"80-year-olds run alongside 30-year-olds" • You have never encountered such a unique sports team

In 1969, a basketball team was established at Haifa University for the faculty and students. If you asked them, none of them would have believed that 55 years later, the team would still exist and that its members would meet every week, on Mondays and Thursdays for regular games.

Today, the team has players in their 70s and 80s, who play alongside players whose number of years is about half their age. What they all have in common is that for each and every one of them the basketball team has long been not just a team, but a real family.

"I announced that Monday is basketball - the meetings moved to Tuesday"

Nissim Sharam, former chairman of Athos, 81 years old: "I joined the basketball team when it was founded in 1969. I was a university student at the time. We always meet on Mondays and Thursdays from 17:30 to 19:00. In 1983 I was elected to the city council and I told the former mayor, the late Aryeh Gural, that if he wanted me to come, he should move the meetings from Monday to Tuesday, and that's how it was. We were always about 15 players in the team, and about 10 or 12 would come Players. We play in the sports hall at the university."

Many on the field and then hugging

"When we started, the hall had not yet been built and we played outside. When the hall was built, we went inside. The person who initiated the establishment of the team was the director of sports at the university, Dr. Michael (Mickey) Herzig, who was a great athlete and Israeli champion in apparatus gymnastics. Over time, the group included students and lecturers such as Prof. Baruch Nebo, Prof. Oz Almog, Prof. Gadi Weiman and more. The importance of the group is persistence. We don't stop so that the group doesn't close. I always tell guys that if they persevere it will keep them healthy. I went abroad with the Basmat basketball team. We climbed a mountain and saw a 90-year-old woman there. We didn't understand how she got to the top and she said that since she was 13 she has been going up and down the mountain every day. To me, our basketball team is just like the mountain for that woman. The basketball team is like a family. They fight on the field and hug on the way out."

Haim Hauser: When I get up in the morning on Mondays and Thursdays, I get up with a different feeling, because I know that training is waiting for me at 17:30 p.m.

Haim Hauser, 43 years old: "I came to Haifa with my wife 21 years ago, after we got married. I am originally from the center. When I arrived in Haifa, I started playing for another team, which is under the auspices of the Journalists' Association. In this team I met the spokesperson of the municipality, Eliran Tal, who introduced me to the team from the university 10 years ago. What really impressed me was their level of consistency. Rain, winter, summer - they always play Mondays and Thursdays from 17:30 to 19:00 p.m. Only during the Corona period when they closed the halls, the group suspended its activities I really like the fact that everyone is accepted in this team. I'm ultra-Orthodox and most of the players were secular, and they accepted me and my friends very nicely."

beyond sports

"When friends celebrated their 70th birthdays, they held an event outside the field and invited everyone and there was a feeling that beyond sports, it really is a family. Even when I did a bar mitzvah for one of my children, I invited all the friends from the team. As we get older, and there are players over 80 years old in the team, we were We expect that the consistency of those players will decrease and we will see them less, but the sport probably does the opposite and maintains their vitality, and we see them every Monday and Thursday."

"Monday and Thursday mornings are different"

"We see that sport unites and age is not an obstacle. The team has existed for over 50 years. The older members say that they made a stop at games during the Yom Kippur War. The team was established as a university faculty team and to this day, senior faculty members play with us. When I get up in the morning on Mondays and Thursdays, I get up with a feeling Otherwise, because I know that this training is waiting for me at 17:30 p.m. It's an incredible injection of energy and a meeting with my friends. I teach fourth grade in Kiryat Ata, and I can come to training at such a time, but it's not suitable for all subjects. Inside the court there is energy and everyone I want to win no matter what, but as soon as 19:00 arrives, we go to the showers and we are best friends without precipitation."

"The family knows - weddings are not held on Mondays and Thursdays"

Aharon Shemer, 75 years old: "I am one of the veterans, I joined the team in 1971. My wife worked in accounting at the university and in this team were the university employees. As her husband, I was accepted into the team. Since then I have been playing every Monday and Thursday non-stop, except for breaks, when I could not attend due to reserves or problems Health. It's surprising that I'm still playing basketball, because I had surgeries on my back, Achilles tendon and two hip joints, and all while I was playing basketball."

"The group is the holy of holies"

"The group for me is everything, it's a phenomenon. Mondays and Thursdays are the holy of holies, both at work and with the family. I would tell the family not to do weddings on Mondays and Thursdays so that I wouldn't miss training. There were university lecturers and factory managers and many other people there. They would come there and break up during the game, but at the end of the game - the best friends. I, as one of the veterans, was able to bring in guys from outside the frame, and they stayed in the team, and that's how the team was built. In recent years, when I was injured and couldn't come to play, I would come on Mondays and Thursdays to the hall and a referee in the game. It became a habit."

"We also played in wars"

"My children also come from time to time, we also have children of players in the team, the son of Prof. Yuval Ginosar plays with us for example, my son played with us many years ago. This has become a special setting, which is not found elsewhere. At the time, players joined us Religious and ultra-Orthodox. There is an amazing combination between all of them. This is a very positive phenomenon, young people play with veterans. We have some players over 80 and running with 30-year-old players. Even in wars we did not give up and played, except for the Yom Kippur war. We hope it will continue and we will have a generation Continue. Happily, the university welcomes us very well."