Old School Hoops, Stories of an Aging Baller, By Jim Sweeney

Old School Hoops by Jim Sweeney chronicles the diverse, unexpected and entertaining stories of masters’ age basketball player Jim Sweeney. Since 2003, Sweeney has competed in 100 masters’ basketball tournaments in both the USA and in more than two-dozen countries. Old School Hoops recalls the amazing destinations Sweeney has visited, the incredible food he’s eaten and the awesome people he’s met along the way. Sweeney’s book also details the history of the global masters’ basketball movement and its international influence. Now in his sixties, Sweeney credits masters’ basketball for allowing him to still play the game he loves – slowly!

Born and raised in Trenton, New Jersey, Jim Sweeney grew up with a passion for sports and fun. He also had a love for words and considered the Dictionary one of his favorite books.  As a purposed and active kid, Sweeney swam competitively and played baseball, basketball, soccer and street hockey. In his formative years, Sweeney attended the prestigious Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, NJ, where he served as Sports Editor of the school newspaper. During his senior year, he was named 1st Team All-State in New Jersey in soccer, baseball and basketball. Following high school, Sweeney enrolled at Boston College and started all four years as the team’s point guard. Sweeney served as captain of the Eagles basketball team from 1977 – 1980. During his senior year, he was named MVP of New England College Basketball and also received the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award as the nation’s top NCAA basketball player under six feet tall. The university also nominated him for a Rhodes Scholarship. 

Sports fans may recognize Sweeney for his unexpected brush with organized crime in the late 70’s. His compelling story has been chronicled over the years in blogs, books, magazine and newspaper articles, podcasts and a 2014 ESPN 30 for 30 film.  Following college graduation, Jim played basketball professionally in Europe before returning home to marry his wife Maura and move to Florida in 1983. As part of Eckerd Drug Corporation’s executive development program, Jim rose to Merchandise Manager and Import Manager in the corporation’s electronics and health care categories.

After a few years, Jim left the corporate arena and moved into the sales side of business. For about 20 years, Jim flourished as an independent rep in the electronics and computer industries, first with an established firm and later founding a firm of his own.

Sweeney changed directions again to pursue a creative career in sports entertainment. With his wife Maura, he founded New Vision Entertainment, a Florida-based LLC with a mission to positively impact culture. At New Vision Entertainment LLC, Sweeney developed a unique cartoon sports character named MIKE ™ that he expects will become a sports and cultural icon.

Sweeney believes that MIKE™ is destined to become the Spongebob or Bart Simpson of sports and is seeking to align with a major media company to either license the character or produce and distribute his humorous cartoon shorts.
A witty, alter ego sports personality, MIKE™ can currently be found on Amazon in the 40 sports comic books that New Vision Entertainment LLC has published.

Sweeney has played in more than 100 masters’ basketball tournaments around the globe and is an inductee in the Masters Basketball USA Hall of Fame.

To reach Sweeney, email him at jim.sweeney@ymail.com

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