By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
If you’re walking around the City Auditorium in Great Bend, you’ll
notice in the northeast corner there are a couple of walls dedicated to the
Great Bend Recreation Commission NBA/MBA Hall of Fame. The NBA stands for the
Noon Basketball Association and MBA for Morning Basketball Association.
For decades, men and women have participated in pickup basketball games in the
early morning and over their lunch periods. Chuck Pike, a long-time participant
in the games, said the Hall of Fame exists to recognize members.
"For the better part of 30 or 35 years, we played basketball," said Pike. "There was a group of businessmen that played over the noon hour. Eventually, that expanded because the noon hour didn't work for everyone and some played in the morning."
A six-member class was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2012. For a variety of
reasons, there hasn’t been a new class inducted since then. Pike said seven new
members will be honored Oct. 23.
"We refer to this as a family reunion or an all-school reunion, although it's termed as a Hall of Fame," said Pike.
The 2022 NBA/MBA Hall of Fame class includes Craig Thurman, Dennis Call, Howard
Partington, John Cross, Dr. L.T. Fleske, Jim Vopat and Jim Briel.