Stories

By the mid-1950s, the “Khrushchev Thaw” relaxed many of the hardline policies put in place during Stalin’s reign of terror. In fact, Nikita Khrushchev famously denounced his predecessor characterizing Stalin’s leadership as a “cult of […]

The Winter War is a somewhat obscure skirmish initiated by Stalin against Finland in late 1939. It was soon eclipsed by a larger conflict that would occupy much of the world’s attention for the next […]

My friend Viktor (Viki) was born the year Stalin died – 1953. From that point forward, the fear-factor among Soviet citizens diminished substantially. Nonetheless, it would be several decades before Viki would know freedom the […]

Viktor, the Estonian team sponsor, always took his rightful position up front with me. The remaining 13 seats in our 15-passenger van were filled by seven players, all under the age of 20. The trailing […]

After a long day of travel to the U.S., the Estonians’ final destination was Salt Lake City. My flight from Alaska arrived that evening well in advance of their flight from Chicago. So I had […]

It was an extraordinary visual. But that’s about as far as I thought it would go on the standard Pirelli tires. It turns out I was wrong. The first tour I led was in November […]

The November 1998 tour route took us on a 2,000 mile (3.200km) loop through Utah, Montana, Washington, Idaho and back to Utah. In all, eight games were played of which seven resulted in sizeable losses. […]

Coming soon. . .

Then there was the time the officiating was deemed    . . .    deficient. First, some context. About mid-October, each tour leader received a packet of materials that included details pertinent to his or […]

The 1997 tour was probably (definitely) the most challenging of the five. This was a Russian Army team from Moscow. More specifically, it was a feeder program – known as Duble – for the main […]

I sat on the bench. And loved every minute of it. Over the course of five consecutive Novembers in the late 1990s I was part of a touring basketball team. While I didn’t actually suit-up […]

My mother was a shutterbug. She was in charge of the family photos. “Cheese” was the magic word to make us smile, even when we didn’t feel like it. This was back when Kodak film […]

In the summer of 1988 I was diligently completing my university studies. Of course,  time was also made for basketball, camping, hiking and all the normal activities a glorious Fairbanks summer offers a young man. […]

Springtime in Tallinn. The sun was out, the trees were budding and the birds were back. But, it was still brisk as Viki, Villu and I toured through Old Town in late April of ‘99. […]

It’s hard to believe two+ decades have passed since that  first trip in ’99. Sorting through these images has produced a mix of feelings ranging from warm nostalgia to   blunt reality – time passes quickly. […]

Waking up in a foreign country was something new to me. But this wasn’t just any foreign country – this was a former member of the notoriously feared Soviet Union. It wasn’t that long ago […]

Today, booking a room anywhere in the world is pretty much a piece of cake. This wasn’t quite the case back in ’99 (Google was only seven months old, and still of little use). I […]

I admit it. It’s horrible. Completely uninspiring.  Maybe even a bit crooked. Nonetheless, I will always treasure it. As boring and bad as it may be, this will always be the first photo I ever made […]

How did an Alaskan become so enamored with Estonia? The story actually has many beginnings, but a good place to start is with the extraordinary group of people seen in this photo taken alongside US […]