Ken Mink Is No Bobby Riggs

THIS GUY CAN BALL, BUT EN ESPANOL?

As I continue to slide down the slippery slope of aging, I notice that I can't work as hard (though it feels harder), and recovery is taking longer and longer. No amount of Powerade (no Gatorade due to high-fructose corn syrup), Gu or Powerbars is going to change that...but maybe I'm just too young: older than Bobby Riggs in his chauvinist heydey but much younger than Ken Mink, the latest athlete to have his career short-circuited by failing to do the right thing.
You remember Bobby Riggs if you were around in 1973. He had been a world champion tennis player in 1939 when he was but a lad of 16, but by age 55, he was a mere shadow of his former self. Still craving the competitive edge, he was said to hustle players all the time by playing holding onto a chair and making ridiculous bets. His high point came in the famous "Battle of the Sexes" in which he challenged Billie Jean King, then the world's best female player, to a match in order to prove that men were,indeed, superior. At the height of the feminist movement, this was a HUGE story. Riggs had already beaten Margaret Court, but she was a fading star. King was the real deal at age 29, and getting far less in prize money than were the men in the same tournaments.
More than 30,000 people paid to see the match in the Houston Astrodome, won by King 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. Anyway, Riggs got the publicity and went out in something of a blaze of glory. Ken Mink will just be going out.
Earlier this year, Mink made headlines when he suited up for the Roane State(TN) Community College. He had played last in the 1956-1957 season as a freshman at Lees (KY) Junior College, but his career was cut short when he was expelled from school for being unjustly (according to Mink--all other potential witnesses are dead) accused of soaping the coach's office and filling his shoes with shaving cream. Nobody was laughing, especially the college president who expelled him from school. What, no double secret probation? Apparently, his scoring average was not enough to keep him on campus (purportedly 13 ppg).
So, when he walked on this year and made the team at age 73, it was big news. He supposedly could ball a little, but nobody was going to accuse him of being a ringer. His goal was to score in double figures...for the year. Prior to being declared ineligible, he had scored one-fifth of the total in a contest against Hiwassee...later to be expunged via forfeit for using an ineligible player: Mink. Ageism rears its ugly head? Not really.
According the the NJCAA, the ruling body for such institutions, Mink had failed to complete the required number of credits during the previous semester. Failing a Spanish class, he tried in mid-semester to enroll in a sociology course on ANOTHER campus to make up the credits! Whoa! is this Florida State or what? Nobody told Ken about the Drop/Add dates which are strictly enforced?
His excuse? "Not my fault! The schools in question screwed up. I'm legal. The coach did everything right, and I did everything right." Yeah, except pass Spanish and read the school's policy on timing to drop and add classes.
It would seem that some things don't change over 50 years.
Sorry, Ken; even septagenarians have to follow the rules.
Game over.