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I’ve always thought I was as big a football fan as the next guy, but during the winter my allegiance turns to basketball.

It’s been that way since the 1950s, when I sat in the rafters at Alumni Memorial Gym. Later in the decade, when Vol hoops moved to the Armory Fieldhouse, I can remember sitting in the chair seats at the end of the court or in a seat on the west side.

The Armory Fieldhouse was the scene of great excitement in the early Ray Mears years. It was about half the size of Stokely Center, with permanent stands on three sides. The north-end football bleachers were brought in to make the east-side stands and broadcast vantage point.

There were also backyard games in the 1960s at various sites throughout Holston Hills. Most games took place on Ralph Ross’ driveway on Westover Terrace, just across the street from the home of UT administrator Ed Boling.

Ralph’s son, Roger, had been part of the games until he went to college. That seemed to portend the end of the games, but, amazingly, Ralph told us we could continue to play there. We did for several more years until college ended, and life’s responsibilities began.

It was a great shooter’s court. It had to be, given there was a brick wall under the goal that discouraged driving the baseline.

Ross, now 97, said he enjoyed having the activity around his house, with three or four cars other than his in and around his driveway at any one time. The games were fiercely contested, played to 100 by ones. It got a little testy at times, but nothing serious. Those who played there owe Ross a tremendous debt of gratitude. He was the neighbor everybody admired, in the mold of a Ward Cleaver. There was no Fred Rutherford to complicate things.

Most of us ended up at Holston, a superb basketball school, whose best player — maybe the best ever in Knoxville — was a youngster named Jimmy England. He was the Alice Bell youth who was named all-state twice, was Tennessee’s “Mr. Basketball” in 1967, and earned All-America honors at Tennessee in 1971. He endured a spell of bad health recently, but seems to be doing much better.

Fans noted how good England was with ball in hand, how he could knock home a nearly unstoppable jump shot time after time, and how his demeanor on the court seemed so unflappable. He was “money” from the free-throw line, before that term was invented for hoops, especially when the game’s outcome was in the balance.

My job at the Holston games, in addition to keeping the scorebook, was to call in the game score to the Knoxville newspapers (there were two in those days) and give a brief summary of the game. It appeared in the papers the next day something like this, with accompanying box score:

“Jimmy England scored 32 points as Holston defeated Fulton 73-52 at the Holston gym. The Warriors jumped to an 18-12 quarter lead and pulled away in the second half to earn the victory. Holston is 2-0, Fulton 1-1.”

The job initially came with a byline and then cold, hard cash. Tom Sweeten of the Journal gave me my start, and it was akin to a wolf getting its first taste of sheep. I was hooked.

There was a time in early 1966 that Rick Mount, the pride of Lebanon, Ind., became the first high school hoops star to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Mount may not have invented the jump shot, but he certainly did perfect it. He was in our generation, along with Calvin Murphy, Dan Issel, Bob Lanier, and the “Pistol” himself, Pete Maravich. Could those guys play? You bet.

Here’s a note on one other memorable person from those days.

Don Burchfield was the first male teacher at Chilhowee School, arriving in 1960-61 and immediately having an impact on all of us. He was our Moses, leading the children of Chilhowee into the promised land of athletic competition. We were the “Frogs,” for no reason other than Don thought the nickname might make us play harder.

Our first year, we played on a 10-foot goal at one end of the gym and, going down court, there was a right turn to shoot on an 8-foot goal. Many of us sold magazines to raise money to get the requisite 10-foot goal at that end of the floor.

The powers that be closed Holston High School and the Knoxville Journal in 1991. The goal no longer hangs over the brick wall on Ralph Ross’ driveway. There’s still “cold, hard cash” coming from the News Sentinel. The Fieldhouse gave way to Stokely Center and Thompson-Boling Arena. Time inexorably marches on, but the journey’s been worth it.

Tom Mattingly is the author of “The Tennessee Football Vault: The Story of the Tennessee Volunteers, 1891-2006” (2006), to be published in second edition in 2008, and “Tennessee Football: The Peyton Manning Years” (1998). He may be reached at tjmshm@comcast.net. His News Sentinel blog is called “The Vol Historian.”

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.