Monday, January 29, 2007
Chapter 3: The Recreational Sports Leagues
Phillips offered a lot of recreation sports activities, softball being one of them, volley ball being another. There were two fields south of the R&D compound. Both industrial and recreation leagues were played on the fields. The recreational leagues included co-ed and men's.
I hooked up with a long time geologist in international E&P who captained a team in the Phillips men's league. He also fielded a team for Patrick's a local bar. Patrick's was a watering hole across the intersection at Johnstone and 4th from the Plaza Office Building. At the time it was the Phillips Office building before it was demolished leaving only the tower and the new building. Patrick, the owner was a former Fleet Force Recon Marine, a very nice guy. Unfortunately I was able to witness his gradual spiral into cocaine addiction resulting in him losing everything including the bar. But that was to come later.
Patrick's was one of only two bars that were really happening. On any given night the place would have a good crowd. Particularly on Fridays and Saturdays. League nights also turned out a good crowd. Patrick had a gold mine but squandered it all on drugs and topless dancers. At the time, Phillips was awash with a lot of young single employees fresh out of college, or hired locally to fuel the demand for support staff.
The sports fields were where we all came together. From the softball field I met a large circle of acquaintances. The same ones that played softball played volleyball. We saw each other at Patrick's too. If someone threw a party for Halloween, Christmas or just because, you'd see the same faces. There were couples and there were singles all thrown into the same pot. We did canoe trips, lake trips or curry parties, you name it. It was a party crowd. Hell, it is hard to remember all the names of people that moved through the leagues as they transferred in and out of Bartlesville.
There were the two black Griggs sisters, one a long legged Zulu princess that would put Tyra Banks in the shade, and her equally attractive but shorter stockier sister. They both played on a championship co-ed volley ball team I captained. The Danish pastry played on the team too even though she wasn't an employee. Her husband's father was an old Phillips hand. Her hubbie was working on an MBA and watched the kids while she played volleyball. I even recruited the president of the Oklahoma Chapter of the National Organization of Women to play on my team. She was an attorney in the R&D Patent division.
There were two or three leagues going on at the same time on alternate nights for volleyball. Softball had a men's league and co-ed going on alternate nights and I played for Patrick's in the Washington County league up at the fields up north between Dewey and Copan. It was a full schedule. The fields or courts were very much akin to a singles bar. You could check out the talent and later talk to them at the bar. There were more than a few women spectators who only came to check out the players. There always seemed to be a bunch of single women in the bleachers. On more than one occasion there were multiple young women sitting in the bleachers rooting for the same guy. It happened to me once and another member of the team on a different occasion.
His girl friend and fiancé wanna-be from OKC paid an un-announced visit for a tournament and his future wife from New Zealand happened to be there too. The gal from OKC was none too amused when he broke the news to her that they were no longer an item. On occasion the Patrick's team made it to the C Division State Playoffs. I remember going to Ponca City one year and Norman another year. We usually tried to make the division that was being held in the best party town. Ponca City was an exception to that rule. Most of the time out team was a pick up team since most of our regulars couldn't afford the trip or had other commitments. What the Phillips Athletic Department never envisioned was their sports leagues spawned a completely different kind of recreational league, the recreational sex league.
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1 comment:
This is great info to know.
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