Revisiting the Losers

Now that the Bears season is officially over (it really was over several weeks ago), Chicago fans can concentrate on hockey and basketball. With the Bulls floundering, I figured I would pull out another "Loser" basketball team.
As I have written before, the Losers were my intramural basketball team back at Mt. Carmel high school. We weren't successful, but we were gritty and we had fun. We would have had more fun if we actually won a real game. We won one game by forfeit when the other team didn't show up (we must have scared them) and we won an exhibition game against a bunch of our girl friends (hey, they had us outmanned 7-5).
We had one major accomplishment however. We made the MC yearbook. Yep, right there on page 82, there was a picture of someone grabbing a rebound against us. Loser Mike Szotek (#42) appears to be boxing out his man, while Keith Urbon (far right) was ready to grab the rebound and is perhaps ready to go for a steal. Okay, the guy probably put it right back in for another score against us, but that is pure speculation. I like my story better.

Mike Szotek (#42) and Keith Urban (far right) in Mt. Carmel gym in Chicago, IL-Spring 1983.

More Losers:Keith Urbon

Long before their was country music great Keith Urban, there was Keith Urbon, a Mount Carmel high school friend and one of my teammates on the Losers. While Urban has won 2 Grammy Awards, Urbon would probably have won the Losers MVP Award, if we had one. Urbon is a native of Hegewisch (IL) and sat in front of me through most of high school (alphabetical order ruled back then). Urbon was a huge fan of the White Sox and picked his Losers #10 in honor of then-manager Tony LaRussa.
Urbon's versatility (or the Losers lack of formal strategy) paid off as he played every position on the basketball court. Although he started slow, over the last 3 games of our season, he averaged 7.66 points, on the way to leading our team in total points with 27.
I am not sure why Urbon is clapping in the photo below. My guess would be that the buzzer sounded ending our final game and our dismal 1-6 season. It's an odd photo all around though. One of our opponents (in green) seems to be looking up, perhaps at a rebound. I am semi-running into the play from far left court.

Keith Urbon, me and an opponent (green) in Mt. Carmel gym in Chicago, IL-Spring 1983.

A Bunch of Losers

The NBA basketball season starts today. Who knows what kind of season my Chicago Bulls will have? They have been very inconsistent over the last few years.
One team who was consistent was the Losers. They...we were consistently bad. The Losers were my intramural basketball team during my senior year at Mt. Carmel. I was the starting off-guard (accent on off), although I am not really sure we had positions, except for Tom 'Hammer' Skalski. He was definitely our big man in the middle (and our enforcer, a role he gladly filled).
Other Losers included Dave 'Mooner' Plonczynski, Greg 'Ness' Nessinger, Keith Urbon, Mike Szotek, John Fleszewski, Jim 'Fish' Fisher, Todd Kruk and Ed Mann. We had a great time and even won 1 game. Each Loser will have his time to shine here, but for today, Tom Skalski gets his turn.

Dave Plonczynski, an opponent (in blue) and Tom Skalski in Mt. Carmel gym in Chicago, IL-Spring 1983.