August 19, 2024 • 28 mins
Have you ever wondered how a friendship can shape your entire life? Join me, Michael Gillespie, on "What Do You Mean?" as I recount the incredible journey of friendship with my longtime friend, Maurice, or Mo. From our days at the Central YMCA in Hamilton, Ohio, to our unforgettable high school years, Maurice has been a cornerstone of my youth. Listen in as I share stories of intense ping pong battles, exhilarating dodgeball games, and our memorable high school broadcasting days on 89.5 WHSS. This episode is a heartfelt tribute to Mo.
This episode is not just about reminiscing; it's about celebrating the enduring power of friendship. Hear all about Maurice's athletic prowess in football and basketball, and a particularly unforgettable high school basketball playoff game where his intensity left a mark. I also share a touching update on Maurice's current life, his successful family, and athletic children. As a special gesture, I decided to honor Maurice by replicating his high school jersey for his upcoming birthday. Get ready for an episode filled with laughter, nostalgia, and the profound impact a true friend can have on your life.
Be Apart of the Show!! Text and Talk!!
Get $10 off of Dr. Squatch soap right now!
Use the code WDYM
www.drsquatch.com/WDYM
Email me! Thewdympodcast@gmail.com
Intro by Kobeofei via Fiverr
Season 2 Artwork: Ishida1694 via Instagram
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
you're listening to the wdym, the what do you mean?
Podcast, hamilton's number onepodcast.
Now sit back and relax.
Here's hamilton's own, michaelgillespie, and welcome to the
wdym podcast.
I'm your host, michaelpy.
As Kobe said, how y'all doingtoday?
(00:29):
I hope everybody's doing good.
I hope everybody is doing well.
This episode we're gettingstraight into it.
This episode is a roses episode.
This is where we pay homage toa friend of mine who, uh,
deserves it.
You know, I always say, atleast lately, I've been saying
we never give enough to ourfriends and stuff our friends
(00:51):
and our family and just say, hey, man, I appreciate you and
everything.
Um, this one was planned wayback in march of 2024, the
middle of show choir season forme.
I tried my best to do somethingfor him and I did, but uh,
we'll get into that all later.
But, as on this show, we call it.
You know, when we give roses,we call it something.
(01:11):
If we call it this bud is foryou, mo or maurice, we've been
friends for a long time.
We were good friends in highschool and everything.
You know, we've always beenfriends and everything.
But this is the origin story ofmike and mo.
Or when I first came, you know,came to know who maurice was.
(01:36):
This started back when I movedin with my dad.
When I moved in with my dad weused to live on fourth street
and you know we used to.
You know, just playing streets,you know.
And in the middle of the hoodand everything, he decided to
move and move to another part ofthe city of hamilton and when
(01:56):
he would go to work or whensummer would start, I would just
stay at home and just playplaystation and super n Nintendo
all day and it would get boring.
So he signed me up to go to theYMCA, more specifically the
Central YMCA in Hamilton Ohio.
Now I've been to YMCA's beforeand I'm pretty sure you've been
to YMCA's before.
(02:17):
The Central YMCA was sobeneficial to me as a young kid.
I've met so many of my lifelongfriends at the Y that
programmed was such a helplooking back at it in hindsight
that this program was sobeneficial to a lot of us and
(02:37):
shout out to the Central YMCAfor having a program for inner
city kids and everything, tohave somewhere to go and have
fun.
Now, what they had there wasabsolutely amazing for somebody
who who never, never had thisbefore.
When you come in, you pay yourfees.
They had pool, pool balls andpool tables and everything
(03:01):
foosball, computers, basketball,swimming in the pool.
They they had trips we used togo.
I think we've been to.
I got my first Reds game withthe YMCA, first time going to
surf Cincinnati with the YMCA.
What else did we do?
We went up to Oxford a coupleof times with the YMCA.
I just had a great time dealingwith the YMCA and so forever
(03:25):
grateful, forever grateful forthe YMCA.
One of the things that I did notmention was ping pong.
We played ping pong like noother Competition at its finest
when we played ping pong.
This is the typical game ofping pong right here, just the
(03:45):
typical back and forth, nothingtoo big unless you played
Maurice.
Maurice was a ping pong elite,so to speak.
The reason why Maurice was anelite ping pong player?
Because he played with absolutepower.
(04:07):
Let me describe Maurice for you.
Maurice is roughly and this isjust me, I don't.
I don't know off the top of myhead exactly, but I think he was
like six, four In seventh grade.
He was a tall can of worms backin the day.
So Maurice was tall.
So it was all about power, formaurice was power.
(04:30):
This is maurice game.
Listen to the backspin.
Did you hear that?
That?
That is maurice's style game.
Play, play, play, play power.
That was it.
So that was his game.
Everything with Mo back then waspower.
(04:52):
Simply because he was tallerthan all of us, he could play
bully ball and no one could stophim.
There was nobody there.
There was nobody there.
6'4 at seventh grade.
You know what I'm saying.
Maurice was about power and hetook every advantage for it, and
rightfully so.
There's nothing wrong withdoing that.
If I was six four, I wouldprobably do the same thing.
Right, he had the shot, theover the head shot in basketball
(05:16):
.
You couldn't block it.
You just hope he missed that's.
That's.
That's how dominant Maurice was, how dominant Maurice was.
But but I will say this therewas somebody who can rival
Maurice and that was Mel.
But we will get into that heremomentarily.
(05:37):
But Maurice was all about power.
Mel, on the other hand, was allabout Now, when I came into the
picture, I'm just watching.
I don't know none of thesepeople.
I don't know nobody.
I'm the new kid on the block.
I just came through YMCA, but Isee Maurice64 just slamming
game.
(05:57):
That's what he's saying.
Pinking, pinking, game Game,it's over, it's over, it's over,
you're done.
That was his game.
But the rivalry and again, thisis all my speculation, just from
what I'm seeing there was arivalry with Mel.
Because Mel was skilled, melcould slice a ball.
(06:19):
Who's slicing in the seventhgrade at ping pong?
Well, mel is.
Mel is the one slicing the ball, perfectly, coming back and
it's coming on a curve andhitting the edge of the of the
table and bouncing awkwardly.
That was male.
Male was equal to mo in pingpong and I think that got under
(06:40):
his skin, because nobody canbeat mo at ping pong.
Okay, like occasionally, I canget one or two out of 10 in
right, mel can rival Mo andthat's what.
That's what made it so amazing.
Just see Mel using techniqueand skill on Mo.
(07:03):
So it would be heated ping ponggames and this is how it went.
And then the thing about it iseverybody gathered around the
ping pong table.
Hey guys, mo vs Mel, roundthree.
We're like oh, oh, everybody,let's go and we go watch.
That's how it was.
It was so good to see these twoplay each other and I think,
(07:27):
again, I think that Mo didn'tlike that.
I think I'm speculating here inhindsight it was the same in
basketball.
Again, mo 6'4.
There was people that were good.
At the YMCA we had BrianJackson was speed and cutting
agility.
(07:48):
He was, let's see, he was likeI described his games like
Dominique Wilkins, you know, hewas just ferocious and fast and
cutting and everything.
Then we had like Bryant Jackson, who was, you know, in the
middle ground and pound andquick shots like that.
We had Marcus McCoy.
He was an average all aroundgamer and that was Moe's best
(08:13):
friend.
And then we had Mel.
Mel was technique, insidejumper, just passing the ball,
dribbling skills.
I remember see, this is whatbothers me about Mel.
Mel was just skilled, you justcouldn't play with him.
You just couldn't, you justcouldn't.
Mel was so skilled at all hispositions.
(08:35):
But Mo was all about power andwhen they played basketball
against each other it wasanother one of those things.
Hey, mo and Mel in the gym,it's 16, 13, mel got the ball
and we're playing teams andstuff.
But whoever, even if we hadlike a whole bunch of people, it
was always Mel versus Moe.
(08:56):
And you may ask yourself well,mike, where were you?
I was terrible at basketball.
I was terrible at basketballbecause in my neighborhood we
played cart ball, not basketballcart ball.
We would take a cart fromKroger's, flip it on its end and
shoot it.
That affected my jumper.
To this day I cannot shoot ajumper without coming short Nine
(09:19):
out of 10 times.
No, let me change that 9.99999out of 10 times my jumper is
Broken and forever broken.
That's because we playedcartball instead of regular
basketball.
We didn't have a hoop, okay.
So, yes, they were even inping-pong, yes, they were even
in basketball, and they wereeven at dodgeball.
(09:40):
Now, but dodgeball at the YMCAwas so serious.
It was so serious and this was,if anything, I think this game,
this dodgeball, was Mo'sspecialty Because, again, mo was
about power.
Like he would hit, like okay.
(10:01):
So let me rewind just a littlebit.
The ages that could come to theY were like 8 and 16 and maybe
17.
It didn't matter for Moe.
Moe would throw the ball so hard.
He had this little kid I thinkhis name was Ryan, and Moe would
just throw the ball.
If you were a sitting duck, moewould throw the ball, not
(10:23):
bullying, he's playing the game.
He ain't just constantlypicking, he just finds somebody
to hit and, um, he would hit him.
Back to Ryan.
Ryan was like no older thannine, and he's like 4 11.
And Mo threw that ball and I'venever seen a little kid get
decapitated that fast becausehis head came right off his
(10:46):
shoulders.
And he is still unconscious tothis day.
Right, he's unconscious.
I went to visit him a coupledays ago.
He's still unconscious andeverything.
No, I'm kidding, but that wasthe type of game we played.
Every time it was mo and marcus.
It's lights out, everybody's'slosing, everybody's losing.
(11:07):
Moe and Marcus are winningbecause they're throwing the
ball 100 miles per hour.
Didn't care who.
You were right.
So I would notice this and Iwould play on Mel's team.
Right, it's like going upagainst.
It's like David and Goliath.
(11:27):
You don't want to be onGoliath's team, you just want to
knock out Goliath.
And Marcus and Mo were the twodogs, two big dogs on the team.
There was no other big dogs indodgeball other than Mel and
myself.
Now, I was good at dodgeball.
You can call me neo ofdodgeball.
(11:49):
If dodgeball was a professionalsport, I would be in the hall
of fame.
Right, small frame, and I, boy,I swear I could bend like, like
make, like a neo in the matrix.
Man, you couldn't hit me fornothing.
So the one game out of thehundreds and thousands that we
played at the YMCA, the one gameI remember was Mo and Marcus
(12:13):
these are the main two guys, andme and Mel and so we were like
we can't, the power of Mo isjust too much.
He just throws the ball toohard.
You can't catch it, because ifyou catch it you're out.
Standard dodgeball rules.
The thing is we had thoserubber balls that made the ping
noise.
It wasn't those little foamballs, we had the rubber balls.
(12:38):
Moe was slinging those like acannon.
That's how fast it felt whenyou got hit by Moe.
You felt it for a couple days.
That's how fast it felt whenyou got hit by a mole.
You felt it for a couple days.
That's how powerful he was, andwith him and Marcus it felt
like he was bullying.
So the one time we teamed up meand Mel, me and Mel got together
and said look, man, let's gethim.
(12:58):
And we were like, we agreed,like let's get him, let's show
him that me and you can do it,cause me and Mel started forming
a friendship and everything solike cool.
So what's the game plan?
The game plan is get Marcus outfirst.
Marcus was slower than all thefour of us.
Marcus was the slowest one,right, so we get him out first.
Let let Mo get everybody elseout.
(13:21):
You fatigue them, so thosecannons ain't coming as fast,
and then we gang up on them,right?
So that was the plan and theplan was working fine.
We were getting people out,getting people out.
Then it was, like you know,noticeable, a couple people and
marcus and moe and all right,let's execute the plan.
So I would throw purposely highat marcus and then mel would
come across the corner, acrossthe court, and hit marcus boom,
(13:44):
he, he's out.
I was like, oh, and then Moewould look over and he's like
you got my guy.
I said, okay, you, okay, youguys want to play.
You got my guy, but thosecannons, he's been tired, he's
fatigued, he can't get us likehe can.
Right, we still can't catch him, but we can dodge him.
Right, we can dodge them.
(14:07):
Right, we can dodge them.
We're playing the game and mofires a cannon at me, hits me in
my chin.
Now, if you ever look closelyat me, I got a little tattered
pattern underneath my chin onthe right side.
That is the dodgeball scar thatI still got.
I don't remember what happenedafter, because I got knocked out
of the game of the game.
I didn't get knocked out comeon, man, tougher than that so I
(14:28):
got knocked out.
So it's just mo and mel.
Mo is firing these, boom,hitting the back of the wall,
bouncing back.
Boom hit the wall, bounce backto him.
Mel just dodged.
It was like yeah, that was themale scream, so he's trying.
So eventually one ball getscaught on our side and in these
(14:55):
rules at the ymca, if you shotthe ball and make it, your whole
team comes back.
And mo was not having his.
I could.
You know mo's, I this, I can doit all on my own.
I don't need you guys.
Moe got it.
He's doing Jaren right now.
So Jaren from Dragon Ball Super, where he thought he could take
the whole team all by himselfbecause he thought it was so
(15:17):
powerful.
Anyway, so Mel gets the ball,shoots it, it goes in, our whole
team is back and it's a numbersgame.
Now we're just like it's over,right, it's uh, cm punk.
It's clobbering time.
We're gonna get him, but modon't have it.
He's still slinging, knockingheads off his shoulder, heads
(15:37):
off his shoulders, killingpeople out there.
There's blood everywhere, buteventually we do the same tactic
where one of us throw high andgets his legs and we get him,
and when we got him he was mad.
He ain't gonna lie, he was mad.
But you know he's asportsmanship like no good game,
guys, good game, blah, blah,blah.
And that was.
(15:58):
That was one of the one of thestories that I remember
particularly we were having.
We had YMCA battles, right so.
But the next couple of weeks Iguess Mo was planning stuff,
right.
So we one time we were in somewe didn't go to the Y.
He came to my house, we orderedpizza, we were eating pizza and
everything.
He said, hey, hey, mike, whydon't you invite Mel over?
(16:20):
I said invite Mel over.
He said, yeah, man, invite Melover.
I said, yeah, man, invite Melover man.
I said y'all cool like that.
He said, yeah, man, we cool man, just invite him over punk.
I said, okay, debo, it's cool.
So I would call Mel.
We were planning and I, hey,come on over, we're gonna have
pizza there.
He said, cool, he come over andeverything.
So Mo came first.
(16:42):
Mo was there first chilling,you know, at the house already
and he's like when Mel come, letme know.
You say Rover or Red Rover orsomething like that.
I'm like what he said say RedRover, man?
I said, alright, man, six footfour, bully, I got you right.
So my doorbells ring Ding dong,ding dong that was my dad's
(17:02):
doorbell and I pull up.
I go downstairs and, uh, Igreet mel, yeah, I greet mel.
Wide eye, like a wide eye, likehey, man, what's up?
He said so, what's up, what'swrong with you?
I said, man, nothing's wrongwith you, nothing's wrong with
me.
Man, what's wrong with you?
Said nothing.
Man, you, you freaking me out.
(17:23):
Man, what's wrong with you?
I?
I said nothing, man, youfreaking me out.
Man, what's wrong with you?
I said nothing, man, just, youknow, I got this new game on
PlayStation as we're goingupstairs.
So we got this new game onPlayStation called Red Rover and
Mo jumps out like hey, punk.
And we start WWE wrestling inthe middle of my, in the middle
of the living room, right.
So we're wrestling and all thatstuff and of course, moe don't
(17:48):
sell to nobody.
Moe didn't sell.
Well, we put him in the stripedshooter my legs are too strong
and we couldn't do it.
Hit him with a super kick.
No, you hit me in my chest.
We had so much fun back in theday.
Alright, so the moral of thisstory is Mo picked up mail
(18:08):
jackknife power, bombed him intomy dad's couch and broke the
legs of the couch.
We are freaking out here.
We're like, oh my God, my dad'sgoing to beat me as soon as he
sees this couch.
I can't believe what we did andwhat we're going to do.
So we went to this local storethe belts, whatever.
It's a store down the streetwhere I, where I, was living,
(18:30):
and we super glued it.
We super glued it and set it upwhere the leg could stand.
But if you put you sat down onit, it will crumble.
So Mo and Mel left, left mewith my dad when he comes home.
So I, I, I left, left me withmy dad when he comes home.
So I, I cooked him, I cookedhim dinner.
Right, I cooked him dinner andhe came in.
Oh, man came in, sat down.
(18:55):
As soon as he sat down, thecouch broke, boom.
I said dang.
He said, yeah, well, uh, uh,michael.
I says, uh, well, this is, thisis my mom's couch and it's
really old.
I guess we're going to have toget another one.
I said, man, it's been aroundsince I was born.
He said, yeah, carlos, you'reright, we're going to have to
(19:16):
get a new couch.
I said, whew, escape that one,right.
So after the YMCA, maurice wouldgo and play.
So he would go play for theschool.
And our schools were divided bythree schools.
We had Wilson, garfield and GW,george, george Washington and
uh, mo will go to GeorgeWashington and dominate.
(19:38):
He will dominate over thereFootball and basketball Mostly.
That would translate all the wayto high school and high school
we, we connected in broadcastingand we had a great time in
broadcasting.
If I could tell you the storiesof what we did and I'm not
saying just me and mo, becausewe were, we were the uh,
(20:03):
minorities, no pun intended, inthat class.
There were some crazy people inbroadcast, but we had a lot of
fun.
We did broadcasting together,we hung out together and
everything, and we even did takethat back.
We even did broadcastingbaseball.
Now imagine how dry baseball is.
Imagine doing baseball at highschool where you don't have you
(20:29):
know you're trying to learn theart of broadcasting where you
don't have dead air.
So when you have dead air thatpeople lose interest and stuff
and we're live.
We're live on the air.
89.5 WHSS that was my thing WHSSme and Mo would do it and it
would be like 15-20 seconds.
We're just looking at eachother like, well, you gonna say
something, you gonna saysomething, and all that stuff.
(20:51):
Mo would also go on to play ata high school level and watching
him play I'm like dog, he's a,he's good.
Like Mo is good, mo is.
Mo is a good football player.
Mo is a good basketball player.
(21:11):
You know I'm watching some ofthe things that he plays and he
would get as high as he was onvarsity and maybe a couple
starts here and there.
But I remember his basketballcareer more than anything.
The reason why is because whenhe played he didn't get that
(21:33):
many minutes like and everythingbut the rotation.
See the thing about 90sbasketball, 90s football in
Hamilton we didn't branch out alot, we did a lot of option in
the 90s and it's weird for me tosay that now because when I
look at football today it'scompletely different.
So if you were a starter in the90s, you started almost every
(21:56):
game.
There was no different packagesor anything like that.
And the same went withbasketball.
If you were coach's son, reallyfavorable with the coach and
everything you played.
There's one particular momentHamilton basketball.
We're in the playoffs.
Hamilton is known for itsbaseball and basketball, not
(22:18):
football.
Um, so we made it to theplayoffs.
And when, when hamilton makesthe basketball playoffs,
everybody's excited, everybodygoes, we start traveling and
everything.
We uh, they make it so far.
Where they make I think it'sregionals in dayton and back in
day.
I got the cd and Mo's like yo,let me borrow that CD player
(22:38):
while I'm on the bus.
I'm like cool man, because youknow I'm riding with the
principal just to go, becauseyou know my dad, he worked, so I
couldn't, couldn't ride withhim.
He didn't want to go, and so Iride with the principal.
He said he's off on a ride.
I'm going like I don't want tomiss any Hamilton history, you
know.
So we go and the game's notgoing in our favor, right, and
we're down by a good 15, 20 andmo gets in.
(23:02):
So I'm like okay, uh, yeah, myboy mo's and I'm cheering him on
.
Yeah, let's go, mo, you knowwhat I'm saying.
And then the first play thefirst play mo's in.
He's playing somebody.
He hits the guy foul and breakshis leg or arm I think it was
leg, but I want to say his legarm.
(23:24):
He broke the kid.
I'm like, oh, we had to.
You know, the ambulance cameout, it carted this kid off.
He was, he was hurt.
I mean, he looked bad, he waslike he went through, he went
through the juggernaut.
You know what I'm saying.
I'm like, bro, what did you do?
They said, man, I don't know,man, I was just so hyped off
(23:46):
your CD that you played.
I said what song is on it?
It's like the Onyx.
You know, shut him down, shuthim down.
What that song with DMX andeverything.
I got so hyped, so that's all.
I killed him.
I said, you sure did you betterwrite him a letter or
everything.
He killed the kid.
He did.
I don't know what happened tohim, but I'm pretty sure he
passed away.
I'm kidding, he didn't actuallydie, just had a broken.
(24:09):
He broke something on him,right.
So that was Maurice man.
That was Maurice man, and todayhis kids are flourishing so
much and I think one's about togo to play football in Virginia.
And you know the other one, hisother sons and even his
(24:31):
daughter are very athletic andsuccessful in everything they do
.
So that's what prompted thepodcast is because I want to let
them know and I want to let theworld know that my friend,
maurice was also great at whathe did and a good man at that.
(24:51):
You know, everybody doesn't gettheir flowers and opportunity
and I guarantee if Mo would havegot his opportunity he would
have been super successful, hewould have been so successful.
But, you know, not in the cards.
So I was like man, you knowwhat His birthday is coming
around in March.
I want to give him something hecan remember, like something
(25:12):
that you know as his best friendin high school and everything
you know as his best friend inhigh school and everything.
And seeing him as a youngteenager who threw the ball like
crazy at dodgeball and wasexcellent in basketball and
excellent in football, anoverall good dude, I retired him
right.
I went out and replicated hishigh school jersey and made him
(25:36):
a GOAT, one of the greatest ofall times.
And even though you know lifehas separated us and you're
doing your thing over there andI'm doing my thing over there, I
have never forgotten how greatyou really are, my friend, and I
want you to know that and I'mputting it out there in front of
the whole world to let you knowyou're special, you always have
(25:57):
been and you always will be andyou will always be the great mo
moberg.
But I will end it on one funnystory.
Um, one time we went to a partyand, uh, he was sloppy drunk.
I've never seen Mo drunk before, right, he got that Stevie
(26:19):
Wonder like Bob or no, the RayCharles Bob and everything.
He said man, I'm hungry, man,go get something to eat.
I said, well, what do you want?
He said man, do you want toslam a case?
A case of White Castle burgerswas 30 burgers, right, he's like
, yeah, get a case.
Man.
I said, all right, man, cool,are you going to have?
No, I ain't got no money, man,just get, get.
Get the case.
Like, okay, shoot, all right.
(26:40):
So we get the case.
We get the case 30 burgers, 30mini White Castle burgers.
You can't, you can't, you can'tfinish them all.
I don't think I've everfinished them all and lived.
You know what happens when youeat white castle.
Let's not play silly right andshout out to white castle
because this is freakingdelicious back then.
(27:01):
Now I'm old, I'm older, nah,nah, that's a death wish now.
So so we get the 30 case and Istay in the car because he's
drunk.
I go in the white castle, get30 case.
Come on, say give me the case.
Give me the case, man, it's allright, cool man.
Take the case.
Man opens up and small, justswallows three of them like that
.
I said, okay, that's three lessthan you.
(27:22):
I got 15.
You got 12.
He said, no man, I'm hungry,bro, I'm hungry.
We go back to his house.
He smashes at least 20 of thosebad boys.
And I finished.
You know he's 6'4 giant, stillgrowing.
Smash, at least smash 20 ofthem.
But I couldn't.
I couldn't have ate.
I couldn't have ate 20 of thoseanyway.
(27:43):
But I thought that was a funnystory to end the show on Maurice
.
You are special.
Just remember that, bro.
And that's the end of the show.
Thank you for listening to WDYM.
I hope you had a good time.
I did, but there is a part 2.
Part 2 to this and that's theend of the show.
Thank you for listening to theWDYM.
I hope you had a good time.
I did, but there is a part twoto this.
(28:07):
What about Mel?
Right, we talked about Mo alittle bit, but what about Mel?
Mel is special too.
Mel is special.
Let me take that back, butwe'll talk about that in the
next episode of the WDW.
Thank you guys for tuning in.
As always, peace out girls.
Girl Scout, boy Scout, I'm out.
you're listening to the wdym, the what do you mean?
Podcast, hamilton's number onepodcast.
Now sit back and relax.
Here's hamilton's own, michaelgillespie, and welcome to the
wdym podcast.
I'm your host, michaelpy.
As Kobe said, how y'all doingtoday?
(00:29):
I hope everybody's doing good.
I hope everybody is doing well.
This episode we're gettingstraight into it.
This episode is a roses episode.
This is where we pay homage toa friend of mine who, uh,
deserves it.
You know, I always say, atleast lately, I've been saying
we never give enough to ourfriends and stuff our friends
(00:51):
and our family and just say, hey, man, I appreciate you and
everything.
Um, this one was planned wayback in march of 2024, the
middle of show choir season forme.
I tried my best to do somethingfor him and I did, but uh,
we'll get into that all later.
But, as on this show, we call it.
You know, when we give roses,we call it something.
(01:11):
If we call it this bud is foryou, mo or maurice, we've been
friends for a long time.
We were good friends in highschool and everything.
You know, we've always beenfriends and everything.
But this is the origin story ofmike and mo.
Or when I first came, you know,came to know who maurice was.
(01:36):
This started back when I movedin with my dad.
When I moved in with my dad weused to live on fourth street
and you know we used to.
You know, just playing streets,you know.
And in the middle of the hoodand everything, he decided to
move and move to another part ofthe city of hamilton and when
(01:56):
he would go to work or whensummer would start, I would just
stay at home and just playplaystation and super n Nintendo
all day and it would get boring.
So he signed me up to go to theYMCA, more specifically the
Central YMCA in Hamilton Ohio.
Now I've been to YMCA's beforeand I'm pretty sure you've been
to YMCA's before.
(02:17):
The Central YMCA was sobeneficial to me as a young kid.
I've met so many of my lifelongfriends at the Y that
programmed was such a helplooking back at it in hindsight
that this program was sobeneficial to a lot of us and
(02:37):
shout out to the Central YMCAfor having a program for inner
city kids and everything, tohave somewhere to go and have
fun.
Now, what they had there wasabsolutely amazing for somebody
who who never, never had thisbefore.
When you come in, you pay yourfees.
They had pool, pool balls andpool tables and everything
(03:01):
foosball, computers, basketball,swimming in the pool.
They they had trips we used togo.
I think we've been to.
I got my first Reds game withthe YMCA, first time going to
surf Cincinnati with the YMCA.
What else did we do?
We went up to Oxford a coupleof times with the YMCA.
I just had a great time dealingwith the YMCA and so forever
(03:25):
grateful, forever grateful forthe YMCA.
One of the things that I did notmention was ping pong.
We played ping pong like noother Competition at its finest
when we played ping pong.
This is the typical game ofping pong right here, just the
(03:45):
typical back and forth, nothingtoo big unless you played
Maurice.
Maurice was a ping pong elite,so to speak.
The reason why Maurice was anelite ping pong player?
Because he played with absolutepower.
(04:07):
Let me describe Maurice for you.
Maurice is roughly and this isjust me, I don't.
I don't know off the top of myhead exactly, but I think he was
like six, four In seventh grade.
He was a tall can of worms backin the day.
So Maurice was tall.
So it was all about power, formaurice was power.
(04:30):
This is maurice game.
Listen to the backspin.
Did you hear that?
That?
That is maurice's style game.
Play, play, play, play power.
That was it.
So that was his game.
Everything with Mo back then waspower.
(04:52):
Simply because he was tallerthan all of us, he could play
bully ball and no one could stophim.
There was nobody there.
There was nobody there.
6'4 at seventh grade.
You know what I'm saying.
Maurice was about power and hetook every advantage for it, and
rightfully so.
There's nothing wrong withdoing that.
If I was six four, I wouldprobably do the same thing.
Right, he had the shot, theover the head shot in basketball
(05:16):
.
You couldn't block it.
You just hope he missed that's.
That's.
That's how dominant Maurice was, how dominant Maurice was.
But but I will say this therewas somebody who can rival
Maurice and that was Mel.
But we will get into that heremomentarily.
(05:37):
But Maurice was all about power.
Mel, on the other hand, was allabout Now, when I came into the
picture, I'm just watching.
I don't know none of thesepeople.
I don't know nobody.
I'm the new kid on the block.
I just came through YMCA, but Isee Maurice64 just slamming
game.
(05:57):
That's what he's saying.
Pinking, pinking, game Game,it's over, it's over, it's over,
you're done.
That was his game.
But the rivalry and again, thisis all my speculation, just from
what I'm seeing there was arivalry with Mel.
Because Mel was skilled, melcould slice a ball.
(06:19):
Who's slicing in the seventhgrade at ping pong?
Well, mel is.
Mel is the one slicing the ball, perfectly, coming back and
it's coming on a curve andhitting the edge of the of the
table and bouncing awkwardly.
That was male.
Male was equal to mo in pingpong and I think that got under
(06:40):
his skin, because nobody canbeat mo at ping pong.
Okay, like occasionally, I canget one or two out of 10 in
right, mel can rival Mo andthat's what.
That's what made it so amazing.
Just see Mel using techniqueand skill on Mo.
(07:03):
So it would be heated ping ponggames and this is how it went.
And then the thing about it iseverybody gathered around the
ping pong table.
Hey guys, mo vs Mel, roundthree.
We're like oh, oh, everybody,let's go and we go watch.
That's how it was.
It was so good to see these twoplay each other and I think,
(07:27):
again, I think that Mo didn'tlike that.
I think I'm speculating here inhindsight it was the same in
basketball.
Again, mo 6'4.
There was people that were good.
At the YMCA we had BrianJackson was speed and cutting
agility.
(07:48):
He was, let's see, he was likeI described his games like
Dominique Wilkins, you know, hewas just ferocious and fast and
cutting and everything.
Then we had like Bryant Jackson, who was, you know, in the
middle ground and pound andquick shots like that.
We had Marcus McCoy.
He was an average all aroundgamer and that was Moe's best
(08:13):
friend.
And then we had Mel.
Mel was technique, insidejumper, just passing the ball,
dribbling skills.
I remember see, this is whatbothers me about Mel.
Mel was just skilled, you justcouldn't play with him.
You just couldn't, you justcouldn't.
Mel was so skilled at all hispositions.
(08:35):
But Mo was all about power andwhen they played basketball
against each other it wasanother one of those things.
Hey, mo and Mel in the gym,it's 16, 13, mel got the ball
and we're playing teams andstuff.
But whoever, even if we hadlike a whole bunch of people, it
was always Mel versus Moe.
(08:56):
And you may ask yourself well,mike, where were you?
I was terrible at basketball.
I was terrible at basketballbecause in my neighborhood we
played cart ball, not basketballcart ball.
We would take a cart fromKroger's, flip it on its end and
shoot it.
That affected my jumper.
To this day I cannot shoot ajumper without coming short Nine
(09:19):
out of 10 times.
No, let me change that 9.99999out of 10 times my jumper is
Broken and forever broken.
That's because we playedcartball instead of regular
basketball.
We didn't have a hoop, okay.
So, yes, they were even inping-pong, yes, they were even
in basketball, and they wereeven at dodgeball.
(09:40):
Now, but dodgeball at the YMCAwas so serious.
It was so serious and this was,if anything, I think this game,
this dodgeball, was Mo'sspecialty Because, again, mo was
about power.
Like he would hit, like okay.
(10:01):
So let me rewind just a littlebit.
The ages that could come to theY were like 8 and 16 and maybe
17.
It didn't matter for Moe.
Moe would throw the ball so hard.
He had this little kid I thinkhis name was Ryan, and Moe would
just throw the ball.
If you were a sitting duck, moewould throw the ball, not
(10:23):
bullying, he's playing the game.
He ain't just constantlypicking, he just finds somebody
to hit and, um, he would hit him.
Back to Ryan.
Ryan was like no older thannine, and he's like 4 11.
And Mo threw that ball and I'venever seen a little kid get
decapitated that fast becausehis head came right off his
(10:46):
shoulders.
And he is still unconscious tothis day.
Right, he's unconscious.
I went to visit him a coupledays ago.
He's still unconscious andeverything.
No, I'm kidding, but that wasthe type of game we played.
Every time it was mo and marcus.
It's lights out, everybody's'slosing, everybody's losing.
(11:07):
Moe and Marcus are winningbecause they're throwing the
ball 100 miles per hour.
Didn't care who.
You were right.
So I would notice this and Iwould play on Mel's team.
Right, it's like going upagainst.
It's like David and Goliath.
(11:27):
You don't want to be onGoliath's team, you just want to
knock out Goliath.
And Marcus and Mo were the twodogs, two big dogs on the team.
There was no other big dogs indodgeball other than Mel and
myself.
Now, I was good at dodgeball.
You can call me neo ofdodgeball.
(11:49):
If dodgeball was a professionalsport, I would be in the hall
of fame.
Right, small frame, and I, boy,I swear I could bend like, like
make, like a neo in the matrix.
Man, you couldn't hit me fornothing.
So the one game out of thehundreds and thousands that we
played at the YMCA, the one gameI remember was Mo and Marcus
(12:13):
these are the main two guys, andme and Mel and so we were like
we can't, the power of Mo isjust too much.
He just throws the ball toohard.
You can't catch it, because ifyou catch it you're out.
Standard dodgeball rules.
The thing is we had thoserubber balls that made the ping
noise.
It wasn't those little foamballs, we had the rubber balls.
(12:38):
Moe was slinging those like acannon.
That's how fast it felt whenyou got hit by Moe.
You felt it for a couple days.
That's how fast it felt whenyou got hit by a mole.
You felt it for a couple days.
That's how powerful he was, andwith him and Marcus it felt
like he was bullying.
So the one time we teamed up meand Mel, me and Mel got together
and said look, man, let's gethim.
(12:58):
And we were like, we agreed,like let's get him, let's show
him that me and you can do it,cause me and Mel started forming
a friendship and everything solike cool.
So what's the game plan?
The game plan is get Marcus outfirst.
Marcus was slower than all thefour of us.
Marcus was the slowest one,right, so we get him out first.
Let let Mo get everybody elseout.
(13:21):
You fatigue them, so thosecannons ain't coming as fast,
and then we gang up on them,right?
So that was the plan and theplan was working fine.
We were getting people out,getting people out.
Then it was, like you know,noticeable, a couple people and
marcus and moe and all right,let's execute the plan.
So I would throw purposely highat marcus and then mel would
come across the corner, acrossthe court, and hit marcus boom,
(13:44):
he, he's out.
I was like, oh, and then Moewould look over and he's like
you got my guy.
I said, okay, you, okay, youguys want to play.
You got my guy, but thosecannons, he's been tired, he's
fatigued, he can't get us likehe can.
Right, we still can't catch him, but we can dodge him.
Right, we can dodge them.
(14:07):
Right, we can dodge them.
We're playing the game and mofires a cannon at me, hits me in
my chin.
Now, if you ever look closelyat me, I got a little tattered
pattern underneath my chin onthe right side.
That is the dodgeball scar thatI still got.
I don't remember what happenedafter, because I got knocked out
of the game of the game.
I didn't get knocked out comeon, man, tougher than that so I
(14:28):
got knocked out.
So it's just mo and mel.
Mo is firing these, boom,hitting the back of the wall,
bouncing back.
Boom hit the wall, bounce backto him.
Mel just dodged.
It was like yeah, that was themale scream, so he's trying.
So eventually one ball getscaught on our side and in these
(14:55):
rules at the ymca, if you shotthe ball and make it, your whole
team comes back.
And mo was not having his.
I could.
You know mo's, I this, I can doit all on my own.
I don't need you guys.
Moe got it.
He's doing Jaren right now.
So Jaren from Dragon Ball Super, where he thought he could take
the whole team all by himselfbecause he thought it was so
(15:17):
powerful.
Anyway, so Mel gets the ball,shoots it, it goes in, our whole
team is back and it's a numbersgame.
Now we're just like it's over,right, it's uh, cm punk.
It's clobbering time.
We're gonna get him, but modon't have it.
He's still slinging, knockingheads off his shoulder, heads
(15:37):
off his shoulders, killingpeople out there.
There's blood everywhere, buteventually we do the same tactic
where one of us throw high andgets his legs and we get him,
and when we got him he was mad.
He ain't gonna lie, he was mad.
But you know he's asportsmanship like no good game,
guys, good game, blah, blah,blah.
And that was.
(15:58):
That was one of the one of thestories that I remember
particularly we were having.
We had YMCA battles, right so.
But the next couple of weeks Iguess Mo was planning stuff,
right.
So we one time we were in somewe didn't go to the Y.
He came to my house, we orderedpizza, we were eating pizza and
everything.
He said, hey, hey, mike, whydon't you invite Mel over?
(16:20):
I said invite Mel over.
He said, yeah, man, invite Melover.
I said, yeah, man, invite Melover man.
I said y'all cool like that.
He said, yeah, man, we cool man, just invite him over punk.
I said, okay, debo, it's cool.
So I would call Mel.
We were planning and I, hey,come on over, we're gonna have
pizza there.
He said, cool, he come over andeverything.
So Mo came first.
(16:42):
Mo was there first chilling,you know, at the house already
and he's like when Mel come, letme know.
You say Rover or Red Rover orsomething like that.
I'm like what he said say RedRover, man?
I said, alright, man, six footfour, bully, I got you right.
So my doorbells ring Ding dong,ding dong that was my dad's
(17:02):
doorbell and I pull up.
I go downstairs and, uh, Igreet mel, yeah, I greet mel.
Wide eye, like a wide eye, likehey, man, what's up?
He said so, what's up, what'swrong with you?
I said, man, nothing's wrongwith you, nothing's wrong with
me.
Man, what's wrong with you?
Said nothing.
Man, you, you freaking me out.
(17:23):
Man, what's wrong with you?
I?
I said nothing, man, youfreaking me out.
Man, what's wrong with you?
I said nothing, man, just, youknow, I got this new game on
PlayStation as we're goingupstairs.
So we got this new game onPlayStation called Red Rover and
Mo jumps out like hey, punk.
And we start WWE wrestling inthe middle of my, in the middle
of the living room, right.
So we're wrestling and all thatstuff and of course, moe don't
(17:48):
sell to nobody.
Moe didn't sell.
Well, we put him in the stripedshooter my legs are too strong
and we couldn't do it.
Hit him with a super kick.
No, you hit me in my chest.
We had so much fun back in theday.
Alright, so the moral of thisstory is Mo picked up mail
(18:08):
jackknife power, bombed him intomy dad's couch and broke the
legs of the couch.
We are freaking out here.
We're like, oh my God, my dad'sgoing to beat me as soon as he
sees this couch.
I can't believe what we did andwhat we're going to do.
So we went to this local storethe belts, whatever.
It's a store down the streetwhere I, where I, was living,
(18:30):
and we super glued it.
We super glued it and set it upwhere the leg could stand.
But if you put you sat down onit, it will crumble.
So Mo and Mel left, left mewith my dad when he comes home.
So I, I, I left, left me withmy dad when he comes home.
So I, I cooked him, I cookedhim dinner.
Right, I cooked him dinner andhe came in.
Oh, man came in, sat down.
(18:55):
As soon as he sat down, thecouch broke, boom.
I said dang.
He said, yeah, well, uh, uh,michael.
I says, uh, well, this is, thisis my mom's couch and it's
really old.
I guess we're going to have toget another one.
I said, man, it's been aroundsince I was born.
He said, yeah, carlos, you'reright, we're going to have to
(19:16):
get a new couch.
I said, whew, escape that one,right.
So after the YMCA, maurice wouldgo and play.
So he would go play for theschool.
And our schools were divided bythree schools.
We had Wilson, garfield and GW,george, george Washington and
uh, mo will go to GeorgeWashington and dominate.
(19:38):
He will dominate over thereFootball and basketball Mostly.
That would translate all the wayto high school and high school
we, we connected in broadcastingand we had a great time in
broadcasting.
If I could tell you the storiesof what we did and I'm not
saying just me and mo, becausewe were, we were the uh,
(20:03):
minorities, no pun intended, inthat class.
There were some crazy people inbroadcast, but we had a lot of
fun.
We did broadcasting together,we hung out together and
everything, and we even did takethat back.
We even did broadcastingbaseball.
Now imagine how dry baseball is.
Imagine doing baseball at highschool where you don't have you
(20:29):
know you're trying to learn theart of broadcasting where you
don't have dead air.
So when you have dead air thatpeople lose interest and stuff
and we're live.
We're live on the air.
89.5 WHSS that was my thing WHSSme and Mo would do it and it
would be like 15-20 seconds.
We're just looking at eachother like, well, you gonna say
something, you gonna saysomething, and all that stuff.
(20:51):
Mo would also go on to play ata high school level and watching
him play I'm like dog, he's a,he's good.
Like Mo is good, mo is.
Mo is a good football player.
Mo is a good basketball player.
(21:11):
You know I'm watching some ofthe things that he plays and he
would get as high as he was onvarsity and maybe a couple
starts here and there.
But I remember his basketballcareer more than anything.
The reason why is because whenhe played he didn't get that
(21:33):
many minutes like and everythingbut the rotation.
See the thing about 90sbasketball, 90s football in
Hamilton we didn't branch out alot, we did a lot of option in
the 90s and it's weird for me tosay that now because when I
look at football today it'scompletely different.
So if you were a starter in the90s, you started almost every
(21:56):
game.
There was no different packagesor anything like that.
And the same went withbasketball.
If you were coach's son, reallyfavorable with the coach and
everything you played.
There's one particular momentHamilton basketball.
We're in the playoffs.
Hamilton is known for itsbaseball and basketball, not
(22:18):
football.
Um, so we made it to theplayoffs.
And when, when hamilton makesthe basketball playoffs,
everybody's excited, everybodygoes, we start traveling and
everything.
We uh, they make it so far.
Where they make I think it'sregionals in dayton and back in
day.
I got the cd and Mo's like yo,let me borrow that CD player
(22:38):
while I'm on the bus.
I'm like cool man, because youknow I'm riding with the
principal just to go, becauseyou know my dad, he worked, so I
couldn't, couldn't ride withhim.
He didn't want to go, and so Iride with the principal.
He said he's off on a ride.
I'm going like I don't want tomiss any Hamilton history, you
know.
So we go and the game's notgoing in our favor, right, and
we're down by a good 15, 20 andmo gets in.
(23:02):
So I'm like okay, uh, yeah, myboy mo's and I'm cheering him on
.
Yeah, let's go, mo, you knowwhat I'm saying.
And then the first play thefirst play mo's in.
He's playing somebody.
He hits the guy foul and breakshis leg or arm I think it was
leg, but I want to say his legarm.
(23:24):
He broke the kid.
I'm like, oh, we had to.
You know, the ambulance cameout, it carted this kid off.
He was, he was hurt.
I mean, he looked bad, he waslike he went through, he went
through the juggernaut.
You know what I'm saying.
I'm like, bro, what did you do?
They said, man, I don't know,man, I was just so hyped off
(23:46):
your CD that you played.
I said what song is on it?
It's like the Onyx.
You know, shut him down, shuthim down.
What that song with DMX andeverything.
I got so hyped, so that's all.
I killed him.
I said, you sure did you betterwrite him a letter or
everything.
He killed the kid.
He did.
I don't know what happened tohim, but I'm pretty sure he
passed away.
I'm kidding, he didn't actuallydie, just had a broken.
(24:09):
He broke something on him,right.
So that was Maurice man.
That was Maurice man, and todayhis kids are flourishing so
much and I think one's about togo to play football in Virginia.
And you know the other one, hisother sons and even his
(24:31):
daughter are very athletic andsuccessful in everything they do
.
So that's what prompted thepodcast is because I want to let
them know and I want to let theworld know that my friend,
maurice was also great at whathe did and a good man at that.
(24:51):
You know, everybody doesn't gettheir flowers and opportunity
and I guarantee if Mo would havegot his opportunity he would
have been super successful, hewould have been so successful.
But, you know, not in the cards.
So I was like man, you knowwhat His birthday is coming
around in March.
I want to give him something hecan remember, like something
(25:12):
that you know as his best friendin high school and everything
you know as his best friend inhigh school and everything.
And seeing him as a youngteenager who threw the ball like
crazy at dodgeball and wasexcellent in basketball and
excellent in football, anoverall good dude, I retired him
right.
I went out and replicated hishigh school jersey and made him
(25:36):
a GOAT, one of the greatest ofall times.
And even though you know lifehas separated us and you're
doing your thing over there andI'm doing my thing over there, I
have never forgotten how greatyou really are, my friend, and I
want you to know that and I'mputting it out there in front of
the whole world to let you knowyou're special, you always have
(25:57):
been and you always will be andyou will always be the great mo
moberg.
But I will end it on one funnystory.
Um, one time we went to a partyand, uh, he was sloppy drunk.
I've never seen Mo drunk before, right, he got that Stevie
(26:19):
Wonder like Bob or no, the RayCharles Bob and everything.
He said man, I'm hungry, man,go get something to eat.
I said, well, what do you want?
He said man, do you want toslam a case?
A case of White Castle burgerswas 30 burgers, right, he's like
, yeah, get a case.
Man.
I said, all right, man, cool,are you going to have?
No, I ain't got no money, man,just get, get.
Get the case.
Like, okay, shoot, all right.
(26:40):
So we get the case.
We get the case 30 burgers, 30mini White Castle burgers.
You can't, you can't, you can'tfinish them all.
I don't think I've everfinished them all and lived.
You know what happens when youeat white castle.
Let's not play silly right andshout out to white castle
because this is freakingdelicious back then.
(27:01):
Now I'm old, I'm older, nah,nah, that's a death wish now.
So so we get the 30 case and Istay in the car because he's
drunk.
I go in the white castle, get30 case.
Come on, say give me the case.
Give me the case, man, it's allright, cool man.
Take the case.
Man opens up and small, justswallows three of them like that
.
I said, okay, that's three lessthan you.
(27:22):
I got 15.
You got 12.
He said, no man, I'm hungry,bro, I'm hungry.
We go back to his house.
He smashes at least 20 of thosebad boys.
And I finished.
You know he's 6'4 giant, stillgrowing.
Smash, at least smash 20 ofthem.
But I couldn't.
I couldn't have ate.
I couldn't have ate 20 of thoseanyway.
(27:43):
But I thought that was a funnystory to end the show on Maurice
.
You are special.
Just remember that, bro.
And that's the end of the show.
Thank you for listening to WDYM.
I hope you had a good time.
I did, but there is a part 2.
Part 2 to this and that's theend of the show.
Thank you for listening to theWDYM.
I hope you had a good time.
I did, but there is a part twoto this.
(28:07):
What about Mel?
Right, we talked about Mo alittle bit, but what about Mel?
Mel is special too.
Mel is special.
Let me take that back, butwe'll talk about that in the
next episode of the WDW.
Thank you guys for tuning in.
As always, peace out girls.
Girl Scout, boy Scout, I'm out.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.