Back in the day, in 1987 David Strukel plays one of his most memorable and last basketball games of his life. He was a court at the Boys Club in Massillon, Ohio. During his Sophomore year of high school he was the last player cut from the team, so he joined the Boys Club intramural team. His team name was the "Toxic Waste." He describes his team as getting drilled every game, "20-30 but I was the highest leading scorer." Their team had a disappointing 2-10 record. On a Monday night the stands were filled with a small turnout and the opponent stormed the court. They played the best team in the league called the "Skinny Boys."
Strukel's mindset going into the game was all about his self achievements, "I knew we were going to get blown out, it was just to see how many points I was going to get."
Toxic Waste comes out on the court with their royal blue and deep gold numbered jerseys. They ended up getting killed by this team the first half, however Strukel was the only one scoring points.
He wasn't too upset about losing, "I'm scoring, that's all that matter."
Now with 24 points already scored by Strukel and about 3 minutes left in the first half he crept up to the foul line and brought to ball in front of the defender. However, the defender lunged for the ball and collided right into Strukel's head. He looked up and just shot the ball, put when he looked up he noticed he was gushing blood from the side of his eye. One of the only concerns Dan, his brother and Strukel himself had, (while he was gushing blood) was that they ended up not getting the foul . The ref was focused on the blood and yelled at him to get off the court. Strukel was then rushed home to ice his eye and stop the blood. Later the next day, he was swollen to the size of a golf-ball on his eye. He paraded around school having to stop and explain what happened. He then explained what happened in the night of his most memorable basketball game ever. And he continues to have a scar on his eye to remind him of it every day.
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