Who would have ever thought that one of the music icons of the 80s, Prince, was a basketball player when he was younger?
Apparently, the musician was. And his throwback black-and-white photo during his high school basketball days made the rounds on the internet on March 4 after it was posted on Twitter by a certain Libor Jany the day before, reports US Weekly.
Libor Jany described the photo to have originated from the Strib archives and it’s about the hooping days of Prince at the Bryant Junior High.
Subsequently, the editor of the Minneapolis’ Star Tribune newspaper reposted the old image via his Twitter account and the picture has since gone viral.
Jany then posted a second newspaper clip that describes the American musician as somebody who hung around with the jocks during his high school days. Prince also coached a grade-school basketball team at church in Minnesota where he came from. Eventually, Prince found his calling in music, and everyone knows that already.
Classic images of a 70s ballplayer
The old image of Prince shows him half-sitting and half-kneeling as he was wearing jersey No. 3 with the name of his high school clearly shown on the uniform.
He was also sporting an afro do and short shorts which were fashions in basketball during the 70s. Prince also appears to be wearing a long necklace or whistle around his neck.
A smaller image also shows him along with his teammates at Bryant High School.
The article quoted Richard Robinson, the former basketball coach of Prince at Bryant High School that the R&B singer was an excellent ball handler and a good shooter despite of his height of five feet and two inches.
The coach said that Prince was an excellent player in the team and was apparently the sixth or seventh man of the team.
Not a starter
Robinson added that Prince would have been a starter in some other high school teams. But it turns out, his team during his Bryant High School days was actually the best basketball club that ever came along at Central High School so he was not able to be given the opportunity to become part of the team’s starting unit.
His former coach admitted that he knew Prince wanted to start for the team and really felt that he should start. The musician was unhappy about not being able to start with his team and he expressed his disappointment to his coach many times over.
Prince went on to play at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee before becoming very famous as a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and actor starting in the late 70s up to the 80s.
Now 56 years old, Prince Rogers Nelson in real life, has produced 10 platinum albums and 30 Top 40 singles during his colorful music career. He has written several hundred songs as well as produces and records his own music for his own music label.