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.

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.