Many towns throughout Germany have sporting clubs.   In August, 1962, the Eisenbahner Sportverein Jahn Kassel hosted a basketball tournament, at the Sporthalle des Friedrichsgymnasium, on Humboldtstrasse in Kassel.

In addition to ESV Jahn's own team, invited participants included teams from other sporting clubs - from Wuppertal, Mainz, Bremen, and Hamburg - and the U.S. personnel stationed at Rothwesten, not a team per se, but rather a handful of Americans who thought they could play basketball.

I do not recall just how it came about, but perhaps it was through the German-American Club that we were challenged to join the tournament, as "US Uncle Sam's All Stars".

The greeting page of the printed program welcomed the participating clubs and their teams, and went on to say "besonderer Gruß gilt den Gästen aus USA, die der Veranstaltung einen internationalen Charakter geben."   The sentiment expressed was "special greetings to the guests from the USA, whose participation gives it an international character".

As I recall, that "international character" was pretty much the extent of our contribution, the "All Stars" being soundly stomped in the first elimination round.

The team roster page in the program evidenced the hasty addition of the "All Stars" at the last minute, bearing the notation that "Our American guests were unfortunately not in a position to designate their lineup at the time of printing of the program."

I'll bet that the "All Stars" were scrounging around, trying to find five guys who were fit enough to trot up and down a basketball court.