Ernie Banks always wanted to play two. On Saturday afternoon, I tripled Banks. Plus one.

Five basketball games in the Make-a-Swish for Make-a-Wish basketball tournament and two intramural floor hockey games was a day not even a soccer mom could handle. But so it was in the Hill Center on Sunday morning, afternoon and evening.

I arrived bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, having stayed in Saturday night in anticipation of what was sure to be the most athletic day in Ithaca College history.

It was to be the crowning achievement of an athletic career that peaked four years ago — a chance to remember the days of playing a baseball doubleheader then frantically changing in the car on the way to the soccer field.

Success slept in, though, as the Dank Dudes lost their first game (in the semi-pro division, of course) and ended up in the loser’s bracket. But a three-game winning streak put us in the semifinals before the floor hockey schedule got in the way.

At 5 p.m., we were forced to send reinforcements to the San Jose Mudsharks floor hockey team, leaving us fighting a two-front battle. After one period of hockey, I was back on the basketball court only to watch some kid Stephen Curry us, hitting six three-pointers, and that ended our tourney.

By the time I got back to the hockey game, we had already lost 2–1. Apparently we played the entire third period short-handed when our leading scorer was tossed for fighting. Either way, it left me with a mediocre record of 3–3 on the day.

I had been at the Hill Center for seven hours and had seen enough. The packed gym had emptied. Only two refs and a scorekeeper watching the semi-pro championship game were left.

Gone were the pro-teams, the ones that had been dunking all afternoon. Gone were the volunteers in their baby blue T-shirts, and gone was the free pizza.    

But with one more hockey game still to come, I wasn’t going anywhere.  

Eventually, the Mudsharks pulled out a win on legs that felt like lead, though I’m not sure how. After 10 hours in the Hill Center, the scorecard looked something like this: four wins, three losses, two slices of pizza, 17 cups of water, seven cookies and 13 handfuls of pretzels.

From start to finish, the day had been a blast from the past, minus the halftime orange slices. But the beauty of getting lost in an afternoon of sports is the same now as it was then.  

I trudged home, climbed into bed and thought about how sore I was going to be. That was something I never thought about when I was 12.