Crip shot

[Baker, John]

        When I played basketball in grade school, south-central Kentucky,
1970 to 1973, we called these crib shots (or possibly crip shots; I never
saw it spelled).

John Baker


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dick Heaberlin [SMTP:Heaberlin at SWT.EDU]
> Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2001 3:09 PM
> To:   ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject:      Crip shot
>
> I started playing basketball in 1945 and at that time what is now called
> a lay up was called a "crip shot." I always assumed that  it was short
> for "cripple" since it was supposedly the easiest shot to make. What
> interests me about this is why did such a useful phrase fall into
> disuse. In my web search of it I found only four examples of it being
> used, one about a Kentucky game in 1925 and another about a game in
> 1948, one a comparison in a journalism professor's syllabus. I have
> played basketball from 1945 till now, and yet I don't know when the
> phrase quit being used. I don't even use it any more but the young
> people I play with it don't use it either. Another term from the from
> the forties was "radio man," which is the same as "snow bird." I still
> hear "snow bird" occasionally. I am from the south and never understood
> what a snow bird had to do with staying back on defense and waiting for
> a long pass. "Radio man" made more sense as a metaphor to me. Does
> anyone have any info on any of this?
>
> Dick Heaberlin
> English Department
> Southwest Texas State University
> San Marcos, TX 78666