THE legendary Beck’s Cougars, which started from the Priory Rats of St Francis, held their annual reunion at the famous basketball hangout on Saturday.
The group, celebrating more than 50 years of basketball history, came together to reminisce about the glory days. They represent one of the most storied basketball teams in the Bahamas. Their duels with the Kentucky Colonels in the 1970s is still heralded as one of the best classic basketball matchups of all time.
According to Fred “Slab” Laing, a former point guard and one of the original priory rats, the group is looking forward to establishing a club to help out in the community.
“We have produced every kind of profession with our players from the Priory”, said Slab. “We feel it’s now time to give back and the fellas want to start a community club to do things.”
Every year the reunion is organised by Hugh Chase, Fred “Papa” Smith, Stancil “Stoney” Ferguson, John Todd, Slab, Khan, Hanna, Stretch and a few others. They look forward to this get together but now plans are to take it further.
Many of the young members of the Priory have a lot of people in the group to look up to. They all voice their views that the Priory was a turning point in their lives.
Today they still gather at the Priory to play basketball on a regular basis. The Priory is the basketball court at the St Francis Xavier Cathedral grounds.
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