KC CENTRAL IN THE '60S

KANSAS CITY CENTRAL IN THE '60s! "Boom! Boom-boom! Boom! Boom! Boom-boom!" rumbled the pulsing, cacophony of foreboding big bass drums of Kansas City Central High School's basketball rooters back in the 1960s, in St. Louis Missouri. The bass timbre was then followed, repeatedly by an incantation , a holy chant: "Hey-hey-hey, KC! You look so good to me!" Again, then, the drums sound: invoking, evoking leal battle spirits of our ancient history: "Boom! Boom-boom! Boom boom! Boom-boom!" Ooooweeee! I was 14 or 15. The year. 1965 or 66. That drumbeat. That heartbeat. That summons bewitched my soul! Who were these big bad mooter-scutters from out of Kansas City? We thought we had the monopoly on style, on cool, hip and what's happening in St. Louis, naturally, being bigger, older, and blacker, we thought! KC was just where storms came from, somewhere out west . Spell-binding spirits were floating about, true enough! But we were not at a pep rally. We were at a Missouri state high school championship basketball game. The question was could they ball? Could they ball? Lord Jesus! They won the game before the tip-off! In the warmups, everyone on the team dunked! Even the 5'8" guard! They had two blood brothers with Ebonic names who dunked two balls on one leap in succession! Don't ask me the score! Kansas City blew them away. Don't ask me who they played! Somebody from southern Missouri. They lost big! All I remember was the magic of the moment and the mystery of KC.