A True Story.
At the age of 49, Myron felt that he had reached a certain degree of success in both his professional and personal life.
He had worked diligently throughout his academic and business careers to be in the position he now was. He had put the failures of his past love life far behind him, and he was now going on his 14th year with this corporation.
Myron had provided his beautiful wife of 14 years with a beautiful 5-bedroom home in the burbs and all the luxuries that his six-figure salary could afford. He also had a relatively-large nest egg saved from the first 12 and half years of his career following college. He had invested wisely.
For Myron, things were seemingly perfect. His 38-year-old wife, Mona, was a strikingly-beautiful blonde of 5' 6" and 122 lbs. with an impressive 34DD-23-35 figure. She looked 10 years younger than her age, and still turned many heads.
The only thing missing in his life was a child, which Myron was unable to provide. But, he optimistic that this could still happen someday, and everything else was going well.
Things hadn't always gone so smoothly for the tall, timid and noticeably "geeky" Myron. Throughout high school he was never successful with the girls, dating no more than once or twice. His lanky 6' 7" tall and 215 lb. frame was unathletic and somewhat undernourished for his height. And, his shy and passive demeanor prevented him from even attempting to ask many girls out. When he did, he was usually rejected.
Myron had an intense attraction for the cheerleader type. To him, they were everything he ever wanted - beautiful, athletic and feminine. But, Myron was far from the athletic type that these girls appeared to attach themselves to. To him, it seemed as if every beautiful white cheerleader he had his eye on was dating one of the black players from the track, football or basketball teams. Myron didn't quite understand why back then. In his mind, he was a straight-A student on the young execs committee and had a future. More often than not, Myron found himself cowardly slithering away like a big coward when he was around these cheerleaders. But, as graduation approached he remained eager to move onto college.
Myron was given a partial academic scholarship to a small, midwestern college in Michigan. He had several other offers, but he wanted to stay within driving distance of his family. His family was the typical middle-class, midwestern family barely making ends' meet, and Myron was very close to his mother.
In the past, others had described Myron as a big "momma's boy" but that did not affect his decision to sign with U Tech. He would be only 200 miles from home and felt as if this was the farthest he wanted to be from his mom. He would have half his tuition paid for as long as he maintained a B average, and that was good enough.
About three weeks before the start of the school year, Myron drove up to U Tech to get situated into his dorm room. As he passed by the recreation center and gym he noticed the U Tech Cheer Squad practicing on the infield of the track and field area. He thought to himself how nice it would be to get to know one of these girls as he stepped inside William's Hall.
While inside, he browsed around and even watched a racquetball game for awhile before deciding to head back to his dorm room to call his mom. That is when he ran into Coach Lester, the school's basketball coach.
U Tech had never participated in a basketball program until two years before. Coach Lester was in his 50's, and was a Phys Ed coach from a nearby high school. He was asked to start up a basketball program two years ago. The small midwestern town was within 30 miles of some of the larger cities in Michigan, but had only particpated in volleyball, track and field, Golf and Tennis. None of the major college sports.
The small college town was 100% white and the college student-base reflected that. But, Coach Lester had aspirations of getting a better basketball team together before the school year began. He was getting desparate as the season approached, and needed a couple of more players.
When he saw Myron's 6' 7" frame slowly walking away from William's Hall, he approached the young freshman. Coach Lester tried to persuade Myron to come out for the team. Initially, Myron was not even remotely interested. But, as he glanced over Coach Lester's broad shoulders and spotted those cheerleaders jumping around in their frilly little skirts, he thought to himself that this could be an opportunity of a lifetime.
The unathletic Myron grew even more interested as the coach described how he would receiving a full scholarship for both his tuition and boarding, if he signed up for 4 years. Myron was convinced. What better way to take care of all his expenses, he thought. Gleefully, he ran back to his dorm room and called his mom. He told her the good news. His mother was a bit startled by the news, knowing that her son had never before played any sport. But, she shared shared in her son's enthusiam and congratulated him. Myron gleemed as his mother told him how proud she was. "Thank you, momma." Myron replied.
The coach had called for practices for the all-white basketball team to begin at the end of the week. When Myron arrived at the gym he was greeted his teammates. It had seemed that Coach Lester had put together a makeshift group of all taller than average white players to field his freshman team. The sophomore and varsity teams had not been established and this team would go on to be the school's first varsity group after the next two seasons.
It soon became obvious to the new coach that his team was below average. He had already set an aggressive 32-game schedule for the regular season but felt preseason games, or practice games would be a better way to get ready for the season. Coach Lester set up 4 games with Baker College, an inner city team. Baker was one of only 5 other small colleges on the schedule. The schedule had already seen U Tech playing Baker College 8 times during the upcoming regular season, and U Tech would play the other four teams a total of 6 times each. The coach could only manage the 4 practice games against Baker, tho, and was optimistic about improving his team's chances. The practice games were to be played over the next two weeks, two games scheduled for each of those weeks.
At practice the next day, Myron noticed the Freshman Cheer Squad pacticing inside. It had been raining that day. As the girls practiced their routines on the court next to theirs, Myron grew distracted. The coach barked out orders for the team to be more aggressive, but Myron's attention was somewhere else.
He had noticed Becky Collins, a beautiful fair-skinned, redheaded irish girl from Iowa. She was a vision. Becky made eye-contact with him and Myron timidly returned a smile. After practice, the shy Myron could not find the courage to speak to her ... but as they walked towards the locker rooms their paths crossed. A simple "hi" from Becky was all it took to put Myron into a state of bliss. "H-Hi" he returned, nervously, and they began to talk. And, Becky was truly beautiful.
Becky Collins was the epitome of the midwestern girl-next-door, with her 5' 4" 112 lb. frame and 34D-22-34 figure. Her bright blue eyes and long, lustrous auburn hair sent chills all down Myron's spine. She looked like a sweet, angelic type, with a body to die for. Becky was a former gymnast and a cheerleader during high school, and had received a cheerleader scholarship. Myron instantly ffell in love.
He would end up talking to young Becky everyday after practice for the next several days. Shy and timid, he didn't ask her out at all during those first few days. But, they did go for a dinner and a movie after Becky suggested it.
Myron was the perfect gentleman during their so-called "date" as he nervously walked young Becky back to her dorm. He swallowed the lump in his throat and then asked Becky if they can do this again, after tomorow's practice game. "Sure". Becky replied.
Myron walked across the campus to his dorm room on cloud nine. He felt as if Becky was now his girl and he was proud of the decision he made to join the team. For Myron, this offered him the opportunity to meet Becky and he rushed home to write her a sappy love letter, describing her as "the girl of his dreams," which he had planned on giving her after that first practice game. To Myron, everything was going along so well. He even called his mom, again, to tell her he had met a girl whom he now referred to as "his girlfriend".
Myron's mom seemed proud of him. She was pleased that everything was going in the right direction for her son.
When game time came for this first practice game the next day, Myron was anxious to show off a little for his "new girlfriend." With the rest of the team on the court, he watched as the all-black inner-city freshmen team from Baker College trotted onto the court. Myron's assignment soon came into focus. He was to play the forward position and guard against a boy named Tyrok.
Tyrok looked very athletic but he was only about 5' 10" tall. A darker-skinned boy from Detroit who had a solid physique. Myron reasoned to himself that since he had a 9" height advantage over Tyrok and should do fairly well. But, this would not be the case.
The black boys from Baker humiliated the white boys from U Tech by a final score of 118-31. The game was even more lopsided than the score indicated because more than half of U Tech's points came from the foul line. The U Tech boys got "hammered" by the boys from Baker, and Myron managed only 1 point from the free-throw line while Tyrok scored 42 and completely dominated the matchup.
It was embarrassing for Myron to lose so badly, but even more embarrassing was the manner in which Tyrok and the rest of the black boys from Baker College "rubbed it in". During the extremely one-sided game Tyrok and the other black boys flirted with the 15-girl U Tech Cheer Squad. They showed off for them by running up the score, and even calling Myron and his team names, like "a bunch of wussy boys" and "big pussies". Coach Lester pleaded for the team to ignore these comments, explaining that they were just part of the game. But, they were hard to ignore. After the game, young Tyrok even even laghingly made the comment, "We'll be back in a few days to kick dat' ass again". He said, as he walked off the court. Myron just couldn't believe how "mean" this black boy was being.
Myron felt degraded by these events. He was feeling more than a bit dejected, yet still wanted to talk to Becky. He wanted to take her to dinner and a movie, and perhaps a walk afterwards. At least this is what he had planned.
Myron approached Becky after the humiliating defeat. "Do you still wanna go to that movie, Becky?" He asked her. Becky was also humiliated by the team's performance. Some of the other girls had called them wimps, and she didn't quite feel up to going out anymore. "No. Not really." she said. "I just don't feel like it now". She finished. Myron was further dejected.
"Well, ok. Maybe tomorrow then?" he asked, hopefully. "Yeah, maybe?..." Becky replied. The defeated Myron didn't know what else to say. He pulled out the love letter her had written her from his gym bag. He handed it to his girl.
"I wrote this for you, Becky ..." He nervously stammered. Becky took the enveloped letter from Myron's hands and told him she would read it later.
"Well. okay ... maybe I can call you later, Becky?... would that be okay, Becky?" Myron asked meekly. The young beauty just grabbed her pom-poms and headed towards the door. "Yeah, sure... maybe." she returned as she walked away.
But, Myron only got Becky's answering machine in the 3 attempts he made to call her that night. He felt awkward trying so hard to talk to her. He only managed to talk to her for a few minutes here and there during the next few days, leading up to that next practice game.
Myron felt that if he did better in the next game he could impress the girl he was so infatuated with. However, what was once a ray of hope for the lanky Myron turned to despair during that next game.
