Have you heard the one about the high school basketball player who was asked to keep score for the team and is still sitting at the scorekeeper/timekeeper table 57 years later? Well, it’s no joke.
In the small Texas Hill Country town of Utopia, 73-year old Joy Davenport is concluding her 57th basketball season as either the official scorekeeper or timekeeper for Utopia’s boys’ and girls’ basketball teams. It all started in 1958 at the Buffaloes’ first home game of the season. Davenport was a senior at Utopia High School, had played basketball for two years, and was the girls’ basketball team manager. The teams’ coach at the time, Max Amann, asked Joy if she would keep score. She did so that day, and has been doing so ever since.
Photo: Brandon Redfen
She undoubtedly enjoyed scorekeeping, because after doing so throughout her senior year, she went to Southwest Texas Junior College in Uvalde and also became the official scorekeeper for that school’s teams. At the same time, she continued to do Utopia’s games, too, as she still lived at home and commuted to school. Other than two seasons when she was away attending college in Kingsville, Texas, Davenport has been court-side at Utopia’s home basketball games since that first game in 1958.
Photo: Roy Bragg, Staff, San Antonio Express-News
The current girls’ basketball coach at Utopia High School, Mr. Stacey Keeney, says that Ms. Davenport “is a life-saver.” She is always there and always has a positive attitude. He says that she loves the game and loves the kids, and that the kids obviously love her, too. She is also appreciated by the coaches, the townspeople, and even the officials of the games.
