Glory Days and Its Connection Will Always be Remembered

This story is about basketball brotherhood, teamwork, 50+ year friendships, and a chance to remember those 'Glory Days' so eloquently rekindled by Bruce Springsteen's songwriting.

The picture above was taken a few months ago. It was a reunion of sorts. They are a bunch of guys who played good basketball for Pete's Bar in Northeast PA and drank watered-down beers together 45+ years ago.

This gathering was long overdue and we're all so glad today we found the time back in June.

I'll share the reason in a moment.

Quite surprisingly, after all these years, we found many of the guys were local enough to schedule that 6 p.m. 'tap off,' er, tip-off to reconnect.

The guy seated in the center of this pic was gracious enough to share his man cave with a bunch of sporting relics, aging gracefully, who mostly play golf today.

We were a good team back then and played in winter and summer adult leagues around the area. We won a lot of games and beat a lot of younger teams because of our teamwork.

Despite being very different in our lifestyles and skill sets, we jelled as one when it counted. We knew each other so well, and where each of us would be positioned on the floor to score and win.

We lost some tough games, too, one of which was a triple-overtime playoff thriller that would have put us in the summer league championship.

One of the reasons we were so good was because of a certain player pictured above (back row-left), who wasn't very big, but was so silky-smooth he could hang in the air for an eternity.

His name is Robin Myers. He was the soul of the Pete's Bar basketball brotherhood and our 'go-to' in the paint.

This past weekend, we lost Robin to cancer.

Robin was a terrific basketball player, and better yet, a great guy. He was so private that none of us knew he was ill back in June.

Our reunion was heartwarming, of course. Because of busy lives, families, and moving about, many of us hadn't seen each other in a long, long time.

That didn't matter. We immediately reconnected as if time and all those years in between were at a standstill. Lots of stories and plenty of laughs to go around.

Think about this for a moment. Karma was on our side here. Despite our profound sadness in losing a teammate and friend, we are so grateful that we took the time to bring everyone together again.

It turned out to be our chance to say goodbye in our own way. I know Robin is smiling about that one.

The old adage of 'life is too short to drink bad beer' is true.

We drank good beer at our gathering that evening coupled with the kind of fellowship that only happens when good friends collectively raise a glass to each other.

R.I.P Robin. And rest assured, we will continue to hoist a few in your honor and memory going forward.

"...I think I'm going down to the well tonight...

And I'm gonna drink till I get my fill...

And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it...

But I probably will.

Yeah, just sitting back, trying to recapture a little of the glory, yeah...

Well, time slips away and leaves you with nothing, mister...

But boring stories of...Glory days!"