have  written 2 books on basketball. In 1972 “Basketball’s Percentage Offense” was published nationally by Prentice-Hall. I wrote a book on shooting in 1988 which was published locally by Northeast Printing Company in Bangor to use at my weekly summer basketball shooting camps and for my shooting lessons that I still give today.

I have been an athletic director for 16 years 5 at Bangor High and 13 at John Bapst Memorial High school.

I was a member of the Maine State Basketball Commission as a coaches rep for 7 years and a member of the MPA’s classification committee as well as their football and swimming committees.

Also served as the Eastern Maine representative on the MABC (Maine Association Basketball Association executive committee) for many years.

Now retired from all those basketball jobs, except for being a writer, blogger, and giving individual shooting lessons. I am also now a big basketball fan.

So having seen the game from all these different basketball angles I try to use all of these different basketball experiences to help me write my column and Blog.

Sometimes I get definite assignments to write about from my boss, Joe McLaughlin the sports editor of the Bangor Daily News. Other times I write about things that I think all the basketball people in Maine will find  interesting, timely, controversial, or historical with Joe’s approval. My wife proof reads my column before I turn it into Joe who does the final proof read.

I have really enjoyed the writing experience opportunities that the Bangor Daily News have given me.

It is really nice and appreciated to have people that I do not know or do know see me in public and come up to me tell me that they read the column every Tuesday during the basketball season from mid-November to mid-April.

Again, I wish to thank all the people who have read my column in the paper and online and in my Blog the past 7 years and hope that they continue enjoy to read them both as much as I enjoy writing them…