| Each year over forty basketball fanatics converge on the Glens Falls Civic Center and Sandy’s Clam Bar on the “Street of Dreams” for the NYSPHSAA Boys Basketball Tournament. These hoop crazies are the Basketball Jones Boys.
Beginning in 1978, when six high school basketball coaches made the trek to Rochester for the first modern state tourney, the Jones Boys have made it to every game of every tournament.
From the modest beginnings of six to eight coaching buddies the first few years, the ranks of the Jones Boys have expanded steadily over the years. Now they routinely travel with forty to fifty old (and some young) hoop nuts.
It is a total basketball emersion weekend, watching 15 games live at the civic Center; countless others in the NCAA March Madness games. All the Jones Boys suffer from an acute case of the “basketball jones” by the end of the weekend.
The boys do seem to find time for other activities to break up the weekend. There is the annual naming of Mr. Basketball Jones for that year. He is the one that picks the winners of the most games correctly, and is closest to the actual scores. Every first year Jones Boy is eligible to be named Rookie of the Year. This award goes to the novice who best navigates the infamous “Street of Dreams” three nights in a row. He has to make us proud! Singing with the house band at Sandy’s seems to have become a prerequisite for the winner.
Richie Mozal’s classic, one of a kind watering hole, Sandy’s Clam Bar, on South Street, the “street of dreams”, has become the Jones Boys adopted home away from home. Staffed by world class bartenders who know how to pour the “BUCA”, and grill men without equal, who know a spatula from a snow shovel, the service is unmatched! Stop in for a burger or some of the famous clams, you may be sharing the bar with some Jones boys!
The Basketball Jones Boys are a tradition laden group. They sit in the same seats every year, Section “M”. They always wear distinctive T-shirts and assorted gear, sporting a new theme each year. These shirts are highly prized by collectors nation wide, at prices that would make even LeBron James think twice.
As the Jones boys begin the countdown for their twenty-sixth annual journey to Glens Falls, one thing remains constant. That is, the outstanding atmosphere in Glens Falls. The unbeatable hospitality, the friendliness of the residents and the first class operation of the tourney. There is no better place in New York State for this tournament than in Glens Falls.
SEE YOU ON THE ROAD…………………………………………..B.B. JONZ
|
