Things 90's Arkansas athletes got to see that would dumbfound current players

There are a lot of things that took place in small town Arkansas back in the 1990s that would blow the minds of today's screen addicted junior high and high school athletes and are difficult to explain in a way they will understand.

However, it's a Saturday on the cusp of summer break, so perhaps there's not a better time to try. First off, one has to understand the '90s were home to the last known species of free range children.

We were sent outside in the mornings, knew when to be home for lunch, and then released back into the wild until the corner street light came on, letting us know it was time for dinner. That meant spending a lot of time entertaining ourselves.

Most of the time this was done through playing sports endlessly, wandering down long trails through the woods, fishing and sometimes lifting manhole covers and dropping down to explore where we were far scarier than any psychotic movie clown

Violent Games

No, this isn't about video games like Mortal Kombat that had Congress up in arms in the 1990s. These were games of our own making that had far more impact on us that seeing a spine ripped out on a silly video game.

The first was a game known as King of the Mountain. The premise was rather simple.

Around town were various four to six-foot tall mounds of dirt. There would be a mad scramble to make it to the top first, and whomever did was declared the king.

At that point, he had the high ground and defended his kingdom by shoving others back down the hill while everyone else tried to knock the king off his mountain and take over. It sounds dangerous, but because we were so used to such rough and tumble games back then, no one ever got hurt.

When hills weren't available, the game of choice was Kill the Man. It was about as basic as it gets.

Throw a football as high and straight up as possible into the air. When it comes down, whomever comes away with it must run around the yard as long as he can until he gets tackled, then he throws it in the air and it all begins again.

This game is probably responsible for why there were so many elite running backs in Arkansas back in the late 1980s and '90s. Conditioning and agility were developed within even the most unathletic among us.

By far the least violent option of our local games was cup ball. It was primarily played adjacent Little League games at the local YMCA. This is because of the wax Coca-Cola cups they used to serve drinks in at the concession stand.

The premise was simple. Five cups were smashed flat to serve as bases and a pitching rubber while a sixth was wadded up into a ball.

It worked just like baseball except hands were used for bats and the only way to get people out was to catch the ball in the air or to throw it was hard as you could to hit the runner anywhere on the body. The game eventually made its way indoors in the form of home run derby.

Parents rarely got rest during sleepovers because cup balls were constantly being pounded off bedroom walls well into the early morning hours.

Donkey Basketball

This one is so surreal that it's hard to believe it's not a hallucination from a fever dream. Yes, it's exactly as it sounds.

Even though basketball gyms were precious spaces because of the state's love and fascination with basketball in the 90's, that all went out the window when there was a need to raise money. There was little in small town Arkansas that could raise more money quickly than parading a herd of donkeys into a basketball gym and convincing well-known locals to climb on back and attempt to play a game of full-court basketball.

While there are no memories of the donkeys doing their business on the Warren High School gymnasium floor, there were definitely plenty who would stop moving mid-court and refuse to step another inch.