Way back in season 29, a buddy of mine, Buckeye101, recruited a little known C by the name of Marvin Hardie onto his Capital, DIII team in the Rupp OAC. Upon learning of this recruitment, Jasonj7777 and I lost it when we saw that this C had a speed of 3. He had decent ATH and core skills but he HAD A 3 FOR SPEED. Let me type that again so it all sinks in. THREE SPEED.

So, needless to say, we gave Buckeye101 the business. This guy had no business playing any basketball what so ever. We soon started throwing out nicknames but the one that stuck for good ole Marvin was "The Athletic Sloth". He might not beat you in a race or down the court, but dam, give him 2 minutes and he'll jump as high as the top of the backboard.

So in the preceding 4 seasons we continued to make fun of The Athletic Sloth. However, a funny thing happened during his tenure in DIII. He took home multiple awards, Second Team All Conference, First Team All Conference and Player of the Year. He dominated the league. He's at the top of many of Capital's stat lines as well.

As the years have gone on we never have forgotten The Athletic Sloth and always laugh about it when his name comes up. Ever since then Jasonj7777 and I have always made sure that we play each other every season. So, we decided since we continue to play each other we should name the annual meeting.

In recognition of this outstanding player we have decided beginning in Season 41 in the Rupp we happily announce the first annual Marvin Hardie Classic.

Jasonj7777 and I have even gone as far building a trophy for this event. After every Marvin Hardie Classic the winner of the game will take home the Marvin Hardie Trophy. The score of the game will be placed on the the trophy for immortality and the winning coach will take it home until they lose. Jason will be posting a picture of the trophy soon for all to see.

In case you're curious what happended to Marvin, "The Athletic Sloth", Hardie since his graduation. It is rumored that he's playing somewhere in Italy. I heard that he once got into a kickboxing matchup with Chuck Norris and it took him 5 minutes to complete a roundhouse kick. It lulled Mr. Norris to sleep and to this day, may be the only person who ever has actually made contact with Chuck's face.

Have any of you heard any rumors?

I'm pretty sure he took my order at Burger King tonight. I didn't know it was possible to place meat on a bun so slowly

Quote: Originally posted by alblack56 on 12/13/2009I'm pretty sure he took my order at Burger King tonight.  I didn't know it was possible to place meat on a bun so slowly

I have a few videos of something like that.

He dead...got run over by a steam roller.

(because they're slow...Austin Powers anyone?)

I believe I saw him at Disney, marvelling at the speed of the lines for rides...

He is selling cars for Isetta. The Isetta 300 takes 35 seconds to reach 30 MPH. It only has 9 HP and cannot go faster than 45MPH.

He works for the United States Postal Service.

He works in CS for WIS

Mavin Hardie owned their *****.

He works for the US government

clone77 took him under his wing...now he runs the 100 meters in 10.1 seconds.

good story! I had something similar happen to me when I recruited a Center with 1 speed awhile back in D3. The guy was a beast everywhere else and he ended up being a 2nd team all american and led my team to back to back NT bids (which was a big deal at the time seeing as I had a one year span where I didnt make the NT)

I'm going to post a pic of the trophy tonight. The matchup will be Boise State at Kent State on December 19th.

As someone who coached against Marvin, I can say that it's honor to play for a trophy dedicated in his honor. Marvin was a tough matchup for us when I was at Muskingum. The guy could jump out of the gym. The only problem was, by the time he got to the gym, the game was over.

If my memory serves me correctly Marvin Hardie led me to a final four.

Second only to Henry Gutman, Marvin Hardie is probably the best player to ever come out of the OAC.