Alcatraz and the notorious prison's sports history

Los Angeles Times ^ | 9/24/11 | Baxter Holmes

[GSWarrior]

As I wrote in Saturday's editions of The Times, there will be a one-on-one basketball tournament on Alcatraz Island Saturday night, featuring 64 players from the U.S. and abroad playing for $10,000....

Early prison code banned inmates from interacting with the outside world, but once a year, they played the World Series over the loudspeakers in the yard.

“That was the only time I was there when they were allowed to listen to any kind of radio program,” Heaney said

Then in the 1950s a radio system was installed for inmates to listen on headsets in their cells. That coincided with the rise of the University of San Francisco basketball team, with two future Hall of Famers in center Bill Russell and and guard K.C. Jones, that won NCAA championships in 1955 and '56.

Fandom at Alcatraz grew quickly as inmates eagerly tuned in to the games after dinner around 6 p.m.

[GSWarrior]

Fascinating article.

[blueunicorn6]

Alcatraz......never had much of a swim team.