The rebounds with elbows extended, the steals at half court, the last-second buzzer beaters, the tiny village beating the city team, the young nephew screaming his village's name at the top of his lungs during a quiet timeout, the elders sitting at the baseline dreaming of their own time on the court, the grandson pointing to the heavens after making a shot, the grandfather leaning on his cane watching his children carry on what he taught them, the fry bread, the herring eggs, the smoked salmon, the gathering of a thousand moments in a single day.
All these things will be honored Tuesday night when Juneau's Gold Medal basketball tournament is inducted into the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame.
"This is for all the communities in Southeast Alaska, for 66 years now, that have come together and made this thing the event it is," said Juneau Lion's Club president Steve Brandner, whose group runs the tournament.
This year's tournament will be dedicated to Walter Soboleff, a Tlingit leader and Alaska statesman who died at age 102 last year. He was a fixture at the Gold Medal, where he would sit in a big easy chair and smile throughout the length of a game.
"I am so excited," former Lions Club president Ted Burke said of the tournament's Hall of Fame selection. "I bet Dr. Walter Soboleff is smiling down on all of us."
The tournament began in 1947 when Del Hanks, a Boy Scout executive who traveled throughout Southeast Alaska, organized the event with the support of the Juneau Lions Club.
Entire villages and small towns have been known to come to the annual gathering.
"My biggest memory of the tournament was in 1951," said Southeast basketball historian Gil Truitt. "It was when Angoon ANB was given the sportsmanship award. Up until that time they were only giving individual awards to players. But Angoon was so outstanding they called the whole team out and gave them each individual trophies. It was one of the biggest ovations I have ever heard at the tournament."
Truitt played at Gold Medal from 1948-52. The first two years were as part of the Mt. Edgecumbe High School team. Then he was with Sitka ANB and Columbia Lumber. Sitka ANB and Metlakatla were the tough teams of southeast in 1949 and the Ketchikan Rockets were the top dogs in 1950.
"Those are some of my best memories," Truitt said. "Watching those teams play."
Brandner moved to Juneau at age 13, sneaked into a Gold Medal tournament and was hooked. He went on to play in three different brackets, win an MVP award, serve as a co-chairman and become a president.
"And now to be able to accept this (award) on behalf of so many that have played and participated and watched is very humbling," he said.
The tournament is run by volunteers and doubles as a fundraiser for scholarships as well as for charities such as the Salvation Army.
"It is so much more than basketball," Lions Club member Joyce Kitka said. "It's the culture and the community and the pride of who they are."
The Alaska Sports Hall of Fame will induct the Class of 2012 at a 7 p.m. ceremony Tuesday at the Anchorage Museum. Inductees include: • Bill Spencer, Anchorage -- Mount Marathon record-setter, 1988 Olympic cross-country skier, designer of the Spencer Loop and other popular trails, former UAA ski coach. • Vern Tejas, Talkeetna/New York City -- Mount McKinley record-setter (50 summits, including the first successful solo ascent in the winter), Seven Summits record-setter (set speed record for scaling the highest peak on each of the seven continents, bagging the summits in a 134-day span in 2010). • Gold Medal basketball tournament, a 66-year-old tradition that draws hundreds of players and fans to Juneau each March. • The UAF men's basketball team that won the 2002 Top of the World Classic in Fairbanks, becoming the first and so far only Division II men's team to win an otherwise all-Division I eight-team tournament. The ceremony runs from 7-8:30 p.m., with a reception following from 8:30-9. Both are free and open to the public. Alaska Sports Hall of Fame
By KLAS STOLPE
Juneau Empire