It was a Monday night in November of 1987. The Boy's Club in Massillon, Ohio is where the final game was played. Dave Strukel, a 5 foot 11 inches, sophomore had just missed the opportunity to play for Masillon's varsity team after being cut at the last moment a year prior. Now, Dave Strukel turned to intramural basketball and joined his fellow band friends and older brother, Dan, on a team called "Toxic Waste". At 17 years old, Stukel was the youngest member of the team, yet led them with 16 points per game. He wore #33 on his royal blue and gold jersey for his favorite player of all time, Kareem Abdul Jabar.
Toxic Waste was only 2-10 on the season, gaining their only two wins by forfeit. Stukel and Toxic Waste knew that they were the underdogs coming into that night game, as they faced one of the most athletic teams in the league called the "Skinny Boys".
Strukel said that, "The Skinny Boys were so popular that they had a fan club at every game they played".
He was not incorrect. At the Boy's Club that night, there were about 15-20 people, comprised of his classmates, some of which were high school girls.
As soon as the tip off was completed, there was a spark that ignited in Strukel.
Strukel recalls and said, "I was scoring like crazy...they thought that I couldn't shoot and left me open". Despite being down nearly 20 points from the start of the game, Stukel did not care. With three minutes left in the first half, he had already scored 22 points and was well on his way to the best night of his career. Then suddenly, the world came to a screeching halt in those last few minutes.
Toxic Waste was on a rare fast break against the Skinny Boys with the ball in the hands of their all-star. Strukel was coming up the left side of the paint with one of his teammates on the far right wing crashing towards the hoop.
Dave recalls the moment and said, "I saw him on the block but I wasn't passing the ball. I was hot with 22 points. You know how that is ballers. You don't want to pass the ball".
Strukel planted at the top of the foul line and brought the ball up by his left ear when the defender stepped up to guard him. Although what Stukel did not realize is that the defender was not stopping as he was going full force to jar the ball loose. The defender landed a blow to Stukel's head, just above the left eye sending him backwards from the hoop. Still keeping his pivot foot down, he shot it in and off of the glass.
When he turned around to start moving back to the other side of the court, he realized that he was gushing blood. The referee yelled for him to get off the floor as blood was pouring all over the rubberized surface of the gym floor.
At this moment in recollecting, Strukel laughed saying, "It is a good thing that we didn't have cameras at that time because I would have had so many pictures taken. All the girls were screaming ew".
Despite the golf ball protruding from his eyelid, he did not go to the hospital. Strukel went home with his brother and just put a bag of peas on his eye.
When their mother got home, she prompted them both on what happened. Dave, being the jokester that he is, responded with all he knew was that there was no foul called.
Dave finished the night with 24 points in his final game of his basketball career. Despite the injury, Strukel still says that he has no regrets.
When asked "if he could do it all over again, would he pass the ball?", he did not hesitate and responded with an affirmative "No way".
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