When I first arrived in Uganda to attend teacher training at Makerere College in Kampala in October, 1961, as a member of the first TEA group, I was 22 years old and a sports enthusiast with a great interest in basketball.  During this time, I met Larry Olds, a great friend and great basketball player.  With others, we had some great fun playing basketball while at Makerere.  Larry Olds is number 3 and Jerry is number 1, shown with other great players in these photos taken by Larry Olds.

My sports background came out of Banning Union High School in Southern California where I played for the Banning High School Team.  Banning, a town of 6,000 with 250 students in the school, was located on the high desert in southern California, 22 miles from Palm Springs.   My senior year, as a forward and co-captain on our school team, we had a great year - and ended up winning the State of California High School Championship in 1957, beating schools with thousands of students and great players. I was honored  to be chosen as a first-string forward on the All-California State Team.  In my college years, I played on the Ripon College basketball team.  So, I was well versed in playing basketball.

After completing the TEA requirements at Makerere, I was assigned to teach maths at Sir Samuel Baker Senior Secondary School in Northern Uganda.  On my arrival there, I was well received, assigned housing, and since it was a boarding school, I was expected to participate in after-school activities.  I had no problem with this, and of course, as a young and enthusiastic athlete, I was ready. Since there was no basketball at Sambaker, the students suggested I come out on the football field to play football (what I called soccer) and see what I could do. I had never played this game but it did not seem complicated.  Oh, did I find otherwise!  The students ran around me with ease!  With no shoes they dribbled the soccer ball around me, in front of me, behind me and over me!  Feeling like a fish out of water, I knew this was not going to work for me.

So I thought, why not set up a  basketball program at Sambaker and I suggested this to the headmaster. I got the OK from him, but without any funds, he told me that I would have to do all the work. We decided on the location of the court and I pegged out the boundaries.  Again, because of the lack of funds, we decided that the surface would be muram and not a concrete or asphalt surface.  Muram was a fine red gravel that was hard and smooth (and cheap!).  So, with the school tractor, I leveled out the area.

Muram was added and packed down.  The school carpenter built the backboards out of locally available mahogany and they were supported on telephone poles on each side of the court. 

In the meantime, my folks in the USA sent me rims and basketballs to get ready for the fun.  We were ready to go! Our student athletes were ready to try something new!  And so was I - this was my forte!!  So theycame with enthusiasm to learn a new sport and I did my best to show them the ins and outs of basketball.  We practiced and set up games with our neighboring schools - including our nearest school with our most honored and talented friend, Mr. Basketball, Larry Olds.

We had plenty of students that became basketball enthusiasts and I knew the sport at Sambaker and Uganda was here to stay.