Former Church President Spencer W. Kimball had a keen love of basketball in his youth, shared in his own words on pages 57 and 60 of the book, One Silent, Sleepless Night.

"I am on the basketball court. We play in our overalls and shirts with cheap rubber shoes and with basketballs of our own buying. We have beaten Globe High School on our dirt court, and we have defeated Safford and other high schools. Now, tonight, we Academy boys are playing the University of Arizona team."It is a great occasion. Many people come tonight who have never been before. Some of the townsmen say basketball is a girl's game, but nevertheless

they come in large numbers tonight. Our court is not quite regulation. We are used to it, our opponents are not. I have special luck with my shots tonight, the ball goes through the hoop again and again, and the game ends with our high school team the victors against the college team. I am the smallest player and the youngest on the team. I have piled up the most points through the efforts of the whole team in protecting me and feeding the ball to me. I am on the shoulders of the big fellows of the Academy. They are parading me around the hall to my consternation and embarrassment.

"I like basketball. I would rather play this game than eat, and I am a growing boy with a growing appetite. But basketball gives me some of my most trying situations. We have to do all our practicing after school, and milking time comes all too soon every day. I play till the last possible minute, then take just a few more throws; and when I get home, after running most of the way, I find the milk customers sitting on the bench at the back door waiting for their milk. We sell milk to neighbors, and they come for it. The delay for customers who are standing around and waiting around night after night must be far more exasperating than I can ever realize. Because I score time and time again it always seems that I can play just another minute without overrunning time, and my `milking' memory is short when I am enjoying myself so much on the basketball court.

"We go to Clifton to meet the high school team there. That high school, supported in large part by the mines in those camps, has a smooth floor to play on, and the boys have suits given them and their shoes have thick rubber soles which give traction. Our shoes are worn smooth, and while we slide and slip around the floor our opponents run up a score on us. Wait till we get them on our dirt court at the Academy!"