When I hit 60, something happened. Even though I was as vibrant as I’d ever been, I noticed that society started to look at me differently. So when my sister shared a Facebook post about the Granny Basketball League in the U.S., and it kept coming up on my social media, I thought, “I gotta see this!”
I played basketball in high school, then for TMU as a forward in 1978, which helped me learn the game properly. A few decades later, I started attending TMU games.
The Granny Basketball League was founded in 2005 in the U.S. to promote camaraderie and encourage women over age 50 to have fun and stay active.
In April 2023, I chatted with the league’s executive director, Michelle Clark, who invited me to a tournament in Minnesota. I had some friends in Minnesota, so I flew there one weekend. As soon as I walked in, I was home. These were literally my people. They were all my age. A little out of shape, a little creaky, and nobody was trying to be a hot shot. Everybody was just doing their thing. They were so welcoming and so sweet, I fell in love.
Since Toronto is a basketball town now, I knew we needed a team, and I started talking up the league to my friends. When they all said, “We don’t play basketball, we’re not sporty,” I laughed and said, “It doesn’t matter.”
"A gentle game for women of a certain age," as the website says, Granny Basketball now has 46 teams spread across 10 states in the U.S. and one in Toronto.
Vicky Merrick launched the Toronto Chill in January 2024, and she's always trying to encourage others to join.
