Ken Mink lives in Knoxville, Tn., semi-retired after a 48-year career as a newspaper and magazine journalist.
But he is perhaps best known as the World’s Oldest College Basketball Player.
He became an international celebrity in 2008-2009 when he set college basketball basketball on its ear by returning to college and actually playing on a college team 52 years after he last sat foot on a college court.
A Kentucky native, he retired from active newspaper work in 1998 but continued to serve as a journalist, editing an online travel magazine, The Travelling Adventurer, and writing freelance articles for newspapers and magazines. Other daily newspapers he worked for included the Lexington, Ky., Herald-Leader, the Dayton, Ohio, Daily News, the Bristol, Va., Herald-Courier, Kingsport, Tn., Times-News, Harrisonburg, Va., Daily News-Record and the Hopkinsville, Ky., New Era.
He first played college basketball in 1955-56 at Lees Junior College of Jackson, Ky., after starring for Dilce Combs Memorial High School near Hazard, Ky. He was expelled from Lees after being accused of “soaping” his basketball coach’s office, a claim which he denied. Investigation later upheld his innocence.
After his military and professional writing career ended Mink played basketball in city leagues and YMCA games before deciding to try to go back to college and finish his aborted hoops career. Incredibly at the age of 73 he made the basketball team at Roane State Community College, Harriman, Tn., and played the 2008-2009 season, appearing in seven games and scoring in three -- all world records. He also had a 3.25 grade point average at Roane State.
He became a national celebrity through his unique basketball feat and appeared on more than a dozen national TV shows (including Conan O’Brien, Regis and Kelly, The Today Show, ESPN) and was featured in dozens of newspapers (including The New York Times) and was interviews on more than 50 radio stations (locally and nationally). In 2010 he was featured in the German magazine Stern as part of a story about remarkable senior athletes worldwide. He was also featured in a Ripley’s Believe It Or Not international illustration.
He has also played several years in U. S. Senior Olympics basketball competition, winning more than a dozen medals, including the Tennessee free throw championship.
