A Second Shot

74-year old Ken Mink first played college basketball when Eisenhower was President.

Now he's playing for Roane State.

A former newspaper editor who retired in 1999, Mink kept active doing a variety of sports—golfing, skiing, even hang gliding. The six-footer had been away from organized basketball for 53 years (he was kicked out of school in '56), but still had NCAA eligibility when he enrolled at Roane State in Harriman, Tennessee last year.

According to a 12/9/08 New York Times article, Mink decided he still had what it took to play after shooting hoops in a neighbor’s driveway in 2007. Wanting to resume his education, he ended up sending e-mail messages to eight colleges near where he lived, thinking maybe one of them could use a “guy with an old-school push shot."

Today Mink is college basketball's oldest player. The runner-up is 27!