"Alley
Oop"
Nick
Vidalakis Invents the basketball play
By Wayne
"Admiral" Ray
 |
| Add caption |
Nick
Vidalakis is a tall guy. At least he was
the last time I saw him. Gravity takes
its toll as we age. I have shrunk 2 3/4 inches from my "fighting
height". Maybe he has also. Nick was taller than most of us in junior and
senior high school. I believe only Reed
Schultz was taller in our class. None of
Nick's height and weight was fat because he was a hard worker and besides he
walked daily from Lead Mine to school and back from grade school to 12th grade.
There
is a famous story concerning Nick and Joel P. Jensen when we were in the 8th or
9th grade that amazed us all because of the way Mr. Jensen handled Nick's
size. A nickname was involved in
provocation. If you remember your teachers
at BHS you know the nickname, (Punjab). The
action took place from the classroom to the hallway. It was Unbelievable!
 |
| Joel Jensen |
The
previous paragraphs are to establish that Nick was tall. He was a varsity basketball player our senior
year. He wasn't a starter but I think he
did get to play quite a bit. If I
remember right he was 6th or 7th on the starting rotation. In contrast I was 10th on the rotation. We only had 10 players. The starters were Captain Kent Stillman,
Chris Apostal, Bill Thomas, Ken Hall and Jack Knudson. Other teammates were: Bill Boren, Steve Hauskenecht, and George
Dimas. We made it to the State Class
"B" Tournament held in the Deseret Gym in Salt Lake City in
1946. The last time the Bingham High
School basketball team played in the State Tournament is when the dad's of Kent
Stillman, Ken Hall and Bill Thomas played.
How about that for a coincidence?
Three starter son's of three starter dads in the two bracketed
tournament appearances. My uncle
"Lolly" also played in that era but it didn't help me getting any
playing time. (I got to play the last
minute or two sometimes when the game was a cinch for our victory or hopelessly
lost)
 |
Nick #11 |
It
happened in practice. I can't remember
the exact details but Nick instructed us that when he shouted "Upano" whoever had the ball could lob it to
him over the heads of the guarding players.
With his height advantage he could grab the ball and score. (I always thought that "upano"
meant up in Greek but my English-Greek Dictionary didn't recognize the
word.) Coach "Sunny" Alsop
liked the idea and encouraged the play whenever Nick was in the game. Wasn't
any name to the play, but in future years with many teams they called it the
"Alley Oop". Other teams may
have used this play before us but I credit Nick for inventing it as an
offensive strategy. It worked especially
in our last game of the season.
 |
| Nick Vitalakis, Wayne Ray |
We beat
Duchesne and Park City before we lost to American Fork in the semi-finals. Our final game for third place was against
Spanish Fork. Coach Alsop sat the
starters down and let the reserves play the game. We won 31-25.
Nick and "Upano" prevailed. I even scored a few. UPANO, with Nick.
