The Gus Macker 3-on-3 Basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 Tournament is a nationwide event for players of a variety of age and skill levels in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Although every tournament is different, a typical Gus Macker event involves dozens of temporary courts set up in parking lots or closed-off public streets. Tournaments are mid-level to major sports media events and are held virtually every weekend from spring through summer and into the fall.

History

According to the tournament's website, the "Original Gus Macker 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament" began in 1974 in Lowell

Lowell, Michigan

Lowell is a city in Kent County of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 4,013. The city is in the northern portion of Lowell Township, but is politically independent...

, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

. Scott McNeal (alias Gus Macker) and brother Mitch gathered eighteen friends who played competitively for a tournament purse of $18. As the tournament grew, the McNeals moved their tournament to Belding

Belding, Michigan

Belding is a city in Ionia County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 5,877 at the 2000 census. Belding is a small rural city surrounded almost entirely by farmland...

 in 1987, then took the tournament on the road to other communities, branding it as the "Gus Macker All-World Tour". According to the website, over 10,000 players entered the tournament as it visited five cities that year.

The tournament currently holds both indoor and outdoor competitions annually in more than 75 cities, with over 200,000 players and 1.7 million spectators attending. The tournament prohibits alcohol

Alcohol

In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....

 and tobacco

Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...

 sponsorships

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

.

Objectives

According to the company , the six (6) basic objectives that have guided the development of Gus Macker across the country are:

• A Wholesome, family-oriented event.
• A tournament designed by players for players
• A value to sponsors.
• An outstanding fund-raising event for the local community.
• A major media sporting event.
• Entertaining for the spectators.

Gus Macker Hall of Fame

The Gus Macker Hall of Fame held its original induction ceremony in 1998 in Belding, Michigan, honoring the tournament's most outstanding individuals and teams.

One of the teams honored was Miss Elizabeth's Fan Club of San Diego, California, which has traveled nine times to participate in Macker tournaments in Michigan. These hoopaholics

Behavioral addiction

Behavioral addiction is a form of addiction which does not rely on drugs or alcohol. Increasingly referred to as process addiction or non-substance-related addiction ) behavioral addiction includes a compulsion to repeatedly engage in an action until said action causes serious negative consequences...

 are all over 50 years of age but continue to play basketball as much as they can. They include Bernard Balanay, Jerry Fike, Ralph Mora and Richard Paff. Five years later, in 2003 in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

Hilton Head Island or Hilton Head is a resort town in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. It is north of Savannah, Georgia, and south of Charleston. The island gets its name from Captain William Hilton...

, five more individuals and teams were inducted.
It is indeed an honor to be named to the Gus Macker Hall of Fame, as hundreds of thousands of people have participated in the tournaments but only 30 teams and individuals are included in the Hall of Fame.

One of the families that were honored was the Bryans of Lowell, Michigan. Dick, Nola and Lance are longtime personal friends of the McNeal family. Dick and Nola have been behind-the-scenes since the beginning -cooking hotdogs, selling t-shirts, and numerous other tasks. Dick's expertise in the early years was hand-painting the designs on the backboards, while Nola loaded up her Mustang convertible with hot dog bun

Hot dog bun

A hot dog bun is a type of soft bun shaped specifically to contain a hot dog. The original purpose of this bun was to make it possible to eat hot dogs without burning ones hands....

s (sometimes more than was needed). Lance grew up with the tournament and served in many capacities of the tournament. Some of the most notable are entertaining top players at the family pool and single-handedly saving many portable basketball goals during the Great Windstorm of Belding.

Current tour

While the Macker is still the largest tournament series in the US, it has seen a recent wave of competitors. These competitors include HoopItUp (formerly partnered with the NBA), Spokane Hoopfest

Spokane Hoopfest

Hoopfest is an annual outdoor 3-on-3 basketball tournament held in downtown Spokane, Washington.It is the largest event of its kind in the world, as it drew 27,876 players on 7,046 teams in 2011. It began in 1990 with 2,009 players on 512 teams, and has grown to over 6,700 participant teams...

(The world's largest single 3-on-3 tournament), and many others. Other tournaments have started to take some market share from Gus Macker, but Macker remains very strong and hosts a large number of tournaments every year.