Early Life
Rick Mount's father, Pete, was an avid basketball player who intended Rick to learn the game as well. He cut out the bottom of a peanut can so Rick could shoot tennis balls through it. Rick's first time playing with an official basketball goal was during the fourth grade. He was known to beat 8th and 9th graders. However, when it was time to try out for the school basketball team, he wasn't able to make a standard left-hand lay up, which was a requirement for making the roster. That very night he practiced for hours until he had it down, and on the next day of tryouts, he made the team.
During the summers, Rick worked as a lifeguard. Learning by repetition, he would shoot for hours at a time between shifts at the local Memorial Park. He gave kids ice cream money to help retrieve loose balls. After the likes of Glen Roberts and Paul Arizin, Rick later helped establish the idealistic jump shot form before it was ever textbook, influencing a number of future shooters at all levels in the sport.
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Famous quotes related to early life:
“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)