NOTE: The New York Mets won their home Opening Day in glorious fashion.
NEW YORK, NY – Whenever I would see Johnny Mathis I’d ask him if he could dunk a basketball. The people around him would get nervous at my question, thinking the 5’7″ Mathis would get offended, Mathis would always reply, “Damn right I could dunk!”
Yes, I am writing about Johnny Mathis, the legendary singer who announced he is retiring from the concert circuit. The 89-year-old Mathis, who loves to brag about his golf game, was a star athlete back in the days when he attended George Washington H.S. He excelled in track & field as a high jumper and hurdler. He also had game as a basketball player. All this led to an athletic scholarship to San Francisco State College where he set a record for high jumping at 6 feet and 5 ½ inches.
In a 1954 news article that was in the S.F. Chronicle, Mathis demonstrated his high jump skills and beat a guy named Bill Russell, yes that Bill Russell, who went on to star for the Boston Celtics.
Mathis chose another career, a musical career that produced classic songs like, Chances Are, “Wonderful Wonderful, Misty, just to name a few. The Last time I saw Mathis he marveled at my shirt, which had an image of Bruce Lee, who was born in S.F. I asked him if he knew the Kung-Fu star, he responded, “He actually knew me.”
Mathis has decided to put the velvet voice to rest, which will give him more playing time on the golf course. He’ll then use his vocal cords to tell anyone around him about his future holes in ones, like he did with me the last time I saw him.
