Alumnus Swen Nater Blogs About His First Day at Cypress College

September 3, 2010 — 10:03 a.m.

Alumnus and NBA rebound king Swen Nater maintains a blog on his site coachswen.com. On September 1, he posted an entry about his first day at Cypress College. It's a great read.

Here's a small sample.

THE HOOK SHOT
Posted by Coach Swen Nater at 9/1/2010 5:07 PM

On a Monday morning, late in August of 1968, I walked onto the Cypress College (CA) campus with my notebook, pencil, Pee Chee folder, and my lunch. By far, lunch was the heaviest for it contained four sandwiches. You see, I was 6'9" by then and still a growing boy. I was always hungry, ate a ton, but weighed only 185 pounds. I was so skinny, I had to wear skis in the shower so I wouldn't go down the drain. I was so light, I could hardly keep my seat down in the movie theatre."

I was good in math and that's where I thought I was headed with my life. My second class that morning was Calculus II and I loved it. One more class and then lunch. I didn't know anybody because we had moved from Long Beach to Cypress, so at lunch, I sat by myself in the courtyard and started working on those four sandwiches.

I was about halfway finished when this guy walked over to me and said, "Hi. I'm Tim Tynum. I'm on the basketball team. Mr. Lubin over there [He pointed to a teacher standing by the door leading to the teacher's lounge.] wants to know if you're planning on playing basketball."

Continue reading Swen Nater's blog at his website, where you'll find additional posts about his time at Cypress College.